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Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

This appendix provides helpful information and procedures in case you encounter problems while using FlowCollector. This appendix includes information on the following topics:

Using the nfcollector status Command

The nfcollector status command provides an easy way to determine the following:

To invoke nfcollector status, enter the following command line at the UNIX prompt:

$ $NFC_DIR/bin/nfcollector status

When invoked, the nfcollector status command displays status information about FlowCollector and the UNIX workstation on which FlowCollector is running, including the following examples:

NFC_DIR=/opt/CSCOnfc
NFC_RESOURCEFILE=$NFC_DIR/config/nf.resources
NFCD: running (pid: 8745)
NFCollector Aggregation: stopped
NFCollector Timer: stopped
-rw-r-----  1 mkjeeves eng        5 Jun 5 10:53 /tmp/nfcd.pid
-rw-r-----  1 mkjeeves eng        8 Jun 5 10:53 /tmp/nfcd.uid
p---------  1 mkjeeves eng        0 Jun 5 10:53 /tmp/nfcunix.dg
mkjeeves  8745     1  0  10:53:14 pts/3     0:00 /opt/CSCOnfc/bin/NFCD
Disk Space for /opt/CSCOnfc:
Filesystem          kbytes   used    avail   capacity   Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5  2100876  44722  1846074         3%   /opt

Using show-tech to Capture Troubleshooting Information

The show-tech command provides an easy way to generate all the debugging information necessary for support and troubleshooting purposes.

To invoke show-tech, enter the following command line at the UNIX prompt:

$ $NFC_DIR/bin/nfcollector show-tech

Note To capture running configuration information, you should invoke the show-tech command while FlowCollector is running.

When invoked, the show-tech command creates a log file named show-tech.log in the directory $NFC_DIR/logs, and saves the following information in it:

FlowCollector Tools Utilities

The utilities described in this section are typically used to troubleshoot FlowCollector operation by providing a way to capture and play back received NetFlow data. The process emulates a Cisco export device generating NetFlow data through the NetFlow data export feature. The utilities are available in $NFC_DIR/tools/.

The fdcount Utility

The fdcount utility listens to a user-specified UDP port, samples a user-specified number of incoming datagrams, and calculates the average incoming rate.

$NFC_DIR/fdcount [-p UDP-port] [-c count] [-s socket-buffer]

where:

-p UDP-port UDP port number on which flows are to be received. Default is 9991.
-c count Number of flows to sample before calculating the incoming rate. Default is 100.
-s socket-buffer Receive socket buffer size, in bytes. Default is 90000 bytes.

The fdget Utility

The fdget utility listens to a user-specified UDP port to receive flow data and prints some of the fields from the received flow packets to the standard output. One use of this capability is to print flow data sent by the fdplayback utility.

$NFC_DIR/fdget [-p UDP-port] [-s socket-buffer] [-a

where:

-p UDP-port UDP port number on which flows are to be received. Default is 9991.
-s socket-buffer Receive socket buffer size, in bytes. Default is 90000 bytes. This argument and value determines how many datagrams the kernel will store in this buffer as datagrams come in from the network. The larger the buffer, the more time fdget has to consume data from the buffer before the buffer overflows. If the buffer overflows, datagrams are lost.
-a Print acknowledgment only. Default is to print the content of flows. Using -a means print only an acknowledgment for each datagram received rather than the content of the datagram.

The fdplayback Utility

The fdplayback utility reads a data file of NetFlow data created by NetFlow FlowCollector or some other tool and sends the flow data to a user-specified destination.

$NFC_DIR/fdplayback [-f datafile] [-d IP-address] [-p UDP-port] [-i delay] [-b burst]      [-s socket-buffer] [-t flows

where:

-f datafile Name of data file to play back to the user-specified destination (defined by IP address and UDP port number).
-d IP-address Destination IP address.
-p UDP-port Destination UDP port number. Default is 9991.
-i delay Amount of delay, in milliseconds, between datagrams. Default is 1000. The longer the delay, the more separation there is between datagrams being sent to the receiving destination.
-b burst Number of flows sent in each burst. Default is 10. This argument is used in conjunction with -i to control the speed and "burstiness" of the playback.
-s socket-buffer Receive socket buffer size, in bytes. Default is 90000 bytes.
-t flows Number of flows to play back in this session. Default is all flows in data file. If the data file contains 1000 datagrams, and you set -t to 1, fdplayback only sends one datagram.

Solving FlowCollector Problems

This section contains some basic problems that you might encounter while attempting to run FlowCollector.

Symptom    Starting FlowCollector starts the FlowCollector daemon (NFCD), but no other processes.

Possible Cause    Look in the $NFC_DIR/logs/nfc.log file. If there is a message prefixed with the label "ERROR," FlowCollector encountered an illegal or incomplete configuration parameter while starting up.

Recommended Action    Perform the following steps:

Step 1 Use the nfcollector status command to verify which processes are running.

Step 2 Use the nfcollector  stop all command to stop FlowCollector.

Step 3 Look in the appropriate configuration file for one of the following:

Step 4 Fix the configuration file.

Step 5 Restart FlowCollector.

Symptom    The nfcollector stop all command does not stop all of the processes.

Possible Cause    In some rare cases, FlowCollector might find itself in a state where the nfcollector stop all command will not stop cleanly, leaving temporary files in /tmp.

Recommended Action    Use the nfcollector clean command to force all processes related to FlowCollector to stop. The nfcollector clean command then cleans up all /tmp files related to FlowCollector operation.

Symptom    FlowCollector data files are not being written to the directory specified in the dataSetPath thread attribute.

Possible Cause    Either the process does not have the appropriate permission settings, or the DiskSpaceLimit thread attribute value has been exceeded.

Recommended Action    Look at the nfc.log file to get the exact cause. If the problem is permission settings, fix the permission settings and try again. If the problem is related to the DiskSpaceLimit setting, increase the limit (if acceptable). You might need to make more disk space available in this partition.

Symptom    The export device is exporting NetFlow data to a port, but FlowCollector does not see any data.

Possible Cause    Check the nfc.log file for an error message about not being able to bind to that UDP port. If you find such a message, some other application is using that port.

Recommended Action    Verify that the export device is not using a reserved port number in its attempt to export data to FlowCollector. Use an unreserved port number in the range 1024 to 65535 (for example, 9995 or 9996) to export data to FlowCollector.

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