Understanding Security Debugging Using Trace Options

The Junos OS trace function allows applications to write security debugging information to a file. The information that appears in this file is based on criteria you set. You can use this information to analyze security application issues.

The trace function operates in a distributed manner, with each thread writing to its own trace buffer. These trace buffers are then collected at one point, sorted, and written to trace files. Trace messages are delivered using the InterProcess Communications (IPC) protocol. A trace message has a lower priority than that of control protocol packets such as BGP, OSPF, and IKE, and therefore delivery is not considered to be as reliable.