System Messages Overview

This publication lists and describes the IOS system error messages for the Catalyst 6000 family switch. The system software sends these error messages to the console (and, optionally, to a logging server on another system) during operation. Not all system error messages indicate problems with your system. Some messages are purely informational, while others may help diagnose problems with communications lines, internal hardware, or the system software.

This publication also includes error messages that appear when the system crashes.

This chapter contains the following sections:

How to Read System Error Messages

System error messages begin with a percent sign (%) and are structured as follows:

%FACILITY-SUBFACILITY-SEVERITY-MNEMONIC: Message-text

FACILITY is a code consisting of two or more uppercase letters that indicate the facility to which the message refers. A facility can be a hardware device, a protocol, or a module of the system software. Table 1-1 lists the system facility codes.

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Table 1-1: Facility Codes

Code Facility

ACLMERGE

Access Control List Merge

DTP

Dynamic Trunk Protocol

DVLAN

Dynamic VLAN

EHSA

Enhanced High System Availability

C6KENV

Environmental Messages

FEC

Fast EtherChannel

FM

Feature Manager

HEARTBEAT

HEARTBEAT

MCAST

Layer 2 Multicast Log

L3-MGR

Layer 3 Manager System Log

OIR

Online Insertion and Removal

PM

Port Manager

C6KPWR

Power

PF

Protocol Filtering

QM

QoS Management

RCP

Remote Procedure Call

RSFC

Route Processor

SPANTREE

Spanning Tree

SPANTREE-FAST

Spanning Tree Fast Convergence Extensions

CYGNUS

Switch Processor

SCP

Switch-Module Configuration Protocol

SPAN

Switched Port Analyzer

SW-VLAN

VLAN Manager

Code	Facility
ACLMERGE	Access Control List Merge
DTP	Dynamic Trunk Protocol
DVLAN	Dynamic VLAN
EHSA	Enhanced High System Availability
C6KENV	Environmental Messages
FEC	Fast EtherChannel
FM	Feature Manager
HEARTBEAT	HEARTBEAT
MCAST	Layer 2 Multicast Log
L3-MGR	Layer 3 Manager System Log
OIR	Online Insertion and Removal
PM	Port Manager
C6KPWR	Power
PF	Protocol Filtering
QM	QoS Management
RCP	Remote Procedure Call
RSFC	Route Processor
SPANTREE	Spanning Tree
SPANTREE-FAST	Spanning Tree Fast Convergence Extensions
CYGNUS	Switch Processor
SCP	Switch-Module Configuration Protocol
SPAN	Switched Port Analyzer
SW-VLAN	VLAN Manager

SEVERITY is a single-digit code from 0 to 7 that reflects the severity of the condition. The lower the number, the more serious the situation. Table 1-2 lists the message severity levels.
MNEMONIC is a code that uniquely identifies the error message.

Table 1-2: Message Severity Levels

Severity Level Description

0 - emergency

System is unusable

1 - alert

Immediate action required

2 - critical

Critical condition

3 - error

Error condition

4 - warning

Warning condition

5 - notification

Normal but significant condition

6 - informational

Informational message only

7 - debugging

Message that appears during debugging only

Severity Level	Description
0 - emergency	System is unusable
1 - alert	Immediate action required
2 - critical	Critical condition
3 - error	Error condition
4 - warning	Warning condition
5 - notification	Normal but significant condition
6 - informational	Informational message only
7 - debugging	Message that appears during debugging only

Message-text is a text string describing the condition. This portion of the message sometimes contains detailed information about the event, including terminal port numbers, network addresses, or addresses that correspond to locations in the system memory address space. Because the information in these variable fields changes from message to message, it is represented here by short strings enclosed in square brackets ([ ]). A decimal number, for example, is represented as [dec]. Table 1-3 lists the variable fields in messages.

Table 1-3: Representation of Variable Fields in Messages

Representation Type of Information

[dec]

Decimal

[chars]

Character string

[hex]

Hexadecimal integer

Representation	Type of Information
[dec]	Decimal
[chars]	Character string
[hex]	Hexadecimal integer

The following is a sample system error message:

%LINK-2-BADVCALL: Interface [chars], undefined entry point

Some error messages also indicate the card and slot reporting the error. These error messages begin with a percent sign (%) and are structured as follows:

%CARD-SEVERITY-MSG:SLOT %FACILITY-SEVERITY-MNEMONIC: Message-text

CARD is a code that describes the type of card reporting the error.

MSG is a mnemonic that indicates this is a message. It is always shown as MSG.

SLOT indicates the slot number of the card reporting the error. It is shown as SLOT followed by a number. (For example, SLOT5.)

Error Message Traceback Reports

Some messages describe internal errors and contain traceback information. This information is very important and should be included when you report a problem to your technical support representative.

The following sample message includes traceback information:

-Process= "Exec", level= 0, pid= 17

-Traceback= 1A82 1AB4 6378 A072 1054 1860

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