Cisco Guard Configuration Guide (Software Version 5.1)
Using Guard Diagnostics Tools

Table Of Contents

Using Guard Diagnostics Tools

Displaying the Guard Configuration

Displaying Guard Zones

Using Counters to Analyze Traffic

Displaying Counters and Average Traffic Rates

Clearing Guard and Zone Counters

Displaying the Zone Status

Managing Guard Logs

Managing Online Event Logs

Displaying Online Event Logs

Exporting Online Event Logs

Managing the Log File

Displaying the Log File

Exporting the Log File

Clearing the Log File

Clearing the BIOS System Log File

Monitoring Network Traffic and Extracting Attack Signatures

Configuring the Guard to Automatically Record Traffic

Activating the Guard to Manually Record Traffic

Stopping the Guard from Manually Recording Traffic

Managing Packet-Dump Capture Files Disk Space

Displaying Manual Packet-Dump Settings

Displaying Automatic Packet-Dump Settings

Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Automatically

Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Manually

Importing Packet-Dump Capture Files

Displaying Packet-Dump Capture Files

Generating Attack Signatures from Packet-Dump Capture Files

Copying Packet-Dump Capture Files

Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files

Displaying General Diagnostic Data

Managing Disk Space

Configuring Logs and Reports History

Displaying Memory Consumption

Displaying the CPU Utilization

Monitoring System Resources

Managing the ARP Cache

Displaying Network Statistics

Using Traceroute

Verifying Connectivity

Obtaining Debug Information

Displaying Guard Self-Protection Configuration

Flex-Content Filter Default Configurations


Using Guard Diagnostics Tools


This chapter describes how to display statistics and diagnostics on the Cisco Guard (Guard) and contains the following sections:

Displaying the Guard Configuration

Displaying Guard Zones

Using Counters to Analyze Traffic

Displaying the Zone Status

Managing Guard Logs

Monitoring Network Traffic and Extracting Attack Signatures

Displaying General Diagnostic Data

Managing Disk Space

Displaying Memory Consumption

Displaying the CPU Utilization

Monitoring System Resources

Managing the ARP Cache

Displaying Network Statistics

Using Traceroute

Verifying Connectivity

Obtaining Debug Information

Displaying Guard Self-Protection Configuration

Displaying the Guard Configuration

You can display the Guard configuration file, which includes information about the Guard configuration, such as interface IP addresses, default gateway address, and configured zones.

To display the Guard configuration file, use the following command:

show running-config [all | Guard | interfaces interface-name | router | self-protection | zones]

Table 12-1 provides the arguments and keywords for the show running-config command.

Table 12-1 Arguments and Keywords for the show running-config Command 

Parameter
Description

all

Displays configuration files of all Guard functions (Guard, zones, interfaces, router, and self-protection).

Guard

Displays Guard configuration file.

interfaces interface-name

Displays the configuration file of the Guard interfaces. Enter the interface name.

router

Displays the router configuration.

self-protection

Displays Guard self-protection configuration.

zones

Displays the configuration files of all zones.


The following example shows how to display the Guard configuration file:

user@GUARD# show running-config guard

The configuration file consists of the commands that you enter to configure the Guard with the current settings. You can export the Guard configuration file to a remote FTP server for backup purposes or for implementing the Guard configuration parameters on another Guard. See the "Displaying Guard Zones" section for more information.

Displaying Guard Zones

You can display an overview of the zones to see which zones are active and what their current status is by entering the show command in global mode.

Table 12-2 describes the different zone statuses.

Table 12-2 Zone Status

Status
Description

Auto protect mode

Zone protection is enabled, and the dynamic filters are activated without user intervention.

The Guard displays (+learning) next to the zone name if zone protection is enabled and the Guard is learning zone traffic characteristics for policy threshold tuning.

Interactive protect mode

The zones are in interactive protect mode, and the dynamic filters are activated manually.

Threshold Tuning phase

The zones are in the threshold tuning phase. The Guard analyzes the zone traffic and defines thresholds for the policies that were constructed during the policy construction phase of the learning process.

Policy Construction phase

The zones are in the policy construction phase, and the zone policies are created.

Standby

The zones are not active.


The following example shows how to display an overview of the Guard zones:

user@GUARD# show

Using Counters to Analyze Traffic

You can display Guard and zone counters to display information on the current traffic that the Guard is handling, analyze zone traffic, and perform monitoring tasks.

This section contains the following topics:

Displaying Counters and Average Traffic Rates

Clearing Guard and Zone Counters

Displaying Counters and Average Traffic Rates

To display the zone counters, use one of the following commands:

show [zone zone-name] ratesDisplays the average traffic rates of the malicious and the legitimate counters.

show [zone zone-name] rates details—Displays the average traffic rates for all Guard counters.

show [zone zone-name] rates history—Displays the average traffic rates of the malicious and the legitimate counters for every minute in the past 24 hours.

show [zone zone-name] counters—Displays the Guard malicious and legitimate counters.

show [zone zone-name] counters details—Displays all Guard counters.

show [zone zone-name] counters history—Displays the values of the malicious and the legitimate counters for every minute in the past hour.

To display the Guard counters, use the command in global or configuration mode.

To display the zone counters, use the command in one of the following command modes:

Zone configuration mode—Do not use the zone zone-name keyword and argument.

Global or configuration mode—Enter the zone keyword and the zone-name argument to specify the zone name.

The rate units are in bits per second (bps) and in packets per second (pps).


Note Zone rates are available only when you enable zone protection or activate the learning process.


The counter units are in packets and in kilobits. The counters are set to zero when you activate zone protection.

Table 12-3 displays the Guard counters.

Table 12-3 Guard Counters 

Counter
Description

Malicious

Malicious traffic destined to the zone. Malicious traffic is the sum of the dropped counter and the spoofed counter (which also include the zombie packets).

Legitimate

Legitimate traffic forwarded by the Guard to the zones.

Received

Packets received and handled by the Guard. The Received counter is the sum of the legitimate counter and the malicious counter.

Forwarded

Legitimate traffic forwarded by the Guard to the zones.

Dropped

Packets that were identified by the Guard protection functions (dynamic filters, flex-content filters, and rate limiter) as part of an attack and dropped.

Replied

Packets to which replies were sent to the initiating client as part of the anti-spoofing or anti-zombie functions to verify whether they are part of authentic traffic or part of an attack.

Spoofed

Packets that were identified by the Guard as spoofed packets and not forwarded to the zone. Spoofed packets are replied packets (see the Replied counter above for more information) for which no replies were received. Zombie packets are also included in the spoofed packets counter.

Invalid zone

Traffic that is not destined to any one of the zones for which protection is enabled. This information is available for Guard counters only (if you enter the command in global or configuration mode without using the zone keyword).


The following example shows how to display the Guard average traffic rates:

admin@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# show rates 

Clearing Guard and Zone Counters

You can clear the Guard or zone counters if you are going to perform testing and want to be sure that the counters include information from the testing session only. The Guard clears the counters and the average traffic rates.

To clear the Guard counters, use the following command in global or configuration mode:

clear counters

The following example shows how to clear the Guard counters:

user@GUARD-conf# clear counters

To clear the zone counters, use one of the following commands:

clear counters—In zone configuration mode.

clear zone zone-name counters—In global or configuration mode. The zone-name argument specifies the name of the zone.

The following example shows how to clear the zone counters:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# clear counters

Displaying the Zone Status

To display an overview of the zone and its current status, use the show command in zone configuration mode. The overview includes the following information:

Zone status—Indicates the operation state. The operation state can be one of the following: protect mode, protect and learning mode, threshold tuning mode, policy construction mode, or inactive.

Zone basic configuration—Describes the basic zone configuration, such as automatic or interactive protect mode, thresholds, timers, and IP addresses.

See the "Configuring Zone Attributes" section on page 5-8 for more information.

Zone filters—Includes the flex-content filter configuration, the user filter configuration, and the number of active dynamic filters. If the zone is in interactive protect mode, the overview displays the number of recommendations.

See the "Configuring Flex-Content Filters" section and the "Configuring User Filters" section for more information.

Zone traffic rates—Displays the zone legitimate and malicious traffic rates.

See the "Using Counters to Analyze Traffic" section for more information.

The following example shows how to display the zone status:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# show

Managing Guard Logs

The Guard automatically logs system activity and events. You can display the Guard logs to review and track the Guard activity.

Table 12-4 displays the event log levels.

Table 12-4 Event Log Levels 

Event Level
Numeric code
Description

Emergencies

0

System is unusable.

Alerts

1

Immediate action required.

Critical

2

Critical condition.

Errors

3

Error condition.

Warnings

4

Warning condition.

Notifications

5

Normal but significant condition.

Informational

6

Informational messages.

Debugging

7

Debugging messages.


The log file displays all log levels (emergencies, alerts, critical, errors, warnings, notification, informational, and debugging). The Guard log file includes zone events with severity levels: emergencies, alerts, critical, errors, warnings, and notifications.

You can display the event log locally or from a remote server. The following sections describe these topics:

Displaying Online Event Logs

Managing the Log File

Managing Online Event Logs

This section describes how to manage the Guard real-time logging of events and contains the following topics:

Displaying Online Event Logs

Exporting Online Event Logs

Displaying Online Event Logs

You can activate the Guard monitoring feature and display a real-time event log, which enables you to view the online logging of the Guard events. To display the online event logs, use the following command:

event monitor

The following example shows how to activate monitoring:

user@GUARD# event monitor

The screen constantly updates to show new events.


Note To deactivate monitoring, use the no event monitor command.


Exporting Online Event Logs

You can export the Guard online event logs to display the Guard operations that are registered in the log file and to display the Guard events from a remote host while they are registered in the Guard log file. The Guard log file is exported using the syslog mechanism. You can export the Guard log file to several syslog servers and specify additional servers so that if one goes offline, another is available to receive messages.

Online Guard log export is applicable with a remote syslog server only. If a remote syslog server is not available, use the copy log command to export the Guard log information to a file.

The following is an example of a logging event:

Sep 11 16:34:40 10.4.4.4 cm: scannet, 5 threshold-tuning-start: Zone 
activation completed successfully.

The system log message syntax is as follows:

event-date event-time Guard-IP-address protection-level zone-name event-severity-level event-type event-description

To export online event logs, perform the following steps:


Step 1 (Optional) Configure the logging parameters by entering the following command in configuration mode:

logging {facility | trap}

Table 12-5 provides the keywords for the logging command.

Table 12-5 Keywords for the logging Command 

Parameter
Description

facility

The export syslog facility. The remote syslog server uses logging facilities to filter events. For example, the logging facility allows the remote user to receive the Guard events in one file and use another file for events from other networking devices.

The available facilities are local0 through local7. The default is local4.

trap

The severity level of the syslog traps sent to the remote syslog. Trap levels of lower severity include levels of higher severity. For example, if the trap level is set to warning, then error, critical, alerts, and emergencies are also sent. The available trap levels from the highest to the lowest severity level are emergencies, alerts, critical, errors, warnings, notification, informational, and debugging. The default is notification.



Note To receive events about the addition and removal of dynamic filters, change the trap level to informational.


Step 2 Configure the remote syslog server IP address by entering the following command:

logging host remote-syslog-server-ip

The remote-syslog-server-ip argument specifies the remote syslog server IP address.

To build a list of syslog servers that receive logging messages, use the logging host command more than once.


The following example shows how to configure the Guard to send traps with a severity level that is higher than notification. The Guard sends the traps using the facility local3 to a syslog server with IP address 10.0.0.191:

user@GUARD-conf# logging facility local3
user@GUARD-conf# logging trap notifications
user@GUARD-conf# logging host 10.0.0.191

To display the configuration of that the Guard uses to export online event logs, use the show logging command or the show log export-ip command.

Managing the Log File

This section describes how to manage the Guard log file and contains the following topics:

Displaying the Log File

Exporting the Log File

Clearing the Log File

Clearing the BIOS System Log File

Displaying the Log File

You can display the Guard log for diagnostic or monitoring purposes. The Guard log file includes zone events with these severity levels: emergencies, alerts, critical, errors, warnings, and notification.

To display the Guard log, use the following command in global mode:

show log

The following example shows how to display the Guard log:

user@GUARD# show log

You can display a zone log to display events that relate to the specified zone only.

To display the zone log, use the show log [sub-zone-name] command in zone configuration mode. The sub-zone-name argument specifies the name of a subzone that was created from the zone. See the "Understanding Subzones" section on page 9-10 for more information.

Exporting the Log File

You can export the Guard log file to a network server for monitoring or diagnostics by entering one of the following commands in global mode:

copy [zone zone-name] log ftp server full-file-name [login [password]]

copy [zone zone-name] log {sftp | scp} server full-file-name login


Note You can configure the Guard to export event logs automatically by using the logging host command. See the "Exporting Online Event Logs" section for more information.


Because SFTP and SCP rely on Secure Shell (SSH) for secure communication, if you do not configure the key that the Guard uses before you enter the copy command with the sftp or scp option, the Guard prompts you for the password. See the "Configuring the Keys for SFTP and SCP Connections" section for more information on how to configure the key that the Guard uses for secure communication.

Table 12-6 provides the arguments and keywords for the copy log ftp command.

Table 12-6 Arguments and Keywords for the copy log ftp Command 

Parameter
Description
zone zone-name

(Optional) The zone name. Exports the zone log file. The default is to export the Guard log file.

log

Exports the log file.

ftp

Exports the logs to an FTP network server.

sftp

Exports the logs to an SFTP network server.

scp

Exports the logs to an SCP network server.

server

The IP address of the network server. Enter the IP address in dotted-decimal notation (for example, enter 192.168.10.2).

remote-path

The complete name of the file. If you do not specify a path, the server saves the file in your home directory.

login

The server login name.

The login argument is optional when you define an FTP server. When you do not enter a login name, the FTP server assumes an anonymous login and does not prompt you for a password.

password

(Optional) The password for the remote FTP server. If you do not enter the password, the Guard prompts you for it.


The following example shows how to export the Guard log file to an FTP server:

user@GUARD# copy log ftp 10.0.0.191 log.txt <user> <password>

Clearing the Log File

You can clear the Guard or zone log file if it is large or if you are going to perform testing and want to be sure that the log file includes information from the testing session only.

To clear the Guard or zone log file of all entries, use the following command in configuration mode or in zone configuration mode:

clear [zone zone-name] log

The zone-name argument specifies the zone name. The default is to clear the Guard log file. When you enter the clear log command from zone configuration mode, do not use the zone zone-name keyword and argument. To clear the current zone log of all entries, use the clear log command in zone configuration mode.

The following example shows how to clear the Guard log:

user@GUARD-conf# clear log

Clearing the BIOS System Log File

You can clear the BIOS system log, which contains mostly hardware-related event messages such as the number of times the device was powered-off or restarted.

To clear the BIOS system log, use the following command in configuration mode:

clear log bios

The following example shows how to clear the BIOS log:

user@GUARD-conf# clear log bios

Monitoring Network Traffic and Extracting Attack Signatures

You can configure the Guard to record traffic directly from the network through nonintrusive taps and create a database from the recorded traffic. By querying the recorded traffic database, you can analyze past events, generate signatures of an attack, or compare current network traffic patterns with traffic patterns that the Guard recorded previously under normal traffic conditions.

You can configure filters so that the Guard records only traffic that meets certain criteria or you can record all traffic data and filter the traffic that the Guard displays.

The Guard saves the traffic in PCAP format, which is compressed and encoded by the gzip (GNU zip) program with an accompanying file in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format that describes the recorded data.

An important use of the recorded traffic is to determine if there are any common patterns or signatures that appear in the payload of the recorded attack packets. The Guard can analyze the recorded traffic and extract signatures. Using the signature, you can configure a flex-content filter to block all traffic containing packet payloads that match the signature.

The Guard can record traffic in two ways:

Automatically—Continuously records traffic data in packet-dump capture files.

Manually—Records traffic in packet-dump capture files when activated by you.

New packet-dump capture files replace previous files. To save the recorded traffic, export the packet-dump capture files to a network server before you activate the Guard to record traffic again.

You can activate only one manual packet-dump capture at a time for a zone, but you can activate the manual packet-dump capture and the automatic packet-dump capture simultaneously. The Guard can manually record traffic for up to 10 zones simultaneously.

The Guard allocates, by default, 5 GB disk space for the manual packet-dump capture files of all zones. It can save up to 50 GB of manual and automatic packet-dump capture files of all zones. You must delete old files to free the disk space for additional packet-dump capture files.

This section contains the following topics:

Configuring the Guard to Automatically Record Traffic

Activating the Guard to Manually Record Traffic

Stopping the Guard from Manually Recording Traffic

Managing Packet-Dump Capture Files Disk Space

Displaying Manual Packet-Dump Settings

Displaying Automatic Packet-Dump Settings

Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Automatically

Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Manually

Importing Packet-Dump Capture Files

Displaying Packet-Dump Capture Files

Generating Attack Signatures from Packet-Dump Capture Files

Copying Packet-Dump Capture Files

Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files

Configuring the Guard to Automatically Record Traffic

You can activate the Guard to automatically record network traffic so that you have traffic records that you can analyze, or compare to, if a network problem or an attack occurs. By using packet-dump capture filters, you can configure the Guard to record only the traffic that meets the criteria that you specify. You can also record all traffic and apply packet-dump capture filters to the recorded traffic when you view it.

The Guard records traffic in a capture buffer. When the capture buffer size reaches 50 MB, or after 10 minutes have elapsed, the Guard saves the buffered information to a local file in a compressed format, clears the buffer, and then continues recording traffic.

The Guard saves multiple automatic packet-dump capture files. The Guard divides the recorded traffic based on the way that it handled the traffic, so you might have more than one automatic packet-dump capture file from a single time frame. The name of the automatic packet-dump capture file provides information about when the Guard recorded the traffic and how it handled the traffic.

Table 12-7 describes the sections of the automatic packet-dump capture filename.

Table 12-7 Sections of the Automatic Packet-Dump Capture
Filename 

Section
Description

Function

The type of Guard function performed at the time of the packet-dump capture:

protect—The Guard recorded the traffic during zone protection.

learn—The Guard recorded the traffic during the zone learning process or the protect and learning process.

Capture start time

The time that the Guard started recording the traffic.

Capture end time

(Optional) The time that the Guard finished recording the traffic. If the Guard is currently recording the traffic to the file, the end time is not displayed.

Dispatch

The method that the Guard used to handle the traffic. This method can be one of the following:

forwarded—The Guard identified traffic as legitimate and forwarded it to the zone.

dropped—The Guard identified traffic as malicious and dropped it.

replied—The Guard sent replies to the initiating client as part of the anti-spoofing or anti-zombie functions in order to verify whether the packets are part of authentic traffic or part of an attack.


When you enable the learning process or the protect and learning function, the Guard saves all of the packet-dump capture files it creates. When you enable zone protection, the Guard saves one set of past packet-dump capture files only. To save all packet-dump capture files when zone protection is enabled, configure the Guard to automatically export the packet-dump capture files it creates to a network server.

When you activate zone protection or activate the Guard to automatically record network traffic, the Guard erases all previous packet-dump capture files that were recorded during the protection process and creates new ones.

To configure the Guard to automatically record network traffic, perform the following steps:


Step 1 Configure the Guard to automatically record zone traffic. Enter the following command in zone configuration mode:

packet-dump auto-capture

Step 2 (Optional) To create a packet-dump capture database, export the packet-dump capture files to a network server.

See the "Configuring the Guard to Automatically Record Traffic" section.


The following example shows how to configure the Guard to automatically record zone traffic:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# packet-dump auto-capture

To stop the Guard from automatically capturing zone traffic data, use the no packet-dump auto-capture command.

To display the current packet-dump settings, use the show packet-dump command.

Activating the Guard to Manually Record Traffic

You can activate the Guard to start recording traffic so that you can record traffic during a specific period or change the criteria that the Guard uses to record the traffic.

The Guard stops recording traffic and saves the manual packet-dump capture to a file when the specified number of packets have been recorded, or when either the learning process or zone protection have ended.

You can only activate one manual packet-dump capture at a time for a zone, but you can activate the manual packet-dump capture and the automatic packet-dump capture simultaneously. The Guard can record manual packet-dump captures for up to 10 zones simultaneously.

To activate a manual packet-dump capture, use the following command in zone configuration mode:

packet-dump capture [view] capture-name pdump-rate pdump-count {all | dropped | forwarded | replied} [tcpdump-expression]


Note The CLI session halts while the traffic is captured. To continue working while the capture is in process, establish an additional session with the Guard.


Table 12-8 provides the arguments and keywords for the packet-dump command.

Table 12-8 Arguments and Keywords for the packet-dump
Command 

Parameter
Description
view

(Optional) Displays the traffic that the Guard is recording in real time.

capture-name

The name of the packet-dump capture file. Enter an alphanumeric string from 1 to 63 characters in length. The string can contain underscores but cannot contain spaces.

pdump-rate

The sample rate in pps. Enter a value from 1 to 10000.

Note The Guard supports a maximum accumulated packet-dump capture rate of 10000 pps for all concurrent manual captures.

A packet-dump capture configured with a high sample-rate value consumes resources. We recommend that you use high-rate values cautiously because of the potential performance penalty.

pdump-count

The number of packets to record. When the Guard finishes recording the specified number of packets, it saves the manual packet-dump capture buffer to a file. Enter an integer from 1 to 5000.

all

Captures all traffic.

dropped

Captures only traffic that the Guard dropped.

forwarded

Captures only legitimate traffic that the Guard forwarded to the zone.

replied

Captures only the traffic that the Guard anti-spoofing and anti-zombie functions sent back to the source in a verification attempt.

tcpdump-expression

(Optional) A filter that you apply to specify the traffic to record. The Guard captures only traffic that complies with the filter expression. The expression rules are identical to the flex-content filter TCPDump expression rules. See the "Configuring the tcpdump-expression Syntax" section for more information.


The following example shows how to activate a manual packet-dump capture to record 1000 packets with a sample rate of 10 pps and display the packets that are captured:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# packet-dump capture view 10 1000 all

Stopping the Guard from Manually Recording Traffic

The Guard stops a manual packet-dump capture when it records the number of packets that you specified when you activated the capture. However, you can stop a manual packet-dump capture before the Guard records the specified number of packets.

To stop the Guard from manually recording traffic, perform one of the following actions:

Press Ctrl-C in the open CLI session.

Open a new CLI session and enter the following command in relevant zone configuration mode:

no packet-dump capture capture-name

The capture-name argument specifies the name of the capture to stop.

The Guard saves the packet-dump capture file.

Managing Packet-Dump Capture Files Disk Space

By default, the Guard allocates 2 GB of disk space for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files.

To modify the amount of disk space that the Guard allocates for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files, use the following command in zone configuration mode:

packet-dump disk-space disk-space

The disk-space argument specifies the amount of disk space that the Guard allocates for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files in MB. Enter an integer from 1 to 51200.

The following example shows how to configure the amount of disk space that the Guard allocates for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# packet-dump disk-space 500

The Guard saves past packet-dump capture files in PCAP format, which is compressed and encoded by the gzip (GNU zip) program.

See the "Displaying Manual Packet-Dump Settings" section for information on how to view the current amount of allocated disk space.

Displaying Manual Packet-Dump Settings

To display the current amount of disk space that the Guard allocated for manual packet-dump capture files, use the show packet-dump command in configuration mode or in global mode. The Guard allocates a single block of disk space for the manual packet-dump capture files of all zones.

The following example shows how to display the current amount of disk space that the Guard allocated for manual packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf# show packet-dump

Table 12-9 describes the fields in the show packet-dump command output.

Table 12-9 Field Descriptions for the Manual show packet-dump
Command Output 

Field
Description
Allocated disk-space

Specifies the amount of total disk space that the Guard has allocated for manual packet-dump captures of all zones in MB.

Occupied disk-space

Specifies the percentage of allocated disk space consumed by manual packet-dump files from all zones.


Displaying Automatic Packet-Dump Settings

To display the current amount of disk space that is allocated for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files, use the show packet-dump command in zone configuration mode.

The following example shows how to display the current amount of disk space that is allocated for the zone automatic packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# show packet-dump

Table 12-10 describes the fields in the show packet-dump command output.

Table 12-10 Field Descriptions for the Automatic show packet-dump
Command Output 

Field
Description

Automatic-capture

The state of the automatic packet-dump capture process.

Allocated disk-space

The amount of disk space the Guard has allocated for automatic packet-dump captures in MB.

Occupied disk-space

The percentage of the allocated disk space that is currently consumed by the automatic packet-dump captures.


Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Automatically

You can configure the Guard to automatically export packet-dump capture files to a network server that uses FTP, Secure FTP (SFTP), or Secure Copy (SCP) to transfer files. When you enable the automatic export function, the Guard exports the packet-dump capture files each time that it saves the contents of the packet-dump buffer to a local file. The Guard exports the packet-dump capture files in PCAP format, which is compressed and encoded by the "gzip" (GNU zip) program, with an accompanying file in XML format that describes the recorded data. See the Capture.xsd file that accompanies the version for a description of the XML schema. You can download the xsd files that accompany the version from the Cisco website (www.cisco.com).

To configure the Guard to export packet-dump capture files automatically, use the following command in configuration mode:

export packet-dump file-server-name

The file-server-name argument specifies the name of a network server to which you export the files that you configure using the file-server command. If you configure the network server for SFTP or SCP, you must configure the SSH key that the Guard uses for SFTP and SCP communication. See the "Exporting Files Automatically" section on page 13-9 for more information.

The following example shows how to automatically export packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf# export packet-dump Corp-FTP-Server

Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Manually

You can manually export packet-dump capture files to a network server that uses FTP, SFTP, or SCP to transfer files. You can export a single packet-dump capture file or all packet-dump capture files of a specific zone. The Guard exports the packet-dump capture files in PCAP format, which is compressed and encoded by the gzip (GNU zip) program with an accompanying file in XML format that describes the recorded data. See the Capture.xsd file that accompanies the version for a description of the XML schema. You can download the xsd files that accompany the version from the Cisco website (www.cisco.com).

To manually export packet-dump capture files to a network server, use one of the following commands in global mode:

copy zone zone-name packet-dump captures [capture-name] ftp server remote-path [login [password]]

copy zone zone-name packet-dump captures [capture-name] {sftp | scp} server remote-path login

copy zone zone-name packet-dump captures [capture-name] file-server-name

Because SFTP and SCP rely on SSH for secure communication, if you do not configure the key that the Guard uses before you enter the copy command with the sftp or scp option, the Guard prompts you for the password. See the "Configuring the Keys for SFTP and SCP Connections" section for more information on how to configure the key that the Guard uses for secure communication.

Table 12-11 provides the arguments and keywords for the copy zone packet-dump command.

Table 12-11 Arguments and Keywords for the copy zone packet-dump
Command 

Parameters
Description

zone zone-name

Name of an existing zone.

packet-dump captures

Exports packet-dump capture files.

capture-name

(Optional) Name of an existing packet-dump capture file. If you do not specify the name of a packet-dump capture file, the Guard exports all the zone packet-dump capture files. See the "Displaying Packet-Dump Capture Files" section for more information.

ftp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an FTP network server.

sftp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an SFTP network server.

scp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an SCP network server.

server

IP address of the network server. Enter the IP address in dotted-decimal notation (for example, enter 192.168.10.2).

remote-path

Complete name of the path where the Guard saves the packet-dump capture files.

login

Server login name.

The login argument is optional when you define an FTP server. When you do not enter a login name, the FTP server assumes an anonymous login and does not prompt you for a password.

password

(Optional) Password for the remote FTP server. If you do not enter the password, the Guard prompts you for one.

file-server-name

Name of a network server. You must configure the network server using the file-server command.

If you configured the network server using SFTP or SCP, you must configure the SSH key that the Guard uses for SFTP and SCP communication.

See the "Exporting Files Automatically" section on page 13-9 for more information.


The following example shows how to manually export the packet-dump capture files of zone scannet to FTP server 10.0.0.191:

user@GUARD# copy zone scannet packet-dump captures ftp 10.0.0.191 
<user> <password>

The following example shows how to manually export the packet-dump capture files of zone scannet to a network server that was defined by using the file-server command:

user@GUARD# copy zone scannet packet-dump captures cap-5-10-05 
Corp-FTP-Server

Importing Packet-Dump Capture Files

You can import packet-dump capture files from a network server to the Guard so that you can analyze past events or compare current network traffic patterns with traffic patterns that the Guard previously recorded under normal traffic conditions. The Guard imports the packet-dump capture files in both XML and PCAP format.

To import a packet-dump capture file, use one of the following commands in global mode:

copy ftp zone zone-name packet-dump captures server full-file-name [login [password]]

copy {sftp | scp} zone zone-name packet-dump captures server full-file-name login

copy file-server-name zone zone-name packet-dump captures capture-name

Because SFTP and SCP rely on SSH for secure communication, if you do not configure the key that the Guard uses before you enter the copy command with the sftp or scp option, the Guard prompts you for the password. See the "Configuring the Keys for SFTP and SCP Connections" section for more information on how to configure the key that the Guard uses for secure communication.

Table 12-12 provides the arguments and keywords for the copy zone packet-dump command.

Table 12-12 Arguments and Keywords for the copy zone packet-dump
Command 

Parameter
Description

ftp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an FTP network server.

sftp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an SFTP network server.

scp

Exports the packet-dump capture files to an SCP network server.

zone zone-name

The name of an existing zone for which the packet-dump capture files are imported.

packet-dump captures

Imports packet-dump capture files.

server

The IP address of the network server. Enter the IP address in dotted-decimal notation (for example, enter 192.168.10.2).

full-file-name

The complete path and filename, excluding the file extension, of the file to import. If you do not specify a path, the server copies the file from your home directory.

Note Do not specify the file extension because it will cause the import process to fail.

login

The server login name.

The login argument is optional when you define an FTP server. When you do not enter a login name, the FTP server assumes an anonymous login and does not prompt you for a password.

password

(Optional) The password for the FTP server. If you do not enter the password, the Guard prompts you for one.

file-server-name

The name of a network server. You must configure the network server using the file-server command.

If you configured the network server using SFTP or SCP, you must configure the SSH key that the Guard uses for SFTP and SCP communication.

See the "Exporting Files Automatically" section on page 13-9 for more information.

capture-name

The name of the file to import. The Guard appends the name of the file to the path that you defined for the network server by using the file-server command.


The following example shows how to import packet-dump capture files of zone scannet from FTP server 10.0.0.191:

user@GUARD# copy ftp zone scannet packet-dump captures 10.0.0.191 
/root/scannet/captures/capture-1 <user> <password>

The following example shows how to import a packet-dump capture file from a network server:

user@GUARD# copy CorpFTP running-config capture-1

Displaying Packet-Dump Capture Files

You can display either a list of packet-dump capture files or the content of a single packet-dump capture file. By default, the Guard displays a list of all zone packet-dump capture files.

To display packet-dump capture files, use the following command in zone configuration mode:

show packet-dump captures [capture-name [tcpdump-expression]]

Table 12-13 provides the arguments for the show packet-dump captures command.

Table 12-13 Arguments for the show packet-dump captures
Command 

Parameters
Description

capture-name

(Optional) The name of an existing packet-dump capture file. If you do not specify the name of a packet-dump capture file, the Guard displays a list of all zone packet-dump capture files. See Table 12-14 for field descriptions of the command output.

If you specify the name of a packet-dump capture file, the Guard displays the file in TCPDump format.

tcpdump-expression

(Optional) The filter that the Guard uses when displaying the packet-dump capture file. The Guard displays only the portion of the packet-dump capture file that matches the filter criteria. The expression rules are identical to the flex-content filter TCPDump expression rules. See the "Configuring the tcpdump-expression Syntax" section for more information.


The following example shows how to display the list of packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# show packet-dump captures

Table 12-14 describes the fields in the show packet-dump captures command output.

Table 12-14 Field Descriptions for the show packet-dump captures
Command Output 

Field
Description

Capture -name

The name of the packet-dump capture file. See Table 12-7 for a description of the automatic packet-dump capture filenames.

Size (MB)

The size of the packet-dump capture file in MB.

Filter

The user-defined filter that the Guard used when recording traffic. The filter is in TCPDump format. The expression rules are identical to the flex-content filter TCPDump expression rules. See the "Configuring the tcpdump-expression Syntax" section for more information.


Generating Attack Signatures from Packet-Dump Capture Files

An attack signature describes the common pattern that appears in the payload of attack packets. You can activate the Guard to generate the signature of anomalous traffic and then use this information to quickly identify future attacks of the same type. This feature allows you to detect new DDoS attacks and Internet worms, even before signatures are published (for example, from antivirus software companies or mailing lists).

The Guard generates the attack signature using the flex-content filter pattern expression syntax. You can use this signature in the flex-content filter pattern to filter out anomalous traffic. See the "Configuring Flex-Content Filters" section for more information.

You can specify an additional packet-dump capture file that the Guard recorded during normal traffic conditions as a reference. If you specify a reference packet-dump capture file, the Guard generates the signature from the anomalous traffic and specifies the percentage of times that the signature is present in traffic that was recorded during normal traffic conditions. If the attack signature appears in a high percentage in traffic that was recorded during normal traffic conditions, it may not indicate the pattern of an attack.

To generate a signature of an attack, perform the following steps:


Step 1 Activate the Guard to record traffic during the attack by using the packet-dump capture command.

See the "Activating the Guard to Manually Record Traffic" section for more information.

Step 2 Identify the packet-dump capture file that the Guard recorded during the attack. To display the list of packet-dump capture files, use the show packet-dump captures command.

See the "Displaying Packet-Dump Capture Files" section for more information.

Step 3 Activate the Guard to generate a signature of the attack traffic. Enter the following command in zone configuration mode:

show packet-dump signatures capture-name [reference-capture-name]

Table 12-15 provides the arguments for the show packet-dump signatures command.

Table 12-15 Arguments for the show packet-dump signatures Command  

Parameter
Description

capture-name

The name of an existing packet-dump capture file from which to generate a signature.

reference-capture-name

(Optional) The name of an existing packet-dump capture file that the Guard recorded during normal traffic conditions. If you specify a reference packet-dump capture file, the Guard displays the percentage of times that the signature is present in the reference packet-dump capture file.


Table 12-16 describes the fields in the show packet-dump signatures command output.

Table 12-16 Field Descriptions for the show packet-dump signatures
Command Output 

Field
Description
Start Offset

The offset (in bytes) from the beginning of the packet payload where the pattern begins.

If you copy the pattern into the flex-content filter pattern expression, copy this offset into the flex-content filter start-offset argument.

End Offset

The offset (in bytes) from the beginning of the packet payload where the pattern ends.

If you copy the pattern into the flex-content filter pattern expression, copy this offset into the flex-content filter end-offset argument.

Pattern

The signature that the Guard generated. The Guard generates the signature using the flex-content filter pattern expression syntax. See the "Configuring the pattern-expression Syntax" section for more information.

You can copy this pattern into the flex-content filter pattern expression.

Percentage

The percentage of times that the signature is present in the reference-capture-name file.



The following example shows how to generate a signature from a manual packet-dump capture file:

user@GUARD-conf-zone-scannet# show packet-dump signatures PDumpCapture

Copying Packet-Dump Capture Files

You can copy a packet-dump capture file (or a portion of a file) under a new name. The Guard overwrites existing automatic packet-dump capture files with new ones. When you copy an automatic packet-dump capture file or a manual packet-dump capture file, the Guard saves them as manual files. You must manually delete them if you need to free up disk space. See the "Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files" section for more information.

To copy a packet-dump capture file, use the following command in configuration mode:

copy zone zone-name packet-dump captures capture-name [tcpdump-expression] new-name

Table 12-17 provides the arguments and keywords for the copy zone packet-dump captures command.

Table 12-17 Arguments and Keywords for the copy zone packet-dump captures Command 

Parameters
Description

zone zone-name

The name of an existing zone.

packet-dump

Copies packet-dump capture file.

captures capture-name

Name of an existing packet-dump capture file.

tcpdump-expression

(Optional) Filter that the Guard uses to copy the packet-dump capture file. The Guard copies only the portion of the packet-dump capture file that matches the filter criteria. The expression rules are identical to the flex-content filter TCPDump expression rules. See the "Configuring the tcpdump-expression Syntax" section for more information.

new-name

Name of the new packet-dump capture file.

The name is an alphanumeric string from 1 to 63 characters and can contain underscores but cannot contain spaces.


The following example shows how to copy a portion of the packet-dump capture file capture-1 that complies with the capture file under the name capture-2:

user@GUARD-conf# copy zone scannet capture-1 "tcp and dst port 80 and 
not src port 1000" capture-2

Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files

The Guard allocates by default, 5 GB of disk space for the manual packet-dump capture files of all zones. It can save up to 50 GB of manual and automatic packet-dump capture files of all zones. To free disk space for additional packet-dump capture files, delete the old ones.

You can save only one manual packet-dump capture file per zone and no more than 10 packet-dump capture files on the Guard. You must delete old manual packet-dump capture files to allow space for new files.

To delete automatic or manual packet-dump capture files, use one of the following commands:

clear zone zone-name packet-dump captures {* | name} (in configuration mode)

clear packet-dump captures {* | name} (in zone configuration mode)

Table 12-18 provides the arguments and keywords for the clear packet-dump command.

Table 12-18 Arguments and Keywords for the clear packet-dump Command 

Parameter
Description

zone zone-name

The name of an existing zone.

packet-dump captures

Deletes packet-dump capture files.

*

Erases all packet-dump capture files.

name

Name of the packet-dump capture file to delete.


The following example shows how to delete all manual packet-dump capture files:

user@GUARD-conf# clear packet-dump captures *

Displaying General Diagnostic Data

To display a general summary of the diagnostic data, use the following command:

show diagnostic-info [details]

The diagnostic data consists of the following information:

Accelerator card CPU speed—The accelerator card CPU speed.

Accelerator card revision—The accelerator card revision number.

Accelerator card serial—The accelerator card serial number.

CFE version—The CFE version number.


Note To change the CFE version, you must install a new flash version. To burn a new CFE version, use the flash-burn command. See the "Upgrading the Guard Software Version" section on page 13-12 for more information.


Recognition Average Sample Loss—The calculated average packet sample loss.

Forward failures (no resources)—The number of packets that were not forwarded due to lack of system resources.


Note A high Recognition Average Sample Loss or a large number of Forward failures indicate that the Guard is overloaded with traffic. We recommend that you install more than one Guard in a load-sharing configuration.


Fan Speeds—The speed of each fan. The values are a percentage of maximum RPM.

Maximum Fans—The maximum number of fans that the system supports.

Installed Fans—The number of fans currently installed in the system.

Running Fans—The list of operational fans.

The number of system restarts—The number of times the system has been restarted.

System UUID—The system Universal Unique ID (UUID).

CPU Temperature—The current CPU temperature in Celsius for each installed CPU.

DASD Temperature—The current hard disk drive temperature in Celsius.

Ambient Temperature—The ambient system temperature in Celsius.

The Guard has several LEDs indicating inner operation status. These are normally off. When they are lit they indicate hardware failure. When the LEDs are lit, the Guard sends a syslog message and an SNMP trap to inform the user of the problem.

Managing Disk Space

The Guard maintains activity logs and zone attack reports. If the disk usage is higher than 75 percent, or if a large number of zones is defined on the Guard (over 500), we recommend that you decrease the file history parameters. When the used disk space reaches approximately 80 percent of the disk maximum capacity, the Guard displays a warning message in its syslog.

If the Guard displays a warning message, you can perform the following tasks:

Export the Guard or zone log to a network server and then clear the log (see the "Exporting the Log File" section and the "Clearing the Log File" section).

Export the zone attack reports to a network server and then delete the old attack reports (see the "Exporting Attack Reports" section and the "Deleting Attack Reports" section).

Export the packet-dump capture files and then delete the old packet-dump capture files (see the "Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Automatically" section. the "Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Manually" section and the "Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files" section).

Decrease log file and attack reports history size (see the "Configuring Logs and Reports History" section).

Decrease the amount of disk space that is allocated for zone automatic packet-dump capture files (see the "Managing Packet-Dump Capture Files Disk Space" section).

We recommend that you periodically store the Guard records on a network server, and then clear the logs.


Note When disk usage reaches 80 percent of the disk maximum capacity, the Guard erases information to reduce used disk space to approximately 75 percent.


To display the disk used space, use the following command in global mode:

show disk-usage

The following example shows how to display the disk used space:

user@GUARD# show disk-usage 
2% 

Configuring Logs and Reports History

You can configure the length of time that the Guard records the logs and the attack reports of both the Guard and its zones. The Guard deletes old logs and reports.

To configure the report and log history, use the following command:

history {logs | reports} days [enforce-now]

Table 12-19 provides the arguments and keywords for the history command.

Table 12-19 Arguments and Keywords for the history Command 

Parameter
Description
logs

Sets the history parameters for Guard and zone logs.

reports

Sets the history parameters for zone attack reports.

days

The length of history time. The logs history time range is 1 to 7 days. The report history time range is 1 to 60 days.

The default history time is 7 days for the logs and 30 days for the reports.

enforce-now

(Optional) Immediately adopts, and if necessary erases, the recorded log and report history recording capacity to the current command parameters.


If you configure the history reporting to a shorter period, reduce the log file size and the report file size to the newly configured size. To reduce the size, you can use one of the following commands:

history command

Use the enforce-now keyword to immediately erase the recorded log and the report history recording capacity to the current command parameters.

disk-clean command

This command erases the stored logs and reports to match the newly configured size at a later time.

Displaying Memory Consumption

The Guard displays the following information:

Memory usage in kilobytes.

Percentage of memory that the Guard statistical engine uses as the Anomaly Detection Engine Used Memory field.

The anomaly detection engine memory usage is affected by the number of active zones and the number of services that each zone monitors.


Note If the anomaly detection engine memory usage is higher than 95 percent, we strongly recommend that you lower the number of active zones.


To display the Guard memory consumption, use the following command:

show memory

The following example shows how to display the Guard memory consumption:

user@GUARD# show memory
              total    used    free    shared   buffers   cached
	In KBytes:  2065188  146260  1918928    0     2360      69232

	Anomaly detection engine used memory: 0.3%


Note The total amount of free memory that the Guard has is a sum of the free memory and the cached memory.


Displaying the CPU Utilization

The Guard displays the percentage of CPU time in user mode, system mode, niced tasks (tasks with a nice value, which represents the priority of a process, that is negative), and idle. Niced tasks are counted in both system time and user time, so the total CPU utilization can be more than 100 percent.

To display the current percentage of CPU utilization, use the following command:

show cpu

The Guard displays the CPU utilization for both processors.

The following example shows how to display the current percentage of CPU utilization:

user@GUARD# show cpu
Host CPU1: 0.0% user, 0.1% system, 0.1% nice, 98.0% idle
Host CPU2: 0.0% user, 7.0% system, 0.0% nice, 92.0% idle

Monitoring System Resources

You can display an overview of the resources that the Guard is using to help you analyze and monitor the system status by entering the following command in global or configuration mode:

show resources

The following example shows how to display the system resources:

user@GUARD# show resources

Table 12-20 describes the fields in the show resources command output.

Table 12-20 Field Descriptions for the show resources Command
Output 

Field
Description

Host CPU1

The percentage of CPU time for CPU1 in user mode, system mode, niced tasks (tasks with a nice value, which represents the priority of a process, that is negative), and idle. Niced tasks are also counted in system time and user time so that the total CPU utilization can be more than 100 percent.

Host CPU2

The percentage of CPU time for CPU2 in user mode, system mode, niced tasks (tasks with a nice value, which represents the priority of a process, that is negative), and idle. Niced tasks are also counted in system time and user time so that the total CPU utilization can be more than 100 percent.

Disk space usage

The percentage of the allocated disk space that the Guard is using.

When the disk space usage reaches approximately 75 percent of the disk maximum capacity, the Guard displays a warning message in its syslog and sends a trap.

Disk space usage (continued)

Note When disk usage reaches 80 percent of the disk maximum capacity, the Guard erases information to reduce used disk space to approximately 75 percent.

We recommend that you periodically store the Guard records on a network server and delete the old records.

If the disk space usage reaches 80 percent, you can perform the following tasks:

Export the Guard or zone log to a network server and then clear the log (See the "Exporting the Log File" section and the "Clearing the Log File" section).

Export the zone attack reports to a network server and then delete the old attack reports (See the "Exporting Attack Reports" section and the "Deleting Attack Reports" section).

Export the packet-dump capture files and then delete the old packet-dump capture files (See the "Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Automatically" section. the "Exporting Packet-Dump Capture Files Manually" section and the "Deleting Packet-Dump Capture Files" section).

Decrease log file and attack reports history size—See the "Configuring Logs and Reports History" section.

Decrease the amount of disk space that is allocated for zone automatic packet-dump capture files (See the "Managing Packet-Dump Capture Files Disk Space" section).

Accelerator card memory usage

The percentage of memory that the accelerator card is using.

If the accelerator card memory usage is higher than 85 percent, the Guard generates an SNMP trap. A high value may indicate that the Guard is monitoring a high volume of traffic.

Accelerator card CPU utilization

The percentage of the accelerator card CPU utilization.

If the accelerator card CPU utilization is higher than 85 percent, the Guard generates an SNMP trap. A high value may indicate that the Guard is monitoring a high volume of traffic.

Anomaly detection engine used memory

Specifies the percentage of memory that the Guard statistical engine uses. The anomaly detection engine memory usage is affected by the number of active zones, the number of services each of the zones monitors, and the amount of nonspoofed traffic that the Guard is monitoring.

If the anomaly detection engine memory usage is higher than 95 percent, we strongly recommend that you lower the number of active zones.

Dynamic filters used

The total number of dynamic filters that are active in all the zones. The Guard displays the number of active dynamic filters and the percentage of dynamic filters that are active out of the total number or dynamic filters that the Guard supports, which is 150,000. If the number of active dynamic filters reaches 150,000, the Guard generates an SNMP trap with a severity level of EMERGENCY. If the number of active dynamic filters reaches 135,000, the Guard generates an SNMP trap with a severity level of WARNING.

A high value may indicate that the Guard is monitoring a high traffic volume of a DDoS attack.


For more information on the traps that the Guard generates, see Table 3-13.

Managing the ARP Cache

You can display or manipulate the ARP cache to clear an address mapping entry or to manually define one. To manage the ARP cache, use one of the following commands:

arp [-evn] [-H type] [-i if] -a [hostname]

arp [-v] [-i if] -d hostname [pub]

arp [-v] [-H type] [-i if] -s hostname hw_addr [temp]

arp [-v] [-H type] [-i if] -s hostname hw_addr [netmask nm] pub

arp [-v] [-H type] [-i if] -Ds hostname ifa [netmask nm] pub

arp [-vnD] [-H type] [-i if] -f [filename]


Note You can enter the complete keyword or an abbreviation of the keyword. The abbreviated keyword is preceded by a dash (-) and the complete keyword is preceded by two dashes (--).


Table 12-21 provides the arguments and keywords for the arp command.

Table 12-21 Arguments and Keywords for the arp Command 

Abbreviated Parameter Name
Parameter Full Name
Description
-H type, -t type
--hw-type type

(Optional) Specifies the class of entries for which the Guard checks. The default type value is ether (hardware code 0x01 for IEEE 802.3 10-Mbps Ethernet).

-i If
--device If

(Optional) Specifies an interface. When you dump the ARP cache, only entries that match the specified interface are printed. If you configure a permanent or temporary ARP entry, this interface is associated with the entry. If you do not use this option, the Guard determines the interface based on the routing table. If you use the pub keyword, this interface is the interface on which the Guard answers ARP requests and must be different from the interface to which the IP datagrams are routed.

-s hostname hw_addr
--set hostname hw_addr

Creates an ARP address mapping entry for the hostname with the hardware address set to the hw_addr class value. If you do not enter the temp flag, the entries are stored permanently in the ARP cache.

-a [hostname]
--display [hostname]

Displays the entries of the specified hosts in alternate (BSD) style. The default is to display all entries.

-v
--verbose

(Optional) Displays the output in verbose.

-n
--numeric

Displays numerical addresses.

-d hostname
--delete hostname

Remove any entry for the specified host.

-D
--use-device

Uses the hardware address of interface ifa.

-e
 

Displays the entries in default style.

-f filename
--file filename

Creates an ARP address mapping entry. The information is taken from the filename file. The file format is ASCII text lines with a hostname and a hardware address separated by white space. You can also use the pub, temp, and netmask flags. In all places where a hostname is expected, you can also enter an IP address in dotted-decimal notation.



Caution To configure the Guard ARP cache, you must be familiar with the Guard system and the network.

The following example shows how to display the ARP entries in default style:

user@GUARD# arp -e

Address        HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask  Iface
10.10.1.254    ether   00:02:B3:C0:61:67   C           eth1
10.10.8.11     ether   00:02:B3:45:B9:F1   C           eth1
10.10.8.253    ether   00:D0:B7:46:72:37   C           eth1
10.10.10.54    ether   00:03:47:A6:44:CA   C           eth1

Displaying Network Statistics

You can display the host network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, and multicast memberships to debug network problems by entering one of the following commands:

netstat [address_family_options] [--tcp | -t] [--udp | -u] [--raw | -w] [--listening | -l] [--all | -a] [--numeric | -n] [--numeric-hosts] [--numeric-ports] [--numeric-ports] [--symbolic | -N] [--extend | -e [--extend | -e]] [--timers | -o] [--program | -p] [--verbose | -v] [--continuous | -c] [delay]

netstat {--route | -r} [address_family_options] [--extend | -e [--extend | -e]] [--verbose | -v] [--numeric | -n] [--numeric-hosts] [--numeric-ports] [--numeric-ports] [--continuous | -c] [delay]

netstat {--interfaces | -i} [iface] [--all | -a] [--extend | -e [--extend | -e]] [--verbose | -v] [--program | -p] [--numeric | -n] [--numeric-hosts] [--numeric-ports] [--numeric-ports] [--continuous | -c] [delay]

netstat {--groups | -g} [--numeric | -n] [--numeric-hosts] [--numeric-ports] [--numeric-ports] [--continuous | -c] [delay]

netstat {--masquerade | -M} [--extend | -e] [--numeric | -n] [--numeric-hosts] [--numeric-ports] [--numeric-ports] [--continuous | -c] [delay]

netstat {--statistics | -s} [--tcp | -t] [--udp | -u] [--raw | -w] [delay]

netstat {--version | -V}

netstat {--help | -h}


Note If you do not specify any address families, the Guard displays the active sockets of all configured address families.


Table 12-22 provides arguments and keywords for the netstat command.


Note You can enter the complete keyword or an abbreviation of the keyword. The abbreviated keyword is preceded by a dash (-) and the complete keyword is preceded by two dashes (--).


Table 12-22 Arguments and Keywords for the netstat
Command 

Abbreviated Parameter Name
Parameter Full Name
Description

address_family_
options

 

(Optional) The address family options can be one of the following:

[--protocol={inet,unix,ipx,ax25,netrom,ddp}[,...]]

[--unix|-x] [--inet|--ip] [--ax25] [--ipx] [--netrom]

[--ddp]

-r

--route

Displays the Guard routing tables.

-g

--groups

Displays multicast group membership information for IPv4 and IPv6.

-i iface

--interface iface

Displays a table of all network interfaces or of the optional iface value.

-M

--masquerade

Displays a list of masqueraded connections for which network address translation (NAT) was used.

-s

--statistics

Displays summary statistics for each protocol.

-v

--verbose

(Optional) Displays the output in verbose.

-n

--numeric

(Optional) Displays numerical addresses.

 

--numeric-hosts

(Optional) Displays numerical host addresses but does not affect the resolution of port or usernames.

 

--numeric-ports

(Optional) Displays numerical port numbers but does not affect the resolution of host or usernames.

 

--numeric-users

(Optional) Displays numerical user IDs but does not affect the resolution of host or port names.

-c

--continuous

(Optional) Displays the selected information every second on a continuous basis.

-e

--extend

(Optional) Displays additional information. Use this option twice for maximum detail.

-o

--timers

(Optional) Displays information related to networking timers.

-p

--program

(Optional) Displays the PID and name of the program to which each socket belongs.

-l

--listening

(Optional) Displays only listening sockets. These sockets are omitted by default.

-a

--all

(Optional) Displays both listening and nonlistening sockets.

delay

 

(Optional) Netstat cycles printing through statistics every delay seconds.



Note You can enter a maximum of 13 arguments and keywords in one command.


The following example shows how to display netstat information in verbose:

user@GUARD# netstat -v
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address   Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 localhost:1111  localhost:32777    ESTABLISHED
tcp        0      0 localhost:8200  localhost:32772    ESTABLISHED
.
.
.
tcp        0      0 localhost:33464 localhost:8200     TIME_WAIT
tcp        1      0 localhost:1113  localhost:33194    CLOSE_WAIT
.
.
.
Active UNIX domain sockets (w/o servers)
unix  2      [ ]         STREAM     CONNECTED     928
unix  3      [ ]         STREAM     CONNECTED     890  /tmp/.zserv
.
.
.
user@GUARD#

Using Traceroute

You can determine the route that packets take to arrive at a network host to debug network problems by entering the following command:

traceroute ip-address [-F] [-f first_ttl] [-g gateway] [-i iface]
[-m max_ttl] [-p port] [-q nqueries] [-s src_addr] [-t tos] [-w waittime] [packetlen]


Note The traceroute command displays IP addresses only, not names.


Table 12-23 provides the arguments and keywords for the traceroute command.

Table 12-23 Arguments and Keywords for the traceroute
Command 

Parameter
Description

ip-address

The IP address to which the route will be traced.

-F

(Optional) Sets the don't fragment bit.

-f first_ttl

(Optional) Sets the initial time-to-live (TTL) used in the first outgoing probe packet.

-g gateway

(Optional) Specifies a loose source route gateway (8 maximum). You can specify more than one gateway by using -g for each gateway. The maximum number of gateways is 8.

-i iface

(Optional) Specifies a network interface to obtain the source IP address for outgoing probe packets and, in most cases, is useful on a multi-homed host.

-m max_ttl

(Optional) Sets the maximum time-to-live (maximum number of hops) used in outgoing probe packets. The default is 30 hops.

-p port

(Optional) Sets the base UDP port number used in probes. The default is 33434.

-q nqueries

(Optional) Sets the number of probes that are defined for the ttl value. The default is 3.

-s src_addr

(Optional) Sets the src_addr IP address as the source IP address in outgoing probe packets.

-t tos

(Optional) Sets the type-of-service in probe packets to the tos value. The default is zero.

-w waittime

(Optional) Sets the time in seconds to wait for a response for a probe. The default is 5 seconds.

packetlen

(Optional) Sets the packet length of the probe.


The following example shows how to trace the route to IP address 10.10.10.34:

user@GUARD# traceroute 10.10.10.34
traceroute to 10.10.10.34 (10.10.10.34), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
 1 10.10.10.34 (10.10.10.34) 0.577 ms  0.203 ms  0.149 ms

Verifying Connectivity

You can send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts and verify connectivity by entering the following command:

ping ip-address [-c count] [-i interval] [-l preload] [-s packetsize] [-t ttl] [-w deadline] [-F flowlabel] [-I interface]
[-Q tos] [-T timestamp option] [-W timeout]

Table 12-24 provides arguments and keywords for the ping command.

Table 12-24 Arguments and Keywords for the ping Command 

Parameter
Description

ip-address

Specifies the destination IP address.

-c count

(Optional) Sends count number of ECHO_REQUEST packets. With a deadline option, the command waits for count ECHO_REPLY packets until the timeout expires.

-i interval

(Optional) Waits to send packets. The interval time is in seconds. The default is to wait for one second.

-l preload

(Optional) Sends preload packets without waiting for a reply.

-s packetsize

(Optional) Specifies the number of data bytes to send. The default is 56.

-t ttl

(Optional) Sets the IP TTL.

-w deadline

(Optional) Specifies the timeout in seconds before ping exits, regardless of how many packets have been sent or received.

-F flow label

(Optional) Allocates and sets 20-bit flow label on echo request packets. If the value is zero, a random flow label is used.

-I interface

(Optional) Sets the source IP address to the specified interface address.

-Q tos

(Optional) Sets Type of Service (ToS) related bits in ICMP datagrams.

-T timestamp option

(Optional) Sets special IP timestamp options.

-W timeout

(Optional) Time (in seconds) to wait for a response.


You can enter a maximum of 10 arguments and keywords in one command.

The following example shows how to send one ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packet to IP address 10.10.10.30:

user@GUARD# ping 10.10.10.30 -n 1

Obtaining Debug Information

If the Guard experiences an operational problem, Cisco Technical Support may request that you send them a copy of the Guard internal debug information. The Guard debug core file contains information for troubleshooting Guard malfunctions. The file output is encrypted and intended for use by Cisco TAC personnel only.

To extract debug information to an FTP server, perform the following steps:


Step 1 Display the Guard log file.

See the "Displaying the Log File" section for more information.

Step 2 Identify the first log message that indicates a problem to determine the time from when to extract debug information. The Guard extracts the debug information from the time specified up to the current time.

Step 3 Extract the debug information to an FTP server by entering the following command in global mode:

copy debug-core time ftp server full-file-name [login [password]]

Table 12-25 provides the arguments and keywords for the copy debug-core command.

Table 12-25 Arguments and Keywords for the copy debug-core Command 

Parameter
Description

time

The time of the event that triggers the need for debug information. The time string uses the format MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]

MM—The month in numeric figures

DD—The day of the month

hh—The hour in a 24-hour clock

mm—The minutes

CC—(Optional) The first two digits of the year (for example, 2005)

YY—(Optional) The last two digits of the year (for example, 2005)

.ss—(Optional) The seconds (the decimal point must be present)

ftp server

The IP address of the FTP server.

full-file-name

The full name of the version file. If you do not specify a path, the server saves the file in your home directory.

login

(Optional) The FTP server login name. The FTP server assumes an anonymous login when you do not enter a login name. The server does not prompt you for a password.

password

(Optional) The FTP server password. If you do not enter the password, the Guard prompts you for one.



The following example shows how to extract debug information from November 9 at 06:45 a.m. of the current year to FTP server 10.0.0.191:

user@GUARD# copy debug-core 11090645 ftp 10.0.0.191 
/home/debug/debug-file <user> <password>

Displaying Guard Self-Protection Configuration

The Guard, as a network element that has an independent IP address, is exposed to potential DDoS attacks. The default configuration of the Guard provides protection against such attacks. You can access the self-defense protection configuration and modify it.


Caution We strongly advise against changing the Guard self-defense protection default configurations. Unnecessary configurations may seriously compromise the ability of the Guard to protect itself.

To change the Guard self-defense protection configuration, you must enter self-protection configuration mode.

To enter self-protection configuration mode, use the following command in configuration mode:

self-protection

The set of commands available for the Guard self-defense protection is identical to the commands for an ordinary zone. See Chapter 5, "Configuring Zones," "Configuring Zone Filters," Chapter 7, "Configuring Policy Templates and Policies," and Chapter 10, "Using Interactive Protect Mode" for more information on zone configuration.

To display the Guard self-protection configuration file, use the show running-config command. See the "Displaying the Guard Configuration" section for more information.

Flex-Content Filter Default Configurations

The Guard flex-content filter is configured, by default, to block (drop) all traffic flows unless explicitly specified.

Table 12-26 displays the flex-content filter default configuration to enable the communication that is required for proper Guard functionality.

Table 12-26 Flex-Content Filter Default Configuration 

Service
IP-Proto
Src-port
Dst-port
Allow-SYN

ftp-control

6

21

*

no

ftp-data

6

20

*

yes

tacacs

6

49

*

yes

ssh

6

22

*

no

ssh

6

*

22

yes

https

6

*

443

yes

icmp

1

*

*

snmp

17

*

161

ssl

6

*

3220

no

ssl

6

3220

*

yes

ntp

17

*

123

ntp

17

123

*

bgp

6

179

*

no

ospf

89

*

*

rip

17

520

*

rip

17

*

520

gre

47

*

*


The flex-content filter default configuration consists of the following:

Enable FTP communication, initiated by the Guard, with an FTP server, but block incoming FTP control SYN packets with source port 21.

Enable TACACS communication with a TACACS+ server for authentication, authorization, and accounting, but block incoming SYN packets from source port 49.

Enable incoming and outgoing SSH communication.

Enable incoming HTTPS communication.

Enable ICMP communication.

Enable SNMP communication.

Enable SSL communication

Enable NTP communication.

Enable BGP communication, initiated by the Guard, on port 179, but block incoming SYN packets with source port 179. This enables BGP connection initiated by the Guard to the router the traffic is being diverted from.

Enable OSPF communication.

Enable RIP communication.

Enable GRE communication.