The Cisco® MPLS Diagnostics Expert is an automated, workflow-based network management application that quickly troubleshoots and diagnoses problems in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPNs. Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert offers users the capability to reduce, by an order of magnitude, the amount of time required to diagnose MPLS-related network outages - in many cases from hours to minutes. It performs diagnostics based on analysis of network failure scenarios, across MPLS access, edge, and core networks. It is equally applicable to both service provider and enterprise "self-deployed" MPLS VPN networks. Network operations center (NOC) support technicians as well as second- and third-line support can benefit from this product. The Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert optionally integrates with the Layer 3 MPLS VPN provisioning features of the Cisco IP Solution Center MPLS VPN Management product. To diagnose MPLS VPN core problems, Cisco IOS® Software releases supporting MPLS operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) features including Label-Switched Path (LSP) ping and LSP traceroute are required.
Table 1 lists the devices supported by the Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert. Table 2 lists features and benefits. In Table 1, the device roles are defined as provider-edge (PE) and provider core router (P).
Table 2. Features of Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert
Features
Description
Automated localization of MPLS VPN outages
Automated localization of MPLS outage to MPLS edge, core, access circuit, or even end customer network. Localizations and diagnostics are reactively (user) initiated.
Automated diagnosis of MPLS VPN outages
Automated reactive diagnosis of problems, after localization-based on Cisco MPLS VPN failure scenario knowledge base (more details below).
Web-based, easy-to-use GUI
Simple GUI that can be used by the provider's level 1, 2, or 3 NOC support staff. The product is ideally suited for NOC help-desk deployment to accelerate customer problem diagnostics.
MPLS VPN core outage diagnostics
More than 30 failure scenarios automatically diagnosed, for example, diagnosis of Cisco Express Forwarding, disabled MPLS, Label Distribution Protocol/Tag Distribution Protocol (LDP/TDP) mismatches, inconsistent route-processor and line-card forwarding tables, and MPLS label allocation issues.
MPLS VPN provider-edge outage diagnostics
More than 25 failure scenarios automatically diagnosed relating to the
provider-edge router, for example, route target mismatch, route limit exceeded, BGP session not established between edge devices, and VPNv4 address family deletion.
MPLS VPN access-circuit outage diagnostics
More than 45 failure scenarios automatically diagnosed, for example, Layer 1 or 2 data loss, interface administratively or operationally down, provider-edge-to-customer edge routing-protocol issues.
Observations
When the Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert is unable to conclude a diagnosis, it often provides an observation or "hint" of a potential outage-related problem. The system distinguishes between clearly diagnosable failures and issues that may cause a failure but cannot be deterministically diagnosed. The latter are reported as observations. These may include issues such as access control lists blocking propagation of Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) messages.
Full test log documentation and export capability
All diagnostics are documented in detail through the test log, showing all decisions and Cisco IOS CLI commands executed to arrive at the end conclusion. This test log can be exported to a text file for subsequent entry into a trouble-ticket system or e-mail to Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), for example.
LSP visualization
Real-time graphical, on-demand visualization of the LSP between the provider-edge routers in the customer data path.
New Features
Table 3 shows new features in Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert 2.0.
Table 3. New Features in Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert 2.0
New Features
Description
Forty-percent increase in diagnostics functionality
Detects 20 new failure scenarios and reports 15 new observations. The new failure scenarios and observations are in the areas listed below.
Multilink interface support
Supports troubleshooting over multilink access circuit interfaces.
Channelized interface support
Supports troubleshooting over channelized access circuit interfaces
IP unnumbered interfaces
Supports troubleshooting over IP unnumbered interfaces in the access circuit.
Common provider-edge router support
Supports troubleshooting between customer sites where the customer-edge routers are connected to the same provider-edge router.
MPLS Traffic Engineered tunnel support
Supports MPLS VPN troubleshooting across cores that employ MPLS Traffic Engineered tunnels.
Access circuit routing-protocol troubleshooting
Supports troubleshooting of routing protocol failures on the access circuit.
Usability improvements
GUI provides auto-completion of the customer edge interface IP address when it is on a /30 subnetwork. There is also a search function based on the interface description field, so that the user can find an interface, for example, based on a circuit ID or customer name, which is commonly encoded in the interface description on the router.
Ordering Information
Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert will be available and orderable on November 15th, 2006.
To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page. Table 4 lists ordering information for the Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert.
Table 4. Ordering Information for Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert 2.0
For more information about the Cisco MPLS Diagnostics Expert, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/mde, or contact your local account representative, or send an e-mail to mde@cisco.com.
