DELL Networking SONiC How to generate and collect Tech-support

Index

What is tech-support File?
Command Syntax
How to generate tech-support file in Dell SONiC
How to track tech-support file generation status
How to retrieve tech-support File From the Switch
      FTP
      HTTP
      USB
      SCP Client application
Tech-support file name and format 
How to restrict the old entries and reduce size of tech-support File
Delete old tech-support file to save space.

 

What is tech-support File

Tech-support file is a compressed archive file consisting of information about the state of the Switch like Syslog, database state, core dump, etc. Dell Technical support agents need a tech-support file for detailed analysis of an event.

• The tech-support file is a compressed file and is saved in /var/dump. The content of this folder can be viewed by using command dir tech-support:/
• Tech-support file has .tar.gz extension
• Tech-support file may take more than 15-30 Minutes to generate.
• The file size varies depending on the data and time duration of log samples. To reduce size, we can use since option
• If possible try to generate Tech-support file in problem state

    
 

Command Syntax

COMMAND	EXPLANATION
admin@sonic:~$ sonic-cli	Enter Dell Sonic
sonic# show tech-support	Generate tech-support file.
sonic# show tech-support status	Show tech-support file generation status
sonic# dir tech-support:/	Show content of /var/dump directory where tech-support file is generated.
sonic# copy tech-support://<filename> ftp/home/http/scp/usb://<filename>	Copy tech-support file to a remote location using ftp, http, scp protocol,  or an usb or home directory

 
Optional

COMMAND	EXPLANATION
sonic# show tech-support since <date/time>	Generate tech-support file from a date and time. Click here for more info.
sonic# delete tech-support:/ <filename>	Delete old tech-support file. This saves flash space.

 

 

How to generate tech-support file in Dell SONiC

Use show tech-support command to generate tech-support file.

Example

admin@DELLSONiC:~$ sonic-cli
DELLSONiC# 
DELLSONiC# show tech-support 
%Info: Tech-support process started, please check "show tech-support status" for tech-support progress
DELLSONiC#

 

 

How to track tech-support file generation status

Use show tech-support status command to stack status of tech-support file generation. The output shows Status: Completed when file generation is completed.
Use dir tech-support:/ command to see the content of /var/tmp folder. The tech-support file is generated in this folder. 

Bellow is a sample output of show tech-support status and dir tech-support:/ 

During tech-support file generation

DELLSONiC# show tech-support status 
Status: In Progress (Collecting Counters-1) Total items collected: 12

DELLSONiC# dir tech-support:/ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date(Last Modified)      Size(Bytes)    Type      Filename                        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------                
2023-04-15 20:21         4096           d         sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048
2023-04-15 20:22         11100160       -         sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar

After tech-support file generation is successfully completed

DELLSONiC# show tech-support status
Status: Completed
File Name: /var/dump/sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz

DELLSONiC# dir tech-support:/ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date(Last Modified)      Size(Bytes)    Type      Filename                        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------                
2023-04-15 20:27         252932846      -         sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz

 
 

How to retrieve tech-support file from the switch

 Use copy tech-support://<tech-support filename> <destination>//<filename> command to copy the tech-support file to home directory or usb or remote ftp/http/scp server.

Below are the destination options available and their usage.
ftp: Copy to remote FTP server (ftp://userid:passwd@hostip/filepath)
home: Copy to home directory (home://filename)
http: Copy to remote HTTP server (http://hostip/filepath)
scp: Copy to remote SCP server (scp://userid:passwd@hostip/filepath)
usb: Copy to usb media directory (usb://filename)
 
We would explain the options below with example

FTP
For copying file to a remote FTP server use following syntax
copy techsupport://<techsupport file.tag.gz> ftp://userid:passwd@hostip/filepath

Consider we are copying the tech-support file to a remote FTP server with IP 10.0.0.1, username: TEST and password PASS

Sample Out

DELLSONiC# copy tech-support://sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz ftp://TEST:PASS@10.0.0.1/sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz

HTTP
For copying file to a remote HTTP server use following syntax
copy techsupport://<techsupport file.tag.gz> http://hostip/filepath

Consider we are copying the tech-support file to a remote HTTP server with IP 10.0.0.1
Sample Out

DELLSONiC# copy tech-support://sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz http://10.0.0.1/sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz

USB

For using USB on a DELL SONiC in a Networking switch, we must ensure usb enable command is configured. By default usb is disabled.
Run usb mount command after inserting usb into switch.

Dell Networking SONiC How to mount and unmount USB

Sample Out

sonic# 
sonic# configure terminal
sonic(config)# usb enable 
sonic(config)# exit
sonic# usb mount 
DELLSONiC# copy tech-support://sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz usb://sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz

SCP Client application

You may use any SCP client applications to extract tech-support file in the switch.
Use Switch login credentials in SCP client application to log in to switch. The tech-support file is located in Directory /var/dump/
Some SCP client applications have a graphical interface which makes it even easier to copy file from switch /var/dump/ to a location in your local machine.

 

Tech-support file name and format  

The tech-support file has a name in format sonic_dump_<Hostname>_ _YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.tar.gz
* YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS is Year Month Day _ Hour Minute Second. This is the time of tech-support file generation.

For example, sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz is the generated tech-support file. Here YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS is 20230415_202048 and DELLSONiC is the hostname of the switch.

 

How to restrict the old entries and reduce Size of tech-support File

The tech-support file may be a large file based on the switch uptime. In Dell SONiC, we can reduce the size of the tech by limiting the logging duration.

Use show tech-support since <date/time> command to capture tech-support from a particular time.

Sample Out

DELLSONiC# show tech-support since "2023-04-14T12:30:30Z"
%Info: Tech-support process started, please check "show tech-support status" for tech-support progress

It is recommended to capture up to the 0 hour of the day before for any possible pre-emptive actions before the event.

Sample Out

DELLSONiC# show tech-support since "2023-04-14T00:00:00Z"
%Info: Tech-support process started, please check "show tech-support status" for tech-support progress

Command Syntax
 

Command

Explanation

sonic# show tech-support since <date/time>

Below is the format for date/time  "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS[.ddd...]Z" or  "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS[.ddd...]+hh:mm" or  "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS[.ddd...]-hh:mm" Where:  YYYY = year, MM = month, DD = day,  T (required before time),  HH = hours, MM = minutes, SS = seconds,  (optional) .ddd... = decimal fraction of a second (e.g. ".323")  Z indicates zero offset from local time  +/- hh:mm indicates hour:minute offset from local time

 
 

Delete old tech-support file to save space

 We can safely delete tech-support file in dump folder after extracting the file from the switch.

Use command delete tech-support:/ <techsupport file.tar.gz> to delete the tech-support file. 

Sample Out

DELLSONiC# delete tech-support:/ sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz
Proceed to delete tech-support:/sonic_dump_DELLSONiC_20230415_202048.tar.gz? [y/N]:y

Use command dir tech-support:/ to verify if the file is deleted.

Sample Out

DELLSONiC# dir tech-support:/ 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date(Last Modified)      Size(Bytes)    Type      Filename                        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------