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Viewing Packet Path in Topology View

Starting in Contrail Networking Release 2008, you can view the path a packet takes in a network. Visualizing the packet path on a topology view alongside the traffic assists the administrator when troubleshooting. The visualization is possible by using the sFlow and topology data that a packet consumes traveling in a network. When the node and edge details are obtained, the topology is plotted and the path can be visualized in the topology view.

Note:

To view the packet path, both Contrail Insights and Contrail Insights Flows must be installed. See How to Install Contrail Command and Provision Your Contrail Cluster in the Contrail Networking Installation and Upgrade Guide.

View Packet Paths

To view packet paths in the Topology View:

  1. Log in to a cluster using Contrail Command by browsing to:

    https://<Contrail-Command-Server-IP-Address>:9091

  2. Select Infrastructure > Fabrics.

  3. Select the desired Fabric from the available list.

  4. Click Topology View.

The packet path will look similar to the following example.

Figure 1: Packet Path in Topology ViewPacket Path in Topology View

Right-click to show details about traffic on the path.

To change a path or create a new one, right-click to select the packet path source and destination nodes.

Figure 2: Packet Path Source and Destination nodesPacket Path Source and Destination nodes

The following options are available to filter the path.

Table 1: Packet Path Filter Options

Packet Path Option

Description

Predefined Time

Select the period in the history for which data is to be displayed.

Time Range

Use the calendar or type directly into the fields to select the desired start and end time. Additionally, you can select a time interval by moving the selector left or right..

Underlay

Source IP

Filter data with the source IP address.

Source Port

Filter data with the source port.

Destination IP

Filter data with the destination IP address.

Destination Port

Filter data with the destination port.

Protocol

Filter data with these available protocol types:

  • ICMP

  • OSPFIGP

  • TCP

  • UDP

Overlay

Source Virtual Network

Filter data with the source virtual network.

Source IP

Filter data with the source IP address.

Source Port

Filter data with the source port.

Destination Virtual Network

Filter data with the destination virtual network.

Destination IP

Filter data with the destination IP address.

Destination Port

Filter data with the destination port.

Protocol

Filter data with these available protocol types:

  • ICMP

  • TCP

  • UDP

Fabric-Only Path Finding

Contrail Networking Release 2011 supports fabric-only path finding.

In fabric-only path finding, each virtual port group (VPG) is treated as a bare metal server (BMS). These BMSs are named bms_<vpg_name>. Contrail Networking does not allocate IP addresses of the VPG. The IP addresses are discovered by mapping the Contrail Config virtual-port-group object with the gRPC (gRPC remote procedure calls) Sensor data, "/network-instances/network-instance/macip-table".

When a Contrail vRouter Agent is present in the path of a flow between two virtual machines that is hosted on Contrail compute nodes, Contrail Insights Flows collector receives information from Contrail Flows for the corresponding sFlow packet. However, when the traffic flow is between two bare metal servers and there is no Contrail vRouter Agent, no information is received from Contrail flows. In this scenario, the gRPC sensor is subscribed to, to determine virtual network information and connections between leaf and BMS.

Note:

Fabric-only path finding feature is supported on network devices that run Junos OS Release 20.2 or later.

Change History Table

Feature support is determined by the platform and release you are using. Use Feature Explorer to determine if a feature is supported on your platform.

Release
Description
2011
Contrail Networking Release 2011 supports fabric-only path finding.
2008
Starting in Contrail Networking Release 2008, you can view the path a packet takes in a network.