Trace the Path of a Device

About path trace

You can do a path trace between two nodes in your network—a specified source device and a specified destination device. The two nodes can be a combination of wired or wireless hosts or Layer 3 interfaces or both. In addition, you can specify the protocol that the Catalyst Center controller should use to establish the path trace connection, either TCP or UDP.

When you initiate a path trace, the Catalyst Center controller reviews and collects network topology and routing data from the discovered devices. It then uses this data to calculate a path between the two hosts or Layer 3 interfaces, and displays the path in a path trace topology. The topology includes the path direction and the devices along the path, including their IP addresses. The display also shows the protocol of the devices along the path (Switched, STP, ECMP, Routed, Trace Route) or other source type.

Path trace limitations

Path trace has these limitations and restrictions.

  • Path trace from a third-party device in Catalyst Center is not supported.

  • Path trace between a fabric client and a nonfabric client is not supported.

  • Path trace between two fabric clients over multi virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) virtual networks (VNs) is not supported.

  • Path trace between two fabric clients over multi sites (domains) is not supported.

  • Clients connected in the same fabric and same site where either edge switch is not part of the fabric is not supported.

  • Path trace from a router's loopback interface is not supported.

  • Overlapping IP addresses are not supported with or without fabric.

  • For path trace to work on a Locator ID/Separation Protocol (LISP) fabric, make sure that the traffic is running and cache is available on the edge switches.

  • Path trace in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) is not supported because Cisco ASA does not support CDP. It is not possible to identify the path through the Cisco ASA appliance.

  • Path trace is not supported for the management interface in wireless controllers in untagged mode.

  • Path trace for centralized Wireless Mobility Modes Asymmetric Mobility Tunneling is not supported.

  • Path trace for Virtual Switching System (VSS), Multi-Link Aggregation Control Protocol (MLACP), or Virtual PortChannel (vPC) is not supported.

  • Path trace for Equal-Cost Multi-Path Routing (ECMP) over Switched Virtual Interface (SVI) is not supported.

  • Path trace is not supported on devices with NAT or firewall.

  • Cisco Performance Routing (PfR) is not supported with DMVPN tunnels.

  • Path trace that has VLAN ACLs (VACLs) enabled is not supported.

  • For a Non Periodic Refresh (NPR) path scenario, after an upgrade, the controller does not refresh the path. Additionally, statistics collection stops. To continue statistics collection, you must initiate a new path request.

  • Path trace from a host in a Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) VLAN to a host in a non-HSRP VLAN that is connected to any of the HSRP routers is not supported.

  • Object groups are not supported in an ACL trace.

  • Port-channel Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) mode is not supported. Only LACP mode is supported.

  • Applying a performance monitor configuration using Catalyst Center fails if there is a different performance monitor policy configuration on the interface. Remove the performance monitor configuration on the interface and resubmit the path trace request.

  • Path trace for Performance Monitor statistics is not supported for Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers (Cisco IOS XE 16.3.1).

  • Path trace for Performance Monitor statistics is not supported for the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch (Cisco IOS XE 16.2.x and 16.3.1).

  • Path trace for Cisco Mobility Express (ME) wireless controllers is not supported.

  • Path trace for wireless clients that use OTT in Cisco SD-Access fabric is not supported.

  • Path trace from a Layer 2 switch is not supported.

  • Cisco's Industrial Ethernet (IE) Switches are extended nodes as part of the SD-Access solution. Currently, path trace does not recognize extended nodes, so if a topology contains extended nodes, you will get an error message.

  • Dual stack that has both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for devices is not supported. If this occurs, an error message displays stating that the given address is unknown.

  • Because Cisco wireless controllers do not send SNMP mobility traps, be aware that:

    • For a path trace request, Catalyst Center does not have the right egress virtual interface highlighted on any foreign wireless controller.

    • The path trace request does not highlight any ACLs applied on the foreign wireless controller.


      Note

      The workaround is to wait for the inventory cycle to complete.

  • Path trace requires client-connected ports to be configured as Layer 2.

  • Path trace does not support stand-by WLCs.

  • Path trace does not support VM-based devices such as CSRv or C9800-CL due to interface mapping limitations.

  • Path trace does not support Cisco Mobility Express (ME) or Embedded Wireless Controllers (EWC).

  • Path trace does not support extended nodes, such as the IE4000 series.

  • Path trace does not support using a WLC or AP as a source or destination device.

  • Path trace in a wireless LISP fabric displays VXLAN tunnels only between source and destination Edges, not the APs.

  • Path trace does not support hosts connected via a trunk port.

  • Path trace does not support management interfaces for WLCs in untagged mode.

  • Path trace does not support VSS, M-LACP, or vPC configurations.

  • Path trace does not support ECMP over SVI.

  • Path trace does not support port-channel PAgP mode; only LACP mode is supported.

  • Path trace does not support VLAN ACLs (VACLs).

  • Path trace for NPR (Non-Periodic Refresh) scenarios does not automatically refresh after a system upgrade; a new path request is required to resume statistics collection.

  • Path trace from a host in an HSRP VLAN to a host in a non-HSRP VLAN connected to the same HSRP/VRRP/GLBP router is not supported.

  • Path trace fails if a conflicting performance monitor configuration exists on an interface; the configuration must be removed before submitting the request.

  • Path trace may return a "Database is temporarily unavailable" error if an underlying traceroute operation times out during a periodic database refresh.

  • Path trace does not support L2 handoff.

  • Path trace does not support "Fabric to unknown" scenarios.

  • Path trace in dual-stack setups may display management IPs that do not represent the actual IP type used in the VXLAN tunnel, which can impact UI rendering.

Do a path trace

The path trace feature works in a similar manner in all the devices. You can do a path trace from the Client 360 or Device 360 window.

Before you begin

Procedure

Step 1

From the Client 360 or Device 360 window, in the Path Trace category, click Run New Path Trace.

The Set up Path Trace slide-in pane appears.

Step 2

Enter the source IP address, interface, and port number; and the destination IP address, interface, and port number.

Field Action
Source IP field

The IP address in the Source IP field is pre-populated; however, you can enter another source IP address by doing one of these tasks:

  • Enter the source IP address.

  • Click the Source IP drop-down, and then select an IP address from the available options. The drop-down list for source IP addresses is limited to a maximum of 100 entries.

  • Click the MAC drop-down, then select a MAC address from the available options, or enter a new MAC address and click the plus icon to add it.

Interface (optional) field

Select an interface from the drop-down list.

Note

 

This field appears if the source IP address is a network device.
Port (optional) field

Enter the port number of the host from which you want the trace to start.
Destination field

  • Enter the IP address of the host or the Layer 3 forwarding interface at which you want the trace to end.

  • Click the Destination field, and then select an IP address from the available options. The drop-down list for destination IP addresses is limited to a maximum of 100 entries.

  • Click the MAC drop-down, then select a MAC address from the available options, or enter a new MAC address and click the plus icon to add it.

Interface (optional) field

Select the interface from the drop-down list.

Note

 

This field appears if the IP address you select in the Destination field is a network device.
Port (optional) field

Enter the port number of the host from which you want the trace to end.

Step 3

From the Options area do these tasks as appropriate:

Field Action
Protocol drop-down list

(Optional) Select either tcp or udp.

Live Traffic

Enable this toggle to On to capture the network packets traveling through select devices in real time as a .pcap file.

Max number of packets to capture drop down list - Select the maximum number packets to be captured.

Note

 

Refresh Every 30sec toggle button gets disabled automatically when you enable Live Traffic toggle button and vice versa.

Refresh Every 30sec

(Optional) Set this toggle to On to configure the path trace topology to refresh every 30 seconds.

ACL Trace

(Optional) Set this toggle to On to display matched ACLs and the ACL result (Permit or Deny) for a specific traffic flow.

Include Stats options

(Optional) To configure the path trace to collect additional statistics, check these check boxes as needed:

  • Device: Collects and displays information, such as the device CPU and memory usage.

  • Interface: Collects and displays information about the device interface.

  • QoS: Collects and displays QoS information, such as collector-voice-egress, collector-broadcast-video-egress, collector-real-time-interactive-egress, and so on.

Step 4

Click Start.

The path trace topology appears. The IP addresses, protocol, and the time stamp indicating when the path trace was last updated display above the topology.

Step 5

In the path trace topology, you can do these tasks:

  1. Hover your cursor over a device to display this information:

    • CPU utilization

    • Memory utilization

    • Average processing delay of ACLs, tunneling, and queues

    • Packet forward decision, which includes the number of packets forwarded and dropped and the drop reason

    If ACL Trace is set to On, the ACL name and ACL result, such as permit or deny display.

    If the 5-tuple values (source IP address and port number, destination IP address and port number, and the protocol in use) are provided, then the ACL trace that appears is 100% accurate. If partial information is provided, the ACL trace that appears is on best effort basis. In such a case, the ACL results might display both Permit and Deny status.

    Matched ACLs in a specific traffic flow appear with a colored icon. Green indicates Permit. Red indicates Deny. For Ingress ACLs, the icon appears on the left side of the device. For Egress ACLs, the icon appears on the right side of the device.

  2. Click a device to open a slide-in pane with additional device details.

  3. Hover your cursor over a Layer 2 or Layer 3 port channel interface to display information, such as used VLANs and output drops. Click More Details to open a slide-in pane with additional information.

  4. Hover your cursor over the path to display the protocol of the devices along the path (Switched, STP, ECMP, Routed, Trace Route) or other source type.