SNMP Configuration and Management Manual

SNMP Configuration and Management Manual—424777-006
6-1
6 SNMP Agent PTrace Facility
This section contains the following information:
•
An introduction to the NonStop agent trace facility and the PTrace utility
•
A description of the subsystem-specific PTrace commands and special
considerations for using these commands with the NonStop agent
•
How the PTrace utility determines the subsystem for which it is formatting records
•
How to establish selection criteria for displaying NonStop agent records
•
Examples of NonStop agent formatted trace record displays
Introduction to PTrace
Trace files contain a record of the communication between processes. Each
subsystem determines what information is recorded in its trace files. This information
varies as to the type of events that are recorded, the amount of detail included, and
other subsystem-specific parameters.
You can generate a NonStop agent trace file interactively or programmatically, as
follows:
•
To start a trace and capture data interactively, use the SCF TRACE command.
•
To start a trace and capture data programmatically, use a management
programming application that uses the same trace facility as SCF.
The trace files created are unstructured and cannot be printed or displayed directly.
Use the PTrace (print trace) utility to display and examine trace files. The PTrace utility
formats the data stored in unstructured trace files for output to terminals, printers, or
disk files. You can then use this information for troubleshooting. Figure 6-1 shows the
four general steps involved in recording and formatting trace data.