Tracing OSPF Protocol Traffic
You can trace various OSPF protocol traffic to help debug OSPF protocol issues. To trace OSPF protocol traffic include the traceoptions statement at the [edit protocols ospf|ospf3] hierarchy level:
You can specify the following OSPF protocol-specific trace options using the flag statement:
- database-description—All database description packets, which are used in synchronizing the OSPF topological database
- error—OSPF error packets
- event—OSPF state transitions
- flooding—Link-state flooding packets
- graceful-restart—Graceful-restart events.
- hello—Hello packets, which are used to establish neighbor adjacencies and to determine whether neighbors are reachable
- ldp-synchronization—Synchronization events between OSPF and LDP
- lsa-ack—Link-state acknowledgement packets, which are used in synchronizing the OSPF topological database
- lsa-analysis—Link-state analysis packets
- lsa-request—Link-state request packets, which are used in synchronizing the OSPF topological database
- lsa-update—Link-state updates packets, which are used in synchronizing the OSPF topological database
- nsr-synchronization—Nonstop routing synchronization events
- on-demand—Trace demand circuit extensions
- packet-dump—Dump the contents of selected packet types
- packets—All OSPF packets
- spf—Shortest path first (SPF) calculations
You can optionally specify one or more of the following flag modifiers:
- detail—Detailed trace information
- receive—Packets being received
- send—Packets being transmitted
 | Note: Use the detail flag modifier with caution as this may cause the CPU to become very busy. |
Global tracing options are inherited from the configuration set by the traceoptions statement at the [edit routing-options] hierarchy level. You can override the following global trace options for the OSPF protocol using the traceoptions flag statement included at the [edit protocols ospf] hierarchy level:
- all—All tracing operations
- general—All normal operations and routing table changes (a combination of the normal and route trace operations)
- normal—Normal events
- policy—Policy processing
- route—Routing information
- state—State transitions
- task—Routing protocol task processing
- timer—Routing protocol timer processing
| Note: Use the trace flag all with caution as this may cause the CPU to become very busy. |
Examples: Tracing OSPF Protocol Traffic
Trace only unusual or abnormal operations to the file routing-log, and trace detailed information about all OSPF packets to the file ospf-log:
Trace SPF calculations:
Trace the creation, receipt, and retransmission of all link-state advertisements:
Related Topics
- traceoptions
- For general information about tracing and global tracing options, see Tracing Global Routing Protocol Operations.
