Transfer Show Tech-Support Files to XR VM on Routers Running eXR

Introduction

This document describes how to transfer show tech-support files from Admin Virtual Machine (VM) to XR VM on routers running 64-bit Cisco IOS® XR.

Prerequisites

Requirements

Cisco recommends that you have knowledge of this topic:

• Router running 64-bit Cisco IOS® XR

Components Used

The information in this document is based on these software and hardware versions:

• ASR 9010 running 64-bits Cisco IOS XR.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, ensure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Background Information

Understanding Cisco IOS XR 64-bit Architecture

Cisco IOS XR 64-bit OS runs in two variants:

• VM-based 64-bit software:
• Supported platforms: ASR 9000, NCS 6000, NCS 5500.
• VM OS is separate from Host OS.

The architecture includes the next common components:

• Host (Hypervisor): The host is the underlying 64-bit operating system that acts as the hypervisor. The XR VM/LXC and the Admin VM/LXC spawn on the hypervisor. It also runs the container/VM daemons like libvirt and docker to spawn the XR and Calvados instances.
• XR VM: The Cisco IOS XR control plane processes run within an isolated VM/LXC. This VM/LXC contains the Cisco IOS XR control plane processes (protocol stacks such as BGP, ISIS, OSPF, internal database, APIs, and so on). The XR VM brings its own kernel and runs the libvirt daemon and the docker daemon inside the XR VM. The User LXC/Docker containers are spawned inside XR VM unlike LXC-based platforms where the user containers are spawned on the Host kernel.
• Admin VM: Admin VM/LXC, called Calvados, is the first instance that comes up once the Host layer is up. The admin VM/LXC therefore helps handle the lifecycle of the XR VM/LXC. The primary purpose of Calvados is to enable multi-tenancy on the same router by spawning multiple Cisco IOS XR instances. These instances act as separate logical routers (secure domain routers (SDRs)).

Virtual Machines are running on all Router Processors (RP) and Linecards (LC).

Admin VM and XR VM prompts comparison

XR VM Prompt example:

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#

Admin VM Prompt examples:

First, you need to enter admin mode running admin command and then press enter.

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#admin

When you see a prompt that starts with sysadmin, it means you are in the Admin VM prompt:

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1#

Creating show tech-support files in XR VM

For this example a show tech-support install is used, but this applies to all available show tech-support files.

Step 1. Run show tech-support install command.

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#show tech-support install
Wed Sep 27 00:18:42.772 IST
++ Show tech start time: 2023-Sep-27.001843.IST ++
Wed Sep 27 00:18:47 IST 2023 Waiting for gathering to complete
..........................................................................
Wed Sep 27 00:22:57 IST 2023 Compressing show tech output
Show tech output available at 0/RSP1/CPU0 : /harddisk:/showtech/showtech-ASR-9010-B-eXR-install-2023-Sep-27.001843.IST.tgz
++ Show tech end time: 2023-Sep-27.002305.IST ++

Step 2. Once the router completes the process, you can check the location path of the file.

harddisk:/showtech/showtech-ASR-9010-B-eXR-install-2023-Sep-27.001843.IST.tgz

The path where the file is harddisk:/showtech/

This file can be found running the command dir harddisk:/showtech

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#dir harddisk:/showtech
Wed Sep 27 00:24:23.412 IST
Directory of harddisk:/showtech
   177 -rw-r--r--. 1 24750015 Sep 27 00:22 showtech-ASR-9010-B-eXR-install-2023-Sep-27.001843.IST.tgz

For Admin show tech-support files you first need to move the file to XR VM and then transfer via FTP/TFTP or USB.

Creating admin show tech File in Admin VM and Transferring to XR VM

Step 1. Enter admin mode.

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#admin
Wed Sep 27 00:25:07.481 IST

Step 2. Once the Admin VM prompt is displayed, you need to create the show tech-support install file.

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1# show tech-support install
Tue Sep  26 18:55:16.993 UTC+00:00
++ Show tech start time: 2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC ++
Waiting for gathering to complete
.......
Compressing show tech output
Show tech output available at /misc/disk1//showtech/showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz
 Please collect show tech-support ctrace in addition to any sysadmin show-tech-support  collection
++ Show tech end time: 2023-Sep-26.185646.UTC ++

As you can see from the outputs when a show tech-support file is created from admin mode is using a different path.

/misc/disk1//showtech/showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz

It is also located at the /showtech folder but in /misc/disk1/ partition. This is basically the same as the harddisk: partition for XR VM, it is just called different and also is in a different location since Admin VM is different from XR VM.

If you run the command dir harddisk:/showtech from the Admin VM prompt, you can find the show tech-support file.

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1# dir harddisk:/showtech
Tue Sep  26 18:57:45.356 UTC+00:00
total 11468
129557 -rw-r--r--. 1 11012583 Sep 26 18:56 showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz
129552 -rw-r--r--. 1   727473 Sep 22 02:07 showtech-fpd-admin-2023-Sep-22.020621.UTC.tgz
9553016 kbytes total (3916872 kbytes free)

Step 3. Now that you have found the file under the harddisk:/showtech path of the Admin VM you need to copy to XR VM.

The file can be transfered to the root of the harddisk: of the XR VM or, if you prefer to the same location as the first file created harddisk:/showtech.

You need to use the command copy <source path> <destination path>.

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1# copy harddisk:/showtech/showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz harddisk:/showtech/ location 0/RSP1/CPU0/VM1
Tue Sep  26 19:04:54.193 UTC+00:00
Copying harddisk:/showtech/showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz to harddisk:/showtech/
showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz                                                                                                                                                                 100%   11MB  10.5MB/s   00:00   
File copied successfully

Note: For this case the file can be copied to the harddisk:/showtech path but using the VM1 location of RSP1 that is the active Route Switch Processor (RSP) of the router.

You can check which RSP is the active from the XR VM prompt RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR# or the Admin VM prompt sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1.

VM1 is always XR VM.

This also applies to routers that uses Route Processor(RP) instead of RSP.

You just need to replace RSP1 to RP1, in case RSP1 or RP1 is the active. If the active is the RSP0 or RP0 then you need to change the last part of command, like the next examples:

location 0/RSP0/CPU0/VM1 - When the active RSP is the RSP0 

location 0/RSP1/CPU0/VM1 - When the active RSP is the RSP1 

location 0/RP0/CPU0/VM1 - When the active RP is the RP0 

location 0/RP1/CPU0/VM1 - when the active RP is the RP1

Step 4. Once the file has been copied, you can exit admin mode and then check the harddisk:/showtech directory to confirm the file exists there.

RP/0/RSP1/CPU0:ASR-9010-B-eXR#dir harddisk:/showtech
Wed Sep 27 00:36:51.042 IST
Directory of harddisk:/showtech
   177 -rw-r--r--. 1 24750015 Sep 27 00:22 showtech-ASR-9010-B-eXR-install-2023-Sep-27.001843.IST.tgz
   179 -rw-r--r--. 1 11012583 Sep 27 00:36 showtech-install-admin-2023-Sep-26.185517.UTC.tgz

Now that the file was successfully copied to XR VM you can transfer it using the FTP/TFTP server or USB media.

Note: Not all show tech files can have an Admin variant. You can check which show techs are available running the command show tech-support and then the question mark “?” as in this next example:

sysadmin-vm:0_RSP1# show tech-support ?
Possible completions:
  HBloss             Show tech for Heartbeat loss
  aaa                show debug information for aaa
  alarm_mgr          Show tech of alarm_mgr process
  canbus             Show tech of canbus
  cflow              Dump code coverage data from admin/FCs/SCs
  cm                 Show tech of cm process
  confd              show debug information for confd
  control-ethernet   Show tech of control ethernet subsystem
  ctrace             Show tech of ctrace
  ds                 Show tech of ds process
  envmon             Show tech of envmon process
  fpd                Show tech of fpd process
  install            show debug information for install
  issu               Show tech for ISSU
  obfl               Show tech of obfl process
  os                 Show tech for OS
  pam                Show tech for PAM
  pcie               Show tech of pcie
  pm                 Show tech of pm process
  sdr_mgr            Show tech of sdr_mgr process
  shelf_mgr          Show tech of shelf_mgr process
  syslog             Show tech of syslog process
  tacacs-server      show debug information for tacacs-server

Related Information

• Cisco Technical Support & Downloads