Basic Debugging

Viewing Logs

After you implement your configuration, you will want to test it out. The SBC Core provides tools that allow you to monitor SIP messaging, look at logs, look at statistics, and billing records.

Logs may be viewed from either user interface:

EMA GUI

From the EMA GUI:

1. Navigate to the Administration tab
2. View logs and set up a Call Trace to view SIP messages

Call Trace and Wireshark Traces

The Call Trace function allows you to get the SIP message trace and RTP packets for a very specific call. This is helpful when you are testing a particular call scenario. You can trace on called number, calling number, trunk group, IP Peer.

The SIP messaging (and SBC-specific logs related to the call) are stored in a text file ending in ".TRC".

In addition to the .TRC file, the SIP signaling and RTP traffic can also be captured in a ".PKT" file. To view the ".PKT" file, you download it to your PC, and then open it with Wireshark interface (referred to as "TShark" in EMA Troubleshooting tab). You can see what trace filters are set up using "show configuration global callTrace" command.

Below is an example usage for call trace "toBLUECARRIER" that traces all calls to and from trunk group BLUECARRIER:

admin@SBC01a> show configuration global callTrace callFilter toBLUECARRIER {
state 		enabled;
level 		level1;
key 		trunkGroup;
match {
trunkGroup BLUECARRIER;
}
mediaPacketCapture enable;
} 

Since a large amount of data is captured for each call, it is advisable to:

• Only capture media if you need it
• Disable your call trace filter after making your test call

See Troubleshooting Tools - TShark for additional details of using TShark from the EMA.

Cloud SBC Log Header

In Cloud instances of the SBC, the Virtual Network Function Component ID (VNFC-ID) uniquely identifies an instance in an OpenStack setup. The VNFC-ID is added to the SBC log headers, which helps to identify the instance from where the logs are retrieved. The VNFC-ID is added to the system, debug, trace, security, audit, and memory logs so that these log files associate to a specific instance.

The VNFC-ID is in a separate line below the existing SBC log header. The following is an example of an SBC log header without the SBC cloud instance:

Ribbon Communications00000000FF600000570000000000000128V06.02.01A002 0000000000000000000000000000ACT2018010802013300000000000000

The following is an example of an SBC log header with the SBC cloud instance:

Ribbon Communications00000000FF600000570000000000000128V06.02.01A002 0000000000000000000000000000ACT2018010802013300000000000000
 
Cloud Instance, release.we.621x-isbc-a-1

D-SBC Debugging

Call-Related Trace Logging

Calls in the Distributed SBC (D-SBC) have call segments that reside in various elements, such as Signaling SBC (S-SBC), Media SBC (M-SBC), and Transcoding SBC (T-SBC). This feature simplifies the debug process of correlating trace lines from separate log files that span multiple SBCs.

The Virtual Network Function Component ID (VNFC-ID) and Global Call ID (GCID) pair are added to a header in the SBC DBG and TRC log files to facilitate trace line correlation. VNFC-ID is the networkwide unique identifier for a node and GCID is the nodewide unique identifier for a call. The VNFC-ID and GCID pair in an SBC form a unique identifier for a call in the network. In the DBG and TRC log files, call-related trace lines for the Node Resource Manager Agent (NRMA) and the Distributed FE (DFE) are tagged with the VNFC-ID and GCID pair in the D-SBC log header.

The D-SBC log header in S-SBC contains the local VNFC-ID and GCID pair.

The following are some of the examples:

• DBG: ... Info    .NRMA: [SSBC:VNFCID-ABC,0x8] NrmaContinueAllocResCmd: gcid=0x1 legGcid…
• TRC: ... Info    .NRMA:CALL:FILTER=trunkgroup [SSBC:VNFCID-ABC,0x4] Allocate Rpy: gcid=0x4 legGcid=0x4 legId=1 noAudio=0 rt…

The D-SBC log header in M-SBC and T-SBC contains the remote S-SBC VNFC-ID and GCID pair and the local M-SBC VNFC-ID and GCID pair. See the following examples:

• DBG: ... Info    .NRMA: [SSBC:VNFCID-ABC,0x8] [MSBC:VNFCID-XYZ,0x1] NrmaSendGroupResActivation: Ac…
• TRC: ... Info    .NRMA:CALL:FILTER=trunkgroup [SSBC:VNFCID-ABC,0x4] [MSBC:VNFCID-XYZ,0x1] NrmaProcessAllocResCmdRemoteEpRes: gcid=0x4 sGcid=0x4...
  
  

Downloading Existing CLI Configuration from GUI

To save a text file containing the CLI commands used to configure your system, refer to System Administration - Configuration Template Import (EMA).