NS 3000/iX Operations and Maintenance Reference Manual > Chapter 3 Getting Information About the Network

Logging and Tracing

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Both logging and tracing services are available to you for use as diagnostic and debugging aids.

Logging records subsystem events as selected by the way you have configured logging through NMMGR. Use logging in problem determination and in monitoring network usage and resources.

Tracing is provided at both the user level and at an internal level. User-level tracing provides a record of data communications subsystem intrinsic calls. Internal level tracing records internal state transitions and the sequences of module execution within data communications subsystems. You should only use internal tracing under the recommendation of an HP service representative.

Logging Facility

Node management services, NMS, provides logging services for Network Services, NetIPC, network transport, and all data communications links. Logging is performed at three levels: network logging, event logging, and link level logging. Network logging records the usage of the communications network resources. It serves as a tool in resolving network problems. Event logging records the major subsystem events. The NSCONTROL command with the LOG= option can be used to enable or disable detailed event logging for the Network Services (see Chapter 7 "Commands" for more information). The link level logs to MPE/iX log files only.

You can configure logging to record messages to the console, to a log file, or to both for each individual subsystem. See the HP e3000/iX Network Planning and Configuration Guide or the NS 3000/iX NMMGR Screens Reference Manual for information on how to configure logging.

Three commands are available to help you manage log files. SHOWNMLOG displays the name of the current log file and shows the space that is still available in the file. SWITCHNMLOG allows you to close the current log file before it is full and open a new one. RESUMENMLOG allows you to reactivate logging after a recoverable error. See Chapter 7 "Commands" for information on these commands.

Tracing Facility

Tracing is provided for the Network Services subsystem, Network Interprocess Communication (NetIPC), the network transport subsystem, and the link subsystems. You enable tracing for the Network Services by the DSLINE command for each user's services. Network Service tracing is used to trace messages generated by your applications. For more information, see Using NS 3000/iX Network Services.

You enable tracing for NetIPC applications with the NetIPC intrinsic IPCCONTROL, which is explained in the NetIPC 3000/XL Programmer's Reference Manual.

You can selectively enable tracing for the network transport with the NETCONTROL command see Chapter 7 "Commands" You can enable tracing at the link level in the NMMGR configuration for some links, as explained in the NS 3000/iX Screens Reference Manual. You can also enable link level tracing with the LINKCONTROL command.

Trace Files

Network transport trace records are written to disk files and are of file type NTRAC. Trace files are named either by explicitly specifying a file name (in the configuration file or with the NETCONTROL command) or by using the default trace file filename. If you explicitly specify a file name, the contents of the file are overwritten each time a new trace is started. No warning is issued. If you use the default file name, NMS uses NMTCnnnn.PUB.SYS as a file name. In the file name, nnnn is a number from 0000 to 9999. Each time a new trace is started, NMS opens a new file and increments nnnn by one, thus creating a new file name. If this new trace file name is the name of a file that already exists, NMS continues to increment nnnn by one until it produces the name of a new (non-existing) file. If the NMS trace facility reaches an end-of-file mark while recording to a disk file, it wraps subsequent entries around to the beginning of the file and overwrites the previous entries.

Format Log and Trace Files

You can format log and trace files into a readable format using the NMDUMP utility. You can run NMDUMP by itself or as one of the NETTOOL tools. See Chapter 6 "Using NETTOOL" for step-by-step instructions for running NMDUMP using NETTOOL.

NMDUMP allows you to select specific subsystems and message types for formatting. (Note that you must have configured logging so that messages of the type you select are recorded.) For example, you may only need to see critical error messages for a LAN link. NMDUMP will let you select just these messages to be formatted. See Using the Node Management Services (NMS) Utilities for a table of the logging subsystems and message types that you can select for formatting.

Format X.25 Log Files

Messages for X.25 links are not recorded to the same logging file as messages for other links. If you need to format log messages for a host-based X.25 link, you should see Configuring and Managing Host-Based X.25 Links for information on using the EVLOG formatter. If you are logging messages for an X.25 link with PC-based network management, see Using the OpenView DTC Manager for information.

Displaying X.25 Information

Chapter 4 Troubleshooting Process