Cisco IOS Security Configuration Guide: Secure Connectivity, Release 12.4T
IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Table Of Contents

IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Finding Feature Information

Contents

Prerequisites for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Restrictions for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Memory and Performance Impact

Information About the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Tracking Packet Processing Within a Switch or Router

How to Use the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Displaying the Statistics

Displaying the Error History

Clearing the Counters or Error History

Additional References

Related Documents

Standards

MIBs

RFCs

Technical Assistance

Command Reference

Feature Information for IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement


IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement


First Published: June 19, 2006
Last Updated: June 19, 2006

The Cisco IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement feature adds four sets of event statistics and an error history buffer to the Cisco IOS software for use in troubleshooting a virtual private network (VPN) that encrypts the data path.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement" section.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco IOS and Catalyst OS software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Contents

Prerequisites for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Restrictions for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Information About the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

How to Use the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Additional References

Command Reference

Feature Information for IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Prerequisites for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

You understand the IP security (IPsec) standard for network security.


Note Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) before using this feature.


Restrictions for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

This feature and its commands are available only on Cisco IOS releases that support IPsec encryption.

Memory and Performance Impact

This feature is enabled by default in the encryption data path and has a negligible impact on memory and performance.

Information About the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

To use the enhanced diagnostic tools for troubleshooting an encryption data path, you should understand the following concept:

Tracking Packet Processing Within a Switch or Router

Tracking Packet Processing Within a Switch or Router

Standard packet analyzers used for troubleshooting network issues capture packets between devices in the network but they cannot capture packet processing events inside a device, such as a router. Beginning with Cisco IOS Release 12.4(9)T, Cisco IOS software includes four sets of event statistics to track packet processing within a switch or router. These statistics help Cisco TAC engineers diagnose and resolve issues in encrypted networks. Each set of statistics tracks a different aspect of packet processing within a switch or router:

Error counters track packet processing errors and associated packet drops. When a packet encounters an error, the first 64 bytes of that packet are stored in a buffer, to facilitate troubleshooting.

Internal counters show the detailed movement of a packet, end to end, across an encryption data path.

Punt counters track instances when the configured packet processing method failed, and an alternative method was used.

Success counters record the data path checkpoints where packets are successfully forwarded.

You can view any one set of statistics, or all of them, or only those that have recorded errors. You must choose the display timeframe for the statistics, either realtime, which captures traffic statistics in real time, or snapshot, which captures statistics as of a single point in time.

How to Use the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement


Note Contact the Cisco TAC before using this feature.


This section contains the following tasks:

Displaying the Statistics (optional)

Displaying the Error History (optional)

Clearing the Counters or Error History (optional)

Displaying the Statistics

You can use the show crypto datapath command to display statistics that help troubleshoot an encrypted network. Use the keywords to specify the IP version used in the network (IPv4 or IPv6) and to specify whether to capture statistics in real time (realtime) or as of a single point in time (snapshot). You can also choose which statistics to display. The all keyword displays the output of all the counters, whether they have recorded events or not. The non-zero keyword displays only the output of counters that have recorded at least one event. Each of the other keywords displays one specific set of statistics, as described in the "Information About the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement" section.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. show crypto datapath {ipv4 | ipv6} {snapshot | realtime} {all | non-zero} [error | internal | punt | success]

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

show crypto datapath {ipv4 | ipv6} {snapshot | realtime} {all | non-zero} [error | internal | punt | success]

Example:

Router# show crypto datapath snapshot success

Displays the statistics from one or more specified counters.

Displaying the Error History

You can display the contents of the buffer that stores information from error events to diagnose the cause of errors. The show monitor event-trace command is updated with the cfd (crypto fault detection) keyword as a possible entry for the component argument to help with troubleshooting an encryption data path. Additional keywords allow you to specify the time span for which you want to display events. For example, you can display all events for the last 30 minutes.

For detailed information about the show monitor event-trace command, see the Master Command List.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. show monitor event-trace [all-traces] [component {all | back time | clock time | from-boot seconds | latest | parameters}]

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

show monitor event-trace [all-traces] [component {all | back time | clock time | from-boot seconds | latest | parameters}]

Example:

Router# show monitor event-trace cfd all

Displays the contents of the error trace buffer.

Use the keywords to specify which events to display and whether to display the trace file parameters.

Clearing the Counters or Error History

You can use the clear crypto datapath command to clear the counters or error history buffer in an encrypted network. Use the appropriate keywords to clear all counters or one specific counter.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. clear crypto datapath {ipv4 | ipv6} [error | internal | punt | success]

DETAILED STEPS

 
Command or Action
Purpose

Step 1 

enable

Example:

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2 

clear crypto datapath {ipv4 | ipv6} [error | internal | punt | success]

Example:

Router# clear crypto datapath success

Clears data for all counters or the specified counter.

Additional References

The following sections provide references related to the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement.

Related Documents

Related Topic
Document Title

Configuring Security for VPNs with IPsec

Configuring Security for VPNs with IPsec


Standards

Standard
Title

No new or modified standards are supported by this feature, and support for existing standards has not been modified.


MIBs

MIB
MIBs Link

No new or modified MIBs are supported by this feature, and support for existing MIBs has not been modified.

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS software releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs


RFCs

RFC
Title

No new or modified RFCs are supported by this feature, and support for existing RFCs has not been modified.


Technical Assistance

Description
Link

The Cisco Support website provides extensive online resources, including documentation and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies.

To receive security and technical information about your products, you can subscribe to various services, such as the Product Alert Tool (accessed from Field Notices), the Cisco Technical Services Newsletter, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds.

Access to most tools on the Cisco Support website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/techsupport


Command Reference

The following commands are introduced or modified in the feature or features

clear crypto datapath

show crypto datapath

show monitor event-trace

Feature Information for the IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

For information about these commands, see the Cisco IOS Security Command Reference at

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/security/command/reference/sec_book.html.

For information about all Cisco IOS commands, see the Command Lookup Tool at

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/CLILookup or the Master Command List.

Feature Information for IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Table 1 lists the release history for this feature.

Not all commands may be available in your Cisco IOS software release. For release information about a specific command, see the command reference documentation.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which Cisco IOS and Catalyst OS software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp. An account on Cisco.com is not required.


Note Table 1 lists only the Cisco IOS software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given Cisco IOS software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that Cisco IOS software release train also support that feature.


Table 1 Feature Information for IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

Feature Name
Releases
Feature Information

IPsec Diagnostics Enhancement

12.4(9)T

This feature adds four sets of event statistics and an error history buffer to the Cisco IOS software for use in troubleshooting a VPN that encrypts the data path

The following commands were introduced or modified: clear crypto datapath, show crypto datapath, show monitor event-trace