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Anonymous
Not applicable

    When troubleshooting in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, it is sometimes necessary to collect packets which are being sent to and from the network interface on a CUCM server.  This document describes the process in four steps.

     

     

     

    1.  Starting the Capture

    To start the capture, establish a secure shell (SSH) session to the CUCM server authenticating with the Platform Administrator account:

    ssh.jpg

    1a.  Command Syntax

         The command is "utils network capture" and the syntax is as follows:

     

     

    Syntax:
    utils network capture [options]
    options  optional   
    page,numeric,file fname,count num,size bytes,src addr,dest addr,port
    num,host protocol addr

     

    options are:
    page                
    - pause output
    numeric               - show hosts as dotted IP
    addresses
    file fname            - output the information to a file
      
    Note: The file will be saved in platform/cli/fname.cap
             
    fname should not contain the "." character
    count num             - a
    count of the number of packets to capture
        Note: The maximum count
    for the screen is 1000, for a file is 100000
    size bytes            -
    the number of bytes of the packet to capture
        Note: The maximum
    number of bytes for the screen is 128
              For a file it can be
    any number or ALL
    src addr              - the source address of the
    packet as a host name or IPV4 address
    dest addr             - the
    destination address of the packet as a host name or IPV4 address
    port
    num              - the port number of the packet (either src or dest)
    host
    protocol addr    - the protocol should be one of the following:
    ip/arp/rarp/all. The host address of the packet as a host name or IPV4
    address. This option  will display all packets to and fro that address.
      
    Note: If "host" is provided, do not provide "src" or "dest"

     

    1b.  Capturing all traffic

         For a typical capture, one might wish to collect ALL packets of ALL sizes from and to ALL address into a capture file called 'packets.cap'.  To do this simply execute on the admin CLI 'utils network capture eth0 file packets count 100000 size all'


    capture-all.jpg

     

    1c.  Capturing based on port number

    Troubleshooting a communications issue with Cluster Manager, it might be desireable to capture based on a specific port (8500) using the port option.

     

     

    Note: For more information about which services require communications on each port, refer to the TCP and UDP Port Usage Guide for the applicable version of CUCM. 

    capture-8500.jpg

    1d.  Capturing based on host

    In troubleshooting an issue with CUCM and a particular host, it may be necessary to use the 'host' option to filter for traffic to and from a particular host.  

     

    Note: it may be necessary to exclude a particular host, in this case use  a "!" in front of the IP.    An example of this would be "utils network  capture eth0 file packets count 100000 size all host ip !10.1.1.1"

    capture-ip.jpg

    2.  Reproduce the problem symptom or condition

     

    While the capture is running reproduce the problem symptom or condition so that the necessary packets are included in the capture.  If the problem is intermittent it may be necessary to run the capture for an extended period.  If the capture ends, it is because the buffer is filled, restart the capture and the previous capture will be automatically renamed so the previous capture should not be lost.   If a capture is needed for an extended period of time, it might be worthwhile to capture at the network level via other means such as using a monitor session on a switch.

     

    3.  Stopping the capture

     

    To stop the capture hold the Control key and press C on the keyboard.  This will cause the capture process to end and no new packets will be added to the capture dump.

     

    control-c.jpg

    Once this is complete there will be a capture file stored on the server in the location 'activelog platform/cli/'

     

    4.  Collecting the capture from the server.

     

    Collecting the capture from the server is the final step.  The capture files will be stored in "activelog platform/cli/" location on the server.  One can transfer the files through CLI to an SFTP server or to the local PC using the Real Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT).

     

    4a.  Transfer capture file through the CLI to an SFTP server

              Use the command "file get activelog platform/cli/packets.cap" to collect the packets.cap file to  the SFTP server.

         Alternatively to collect all .cap files stored on the server, use 'file get activelog platform/cli/*.cap'

         Finally, fill in the SFTP server IP/FQDN, port, username, password, and directory information:

         sftp-cli.jpg

         The CLI should indicate success or failure of the file transfer to the SFTP server.

     

     

    4b.  Transfer capture file to local PC using the Real Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT)

                This option will not be available to servers running a 5.x CUCM version earlier than 5.1(1), or 6.x version earlier than 6.1(2).  See CSCsg13820 and CSCsm76349 for details.

     

              Launch the Real Time Monitoring Tool.  If it is not installed on the local PC, install the appropriate version from the CUCM Administration page Applications->Plugins menu. Click "System", then "Trace & Log Central", then double click "Collect Files".  Click "Next" through the first menu.

         rtmt1.jpg


         In the second menu choose the checkbox for "Packet Capture Logs" on the server which the capture was performed, then click Next.

         rtmt2.jpg

         On the final screen choose a time range when the capture was performed, and a download directory on the local PC:

         finalscreen.jpg


         RTMT will close this window and proceed to collect the file and store it on the local PC in the specified location.

    Comments
    sandeep_yadav07
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Awesome document !

     

    Could please share some analysis based on the collected traces from wire shark ,I mean how can deeply dive into wire shark captures.

    Anonymous
    Not applicable

    I'm afraid that's a bit outside the scope of this document.   What you're looking for is going to be largely dependent on the problem you are troubleshooting.  

    Nik Ralchev
    Community Member

    Hi,

     

    Very useful document.

    I have a question in regards to the capturing based on host.

    Do you know how to do capture the traffic to and from two or more remote hosts (ip phones for example). May I use network address and mask or I need to specify every single host? Thank you in advance.

    Isai Reyes
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Excelent post!

     

    This is what TAC does when troubleshooting phone issues.

     

    Thank you

    biecherjr
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Super Job Explaining! Thanks so much!

    dlomonosov1979
    Community Member

    Hi all, great article, helped to setup PCAP. What if I  had a capture running on one of the Subs at work, capturing only one specific host IP traffic as we have an issue with this one phone, as such:

    utils network capture eht0 file pcap_1 packets count 100000 size all host ip x.x.x.x 

    where Xs are the IP of the host. While capturing, about 30min later I lost connection and had to re-login to CLI of that Sub, but then I could not stop the capture like I normally would with Ctrl + C on keyboard, so the capture is still running and I can see the file size increment. I could not find anywhere on here of how to stop this capture other than Control  + C while its running, I did not try to delete the file either while its still capturing, is deleting the only way to stop the capture?

    As this capture will be going for a long time as its capturing only one host/IP Phone traffic in this Sub, before this file pcap_1 reaches 100000 packets file size and stop, and I do not want it running for no reason either. How do I stop this capture guys?  Thanks.

    I have not called TAC yet. 

    biecherjr
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Thanks so much!! Great post and really helpful!! 

    jarecomp
    Cisco Employee
    Cisco Employee

    --NOTE ON COLLECTING PCAPS FROM THE CLI--

    If you ran the command:

    utils network  capture eth0 file CUCMpackets count 100000 size all host ip 10.1.1.1

    and you want to collect the file CUCMpackets from the CLI instead of RTMT, you can use:

    file get activelog /platform/cli/CUCMpackets.cap

    To see all packet captures stored on the server, you may use:

    file list activelog /platform/cli/ date detail

    Philip Badhams
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Is it possible to send the capture directly to an external source instead of saving it on the CUCM? I have around 5 phones suffering very intermittent silent audio and am just concerned that the logs will fill the CUCM disk quickly.

     

    Secondly can you capture from select phones at once or is it one or all?

     

    Thanks 

    neil wooloff
    Level 1
    Level 1

    hello,

    do we know the level of cpu/ram etc overhead when running this on a cucm?

     

    neil

    Thanks !!

    pankaj_saini
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Very Helpful , thanks for this awesome doc.

    Nirali Soni
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Thanks for sharing.Really helpful.

    blue phoenix
    Level 1
    Level 1

    Is this still applicable on CUCM ver 12.x later?

    How about the additional CPU load when this is run, can anyone answer since we want to know if this could be run during Production time or a separate maintenance window is needed?

    haronalashi
    Level 1
    Level 1

    perfect doc, thank you

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