How to Capture Circular Traces on NetScaler

This article describes how to setup a NetScaler to capture circular network traces. This is useful when you cannot duplicate the issue on demand and instead have to wait for it to occur. This example explains how to capture 150 seconds of network traces split into 5 different files of 30 seconds each.

Requirements

• Access to NetScaler Graphical User Interface (GUI) or Command Line Interface (CLI).
• Tools to connect to NetScaler over SSH (PuTTY, WinSCP).

Capture Circular Traces Using NetScaler GUI

1. Navigate to Configuration utility, expand System and click Diagnostics. Under Technical Support Tools section click Start new trace.

   

2. Modify the following parameters to capture full packets for 5 minutes divided into 5 files of 1 minute each.
   1. ??¨Packet Size: 0 (0 represents capturing the entire packet)
   2. Duration of data per file (seconds): 30 (represents half a minute traces on each file)
   3. Number of trace files: 5 (number of files)

      

3. Click Start. The following pop-up will appear. Wait until all the desired traces have been captured and then click OK.

   

4. Validate that 5 files were created in the format nstrace#.cap. Download the files one at a time.

   

5. Compress all the files into a single .zip file and upload it to TaaS (http://taas.citrix.com) providing the case number. For more information refer to?? CTX136396 - How to Upload Data to Citrix Insight Services.

   

Capture Circular Traces Using NetScaler CLI

1. Connect to the NetScaler through SSH using PuTTY (or any other SSH tool).

   

2. On the NetScaler CLI run the following command to start the trace:
   start nstrace -size 0 -nf 5 -time 30

   

3. Stop the traces using the following command:
   stop nstrace

   

4. A directory will be generated in the /var/nstrace/ with the timestamp (i.e. 06Jan2016_16_55_46) at which the capture started. Use WinSCP, FileZilla, or any other tool that allows SCP (secure copy), and navigate to /var/nstrace/06Jan2016_16_55_46/ and download all the files to your local computer. You can either drag-and-drop the files or right-click on them and select Download (F5).

   

5. Compress all the files into a single .zip file and upload it to TaaS (http://taas.citrix.com) providing the case number. For more information refer to?? CTX136396 - How to Upload Data to Citrix Insight Services.