Vivinet Diagnostics logs system errors to the diagnostics.log file. To read this log file, use the command-line program fmtlog.exe. For more information, see Section 2.4, Reviewing Directories and File Types and Section 6.2.6, Formatting Error Logs.
Often, an error indicates the need for a configuration change, such as entering information about CallManagers or Signaling Servers at the Console or enabling a service on a router. If, for example, Vivinet Diagnostics cannot find the Target Devices, the Error Log Viewer or a Diagnosis Tips dialog box pops up instead of a Path Trace. For more information, see Section 3.4, Tips for a Successful Diagnosis.
For more information, see the following topics:
Configure accurate SNMP community strings at the Console before you run a Diagnosis to avoid SNMP-related errors. The two most common errors are:
CHR0392: “An SNMP request sent to x.x.x.x timed out.”
CHR0403: “The request for egress interface address from device x.x.x.x failed.”
Even if SNMP communication is inhibited because of the lack of the proper community string, Vivinet Diagnostics can still find switches and routers and place their addresses or DNS hostnames on the Path Trace. You can then consult with a network administrator to find out why communications with them were not successful.
In some cases, communications over SNMP fail because a firewall is active on the network. For more information, see Section 4.1, Running a Diagnosis Through a Firewall if you see the SNMP-related message CHR0386: “An SNMP request to %2 failed.”
During a Diagnosis using IP phones, you may see error CHR0400: “Vivinet Diagnostics could not find a CallManager via DHCP.” This message can indicate your Console computer is not configured to use DHCP, which is used to locate CallManagers. Or it can indicate the DHCP server could not be found. Regardless, configure CallManager DNS hostnames or IP addresses at the Vivinet Diagnostics Console. For more information, see Section 3.5.3, Adding or Deleting a CallManager.
Similarly, if you neglected to supply information about CallManager security, including the user ID/password combination that gives Vivinet Diagnostics access to CallManager information, or if you supplied this information incorrectly, you may see error CHR0365: “An error was detected by OLE DB while accessing the SQL database for a Vivinet product.” The error occurred because the Console failed in an attempt to retrieve data from a CallManager SQL Server database. For more information, see Section 3.5.4, Configuring CallManager User IDs and Passwords.
Cisco has confirmed a bug (ID number CSCsa92212) in almost all of the 12.3 IOS versions, which can adversely affect diagnoses. You may see the following symptoms in your diagnoses:
Path trace is missing one or more hops.
The following messages appear in the Error Log Viewer:
CHR0403: “The request for egress interface address from device <device IP address> failed.”
CHR0386: “An SNMP request to <device IP address> failed, returning (noSuchName). There is no such variable name in this MIB.”
To obtain a fix for the bug, contact Cisco and reference CSCsa92212.
Cisco also has confirmed a bug in IOS version 12.3(14)T1. If you are using this version of IOS, your diagnoses may generate error messages indicating Vivinet Diagnostics cannot retrieve configuration information from a device.
CHR0403: “The request for device configuration from device <device IP address> failed.”
CHR0386: “An SNMP request to <device IP address> failed, returning (badValue). The value given has the wrong type or length.”
Vivinet Diagnostics uses the device configuration to diagnose problems with QoS settings. Without the configuration information, you may not be notified about important QoS problems in your network.
To obtain a fix for the bug, contact Cisco and reference ID number CSCsa5373.
In addition to the router configuration outlined in Section 3.4, Tips for a Successful Diagnosis, you should ensure routers on the network have enough memory allocated for IOS IP SLA tests.
Vivinet Diagnostics gathers some diagnostic information from IOS IP SLA tests. Occasionally a router may not have enough memory available to run an IOS IP SLA test. The amount of memory available to IOS IP SLA (in this case, RTR) operations is a configurable value. About 25% of the router’s total memory is the recommended amount. For more information, see Section 1.2, Cisco IOS IP Service Level Agreement.
To set or change the amount of memory available to IOS IP SLA RTR operations, issue the following commands:
To show the largest process memory block available, issue show memory summary
To show the current memory water mark setting, issue show rtr application
To set the memory watermark from router configuration, issue rtr low-memory <value>
A Diagnosis may indicate packet loss you cannot confirm by an IOS show command. Specifically, an IOS show command produces no packet loss information, even though the Diagnosis does indicate packet loss.
Various diagnoses are based on the sum of various dot3Stats from a device’s MIB (management information base):
dot3StatsAlignmentErrors
dot3StatsFCSErrors
dot3StatsSQETestErrors
dot3StatsInternalMacTransmitErrors
dot3StatsCarrierSenseErrors
dot3StatsFrameTooLongs
dot3StatsInternalMacReceiveErrors
If these stats report non-zero values, Vivinet Diagnostics infers packet loss has occurred. In this instance, the Diagnosis is informational only, because the errors happened in the past and not necessarily during any VoIP traffic.
When Vivinet Diagnostics encounters a system problem, it logs the problem information to an error log file (diagnostics.log) on the Console computer. Similarly, when an endpoint program encounters a problem it cannot report to the Console, it logs that problem to an error log file on the endpoint computer: endpoint.log, in the endpoint’s directory.
Use the Error Log Viewer to view the error log stored at the Console. To view any error log, use the command-line program named fmtlog, which is installed in the root directory where you installed Vivinet Diagnostics. For more information, see Section 6.3, Error Log Viewer.
The program fmtlog reads from a binary log file, and writes its formatted output to stdout. Here is the syntax of the FMTLOG command:
FMTLOG log_filename >output_file
The fmtlog program is installed by default in Program Files\NetIQ\Vivinet Diagnostics and is also installed at the endpoints. See the User Guide for Performance Endpoints, included in the Vivinet Diagnostics download package, for additional information on running fmtlog on the platform you are using.