Trace Configuration

Cisco CallManager Serviceability provides a web-based trace tool to assist the system administrator and support personnel in troubleshooting Cisco CallManager problems. Cisco CallManager Serviceability Trace provides three main functions:

• Configuration This function allows you to configure a variety of options when enabling traces. Options include the level of trace details and the trace file format (.xml or .txt).
• Analysis and Q.931 Translator These functions allow you to analyze trace files.

  Note

  The web-based Trace Analysis tool allows only analysis of Extensible Markup Language (XML) files; the Q.931 Translator analyzes both text and XML files. The XML format adds excessive overhead to the file, and causes the file to contain less information overall than saving the file in another format. For in-depth troubleshooting, Cisco recommends using formats other than XML.

• Troubleshooting Trace Settings This function allows you to enable troubleshooting traces. With this feature, you can easily set up traces on multiple servers but there are fewer options available than in the Trace Configuration function.

Types of Traces

Traces for Cisco CallManager services can be based on debug levels, specific trace fields, and Cisco CallManager devices, such as phones or gateways. Two types of traces are available, SDI trace and SDL trace.

SDI traces are also known as Cisco CallManager trace log files. Every Cisco CallManager service includes a default trace log file. The system traces SDI information from the services and logs run-time events and traces to a log file. Programmers typically use SDI traces for development purposes.

SDL traces contain call-processing information from Cisco CallManager and Cisco CTIManager services. The system traces the SDL of the call and logs state transitions in a log file. This log information helps administrators to troubleshoot problems on the Cisco CallManager system.

Tip

In most cases, extensive SDL traces will be gathered only when Cisco TAC requests it. SDL traces track communication between the CallManagers, whereas SDI traces track internal CallManager processing.

Caution

Enabling traces decreases system performance; therefore, enable higher-level trace only for troubleshooting.

Trace Configuration and Analysis Overview

Figure 32-5 provides an overview of trace configuration and analysis options:

• Troubleshooting trace settings Allows you to enable troubleshooting traces by server and by service for all servers from a single page.
• Trace configuration Allows detailed trace configuration per server. The configuration options include the trace file format (.xml or .txt).
• Analysis Allows you to analyze stored trace files (XML only).
• XML or text editors Allows you to examine the content of the stored trace files.

Figure 32-5. Trace Configuration and Analysis Overview

Trace Configuration

Cisco CallManager provides many services for tracing. You can enable tracing for each service individually for each server within the Cisco CallManager cluster. Perform these tasks in the Cisco CallManager Serviceability Trace Configuration window to configure custom settings for a trace:

You can set the path and filename for the trace file. To allow creation of more than one file, Cisco CallManager uses the entered filename and adds an eight-digit string, starting with 00000000, that is incremented with each new file.

Enabling Clusterwide Trace Settings

The Troubleshooting Trace Settings menu item is misleading. This menu item allows you to enable or disable troubleshooting traces on different servers throughout the cluster, as shown in Figure 32-8. This window is usually used for troubleshooting when more than one server needs to be monitored. Each service can be selected or deselected individually for each server.

Figure 32-8. Enabling Traces Clusterwide

Note

Servers 172.30.2.67 and 172.30.2.68 shown in Figure 32-8 are currently offline, which is why the Troubleshooting Trace Setting window shows their services as N/A.

Table 32-2 describes the logging of each service that can be turned on or off in the Troubleshooting Trace Setting window.