Does 'debug packet capture' work on EXOS Summit switches?

[VidarA]

Hello all!

I'm trying to get a local packet dump from a switch, but it doesn't seem to be working correctly.

I have a series of EXOS 5520 switches where this command works perfectly fine (debug packet capture ports x on count 100 file-name pcaptest), and it saves to /usr/local/tmp as it should.

However, when I try this command on a series of other EXOS switches in another network which are mainly X435 / X440 G2 Summit switches, it accepts the command, states that performance degradtion is possible, just like on the EXOS 5520, but when I check /usr/local/tmp, there's no files that I've created there.

In stead, a new file called 'capture.log' is created, and when I download that file and open it in notepad, it just says: "killall: tcpdump: no process killed"

What am I doing wrong?

[Gabriel_G · Accepted solution]

Hi VidarA,

As you may have seen from relevant articles, please note that the 'debug packet capture' command is not an official feature. It is not advertised as a feature nor is it regression tested during QA. It is simply a troubleshooting tool that is useful in certain situations, but please note that your mileage may vary and this command has the potential to cause other issues.

Regarding your specific questions:

Unfortunately, I dont think that the x435 has this capability at all due to the smaller image required by the x435. The internal command simply does not exist on this platforms.

For the x440-G2, I would generally expect this to work. That said, I've never had any luck doing a debug packet capture on a port. I generally only use debug packet capture on interface netTx or Broadcom (note case-sensitive internal interface names; debug packet capture on interface Broadcom), that capture traffic going to/from the switch internals; I find those captures to work most often.