Brocade Web Tools Administrator's Guide - Supporting Fabric OS v5.3.0 (53-1000435-01, June 2007)

Web Tools Administrator’s Guide 147

Publication Number: 53-1000435-01

Chapter

Working With Diagnostic Features

In this chapter

This chapter contains the following information:

• Managing trace dumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

• Displaying switch information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

• Interpreting port LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Managing trace dumps

A trace dump is a snapshot of the running behavior within the Brocade switch. The dump can be

used by developers and troubleshooters at Brocade to help understand what might be contributing

to a specific switch behavior when certain internal events are seen. For example, a trace dump can

be created each time a certain error message is logged to the system error log. Developers can

then examine what led up to the message event by studying the traces.

Tracing is always “on.” As software on the switch executes, the trace information is placed into a

circular buffer in system RAM. Periodically, the trace buffer is “frozen” and saved. This saved

information is a “trace dump.”

A trace dump is generated when:

• It is triggered manually (use the traceDump command).

• A critical-level LOG message occurs.

• A particular LOG message occurs (use the traceTrig command to set up the conditions for this).

• A kernel panic occurs.

• The hardware watchdog timer expires.

(For information about the traceDump and traceTrig commands, see the Fabric OS Command

Reference.)

The trace dump is maintained on the switch until either it is uploaded to the FTP host or another

trace dump is generated. If another trace dump is generated before the previous one is uploaded,

the previous dump is overwritten.

When a trace dump is generated, it is automatically uploaded to an FTP host if automatic FTP

uploading is enabled.