Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Troubleshooting Guide

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Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Troubleshooting Guide

Generate admin-tech files

Updated: September 28, 2026

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Configure admin-tech file generation for devices or clusters to collect logs, core files, and technical information for troubleshooting purposes.

Generate admin-tech files to collect diagnostic information, logs, and technical details from SD-WAN devices or manager clusters for troubleshooting and technical support purposes.

Admin-tech files contain comprehensive diagnostic information including logs, core files, and technical data. You can generate these files for individual devices or entire manager clusters. The files are packaged as compressed tar files with a timestamp-based naming convention.

Procedure

  1. From the Cisco SD-WAN Manager menu, choose Tools > Operational Commands.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • To generate an admin-tech file for all the nodes in a SD-WAN Manager cluster, click Generate Admin Tech for Manager.
    • To generate an admin-tech file for a single device, click ... adjacent to the device and choose Generate Admin Tech for Manager.

  3. In the Generate admin-tech File pane, choose the content to include in the admin-tech tar file.

    Field

    Description

    Logs

    Include log files.

    Note

    The log files are stored in the /harddisk/tracelogs directory on the local device.

    Add+

    (Optional) Minimum supported releases: Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN Release 26.2.1 and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Release 26.2.1

    This field is available only when the Logs field is enabled.

    1. Click Add+ to include logs.

      The Log Settings page appears.

    2. Choose the log type from the list and click Enable debug.

    Core

    Include core files.

    Note

    The core files are stored in the /harddisk/core directory on the local device.

    Tech Features
    Note

    From Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Release 20.15.1, this field is no longer available.

    This option is available in SD-WAN Manager Releases 20.13.x and 20.14.x.

    Choose additional information to include in the admin-tech file. The options depend on whether you are generating an admin-tech file for a single Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN device or for all devices and SD-WAN Control Components.

    For Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN devices:

    • IPsec: Include IPsec information.

    • Security Policy: Include security policy information.

    The technical information for the features is stored in a separate tech files in the folder /var/tech/ directory. By default, the admin file collects the technical information for IPsec and security features. The feature specific technical files are named as /var/tech/ipsec and /var/tech/security.

    For Cisco SD-WAN Control Components:

    • All: Include forward information base and route information base details.

      Include fib detail: Include forwarding information base details.

      Include rib detail: Include routing information base details.

    Use Custom Commands

    (Optional) Minimum supported releases: Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN Release 17.15.1a and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Release 20.15.1

    Enter show commands, separated by commas, to include show command output in the admin-tech file. The command output is available in the /var/tech/custom file path in the admin-tech zip file.

    From Cisco IOS XE Catalyst SD-WAN Release 17.16.1a and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Release 20.16.1, some OMP and TTM commands are not supported.

    If you enter an unsupported command, the admin-tech file displays an error.

  4. Click Generate.

    SD-WAN Manager creates the admin-tech file.

    The file name has the format date-time-admin-tech.tar.gz.

The admin-tech file is generated and contains the selected diagnostic information. By default, the admin-tech file collects the technical information for IPsec and security features. The feature-specific technical files are named as /var/tech/ipsec and /var/tech/security.