Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Information Center 1-1

1.1 Information Center Overview. 1-1

1.1.1 Introduction to Information Center 1-1

1.1.2 System Information Format 1-5

1.2 Information Center Configuration. 1-8

1.2.1 Information Center Configuration Task List 1-8

1.2.2 Configuring Synchronous Information Output 1-8

1.2.3 Configuring to Display the Time Stamp with the UTC Time Zone. 1-9

1.2.4 Setting to Output System Information to the Console. 1-10

1.2.5 Setting to Output System Information to a Monitor Terminal 1-12

1.2.6 Setting to Output System Information to a Log Host 1-13

1.2.7 Setting to Output System Information to the Trap Buffer 1-14

1.2.8 Setting to Output System Information to the Log Buffer 1-15

1.2.9 Setting to Output System Information to the SNMP NMS. 1-16

1.3 Displaying and Maintaining Information Center 1-16

1.4 Information Center Configuration Examples. 1-17

1.4.1 Log Output to a UNIX Log Host 1-17

1.4.2 Log Output to a Linux Log Host 1-19

1.4.3 Log Output to the Console. 1-20

1.4.4 Configuration Example. 1-21

 

Chapter 1  Information Center

When configuring information center, go to these sections for information you are interested in:

l           Information Center Overview

l           Information Center Configuration

l           Displaying and Maintaining Information Center

l           Information Center Configuration Examples

 

 

1.1  Information Center Overview

1.1.1  Introduction to Information Center

Acting as the system information hub, information center classifies and manages system information. Together with the debugging function (the debugging command), information center offers a powerful support for network administrators and developers in monitoring network performance and diagnosing network problems.

The information center of the system has the following features:

I. Classification of system information

The system is available with three types of information:

l           Log information

l           Trap information

l           Debugging information

II. Eight levels of system information

The information is classified into eight levels by severity and can be filtered by level. More emergent information has a smaller severity level.

Table 1-1 Severity description

Severity	Severity value	Description
emergencies	1	The system is unavailable.
alerts	2	Information that demands prompt reaction
critical	3	Critical information
errors	4	Error information
warnings	5	Warnings
notifications	6	Normal information that needs to be noticed
informational	7	Informational information to be recorded
debugging	8	Information generated during debugging

 

Information filtering by severity works this way: information with the severity value greater than the configured threshold is not output during the filtering.

l           If the threshold is set to 1, only information with the severity being emergencies will be output;

l           If the threshold is set to 8, information of all severities will be output.

III. Ten channels and six output directions of system information

The system supports six information output directions, including the Console, Monitor terminal (monitor), logbuffer, loghost, trapbuffer and SNMP.

The system supports ten channels. The channels 0 through 5 have their default channel names and are associated with six output directions by default. Both the channel names and the associations between the channels and output directions can be changed through commands.

Table 1-2 Information channels and output directions

Information channel number	Default channel name	Default output direction
0	console	Console (Receives log, trap and debugging information.)
1	monitor	Monitor terminal (Receives log, trap and debugging information, facilitating remote maintenance.)
2	loghost	Log host (Receives log, trap and debugging information and information will be stored in files for future retrieval.)
3	trapbuffer	Trap buffer (Receives trap information, a buffer inside the device for recording information.)
4	logbuffer	Log buffer (Receives log information, a buffer inside the device for recording information.)
5	snmpagent	SNMP NMS (Receives trap information.)
6	channel6	Not specified (Receives log, trap, and debugging information.)
7	channel7	Not specified (Receives log, trap, and debugging information.)
8	channel8	Not specified (Receives log, trap, and debugging information.)
9	channel9	Not specified (Receives log, trap, and debugging information.)

 

 

IV. Outputting system information by source module

The system information can be classified by source module and then filtered. Some module names and description are shown in Table 1-3.

Table 1-3 Source module name list

Module name	Description
8021X	802.1X module
ACL	Access control list module
ADBM	Address base module
AM	Access management module
ARP	Address resolution protocol module
CMD	Command line module
DEV	Device management module
DNS	Domain name system module
ETH	Ethernet module
FIB	Forwarding module
FTPS	FTP server module
HA	High availability module
HTTPD	HTTP server module
IFNET	Interface management module
IGSP	IGMP snooping module
IP	Internet protocol module
LAGG	Link aggregation module
LINE	Terminal line module
MSTP	Multiple spanning tree protocol module
NAT	Network address translation module
NDP	Neighbor discovery protocol module
NTDP	Network topology discovery protocol module
NTP	Network time protocol module
RDS	Radius module
RMON	Remote monitor module
RSA	Revest, Shamir and Adleman encryption module
SHELL	User interface module
SNMP	Simple network management protocol module
SOCKET	Socket module
SSH	Secure shell module
SYSMIB	System MIB module
TAC	HWTACACS module
TELNET	Telnet module
TFTPC	TFTP client module
VLAN	Virtual local area network module
VTY	Virtual type terminal module
XM	XModem module
default	Default settings for all the modules

 

To sum up, the major task of the information center is to output the three types of information of the modules onto the ten channels in terms of the eight severity levels and according to the user’s settings, and then redirect the system information from the ten channels to the six output directions.

1.1.2  System Information Format

The format of system information varies with the output destinations.

l           If the output destination is console, monitor terminal, logbuffer, trapbuffer, or SNMP, the system information is in the following format:

timestamp sysname module/level/digest: - unitid –content

 

 

Below is an example of the format of log information to be output to a monitor terminal:

%Dec  6 10:44:55:283 2006 Sysname NTP/5/NTP_LOG:- 1 - NTP service enable

(“-1-“ indicates that the unit number of the device is 1.)

l           If the output destination is loghost, the switch and the log host use the syslog protocol. The system information is in the following format according to RFC 3164 (The BSD Syslog Protocol):

<Int_16>timestamp sysname %%nnmodule/level/digest: source content

 

 

What follows is a detailed explanation of the information fields involved:

I. Int_16 (Priority)

The priority is calculated using the following formula: facility*8+severity-1, in which

l           facility (the device name) defaults to local7 with the value being 23 (the value of local6 is 22, that of local5 is 21, and so on).

l           severity (the information level) ranges from 1 to 8. Table 1-1 details the value and meaning associated with each severity.

Note that the priority field appears only when the information has been sent to the log host.

II. Timestamp

Timestamp records the time when system information is generated to allow users to check and identify system events.

Note that there is a space between the timestamp and sysname (host name) fields.

The time stamp has the following two formats.

1)         Without the universal time coordinated (UTC) time zone, the time stamp is in the format of “Mmm dd hh:mm:ss:ms yyyy”.

2)         With the UTC time zone, the time stamp is in the format of “Mmm dd hh:mm:ss:ms yyyy [GMT +|- hh:mm:ss]”.

Each field is described as follows:

l           “Mmm” represents the month, and the available values are: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, and Dec.

l           “dd” is the date, which shall follow a space if less than 10, for example, “ 7”.

l           “hh:mm:ss:ms” is the local time, where “hh” is in the 24-hour format, ranging from 00 to 23, both “mm” and ”ss” range from 00 to 59, “ms” ranges from 000 to 999. (Note that: the time stamp of the system information sent from the information center to the log host is with a precision of seconds, while that of the system information sent from the system center to the Console, monitor terminal, logbuffer, trapbuffer and the SNMP is with a precision of milliseconds.)

l           “yyyy” is the year.

l           “[GMT +|- hh:mm:ss]” is the UTC time zone, which represents the time difference with the Greenwich standard time.

Because switches in a network may distribute in different time zones, when the time displayed in the time stamps of output information is the local time on each switch, it is not so convenient for you to locate and solve problems globally. In this case, you can configure the information center to add UTC time zone to the time stamp of the output information, so that you can know the standard time when the information center processing each piece of information. That is, you can know the Greenwich standard time of each switch in the network based on the UTC record in the time stamp.

To add UTC time zone to the time stamp in the information center output information, you must:

l           Set the local time zone

l           Set the time stamp format in the output destination of the information center to date

l           Configure to add UTC time zone to the output information

After the above configuration, the UTC time zone will be displayed in the output information, like the following:

%Dec  8 10:12:21:708 2006 [GMT+08:00:00] Sysname SHELL/5/LOGIN:- 1 - VTY(1.1.0.2) in unit1 login

III. Sysname

Sysname is the system name of the local switch and defaults to “H3C”.

You can use the sysname command to modify the system name. Refer to the System Maintenance and Debugging part of this manual for details)

Note that there is a space between the sysname and module fields.

IV. %%

This field is a preamble used to identify a vendor. It is displayed only when the output destination is log host.

V. nn

This field is a version identifier of syslog. It is displayed only when the output destination is log host.

VI. Module

The module field represents the name of the module that generates system information. You can enter the info-center source ? command in system view to view the module list. Refer to Table 1-3 for module name and description.

Between “module” and “level” is a “/”.

VII. Level (Severity)

System information can be divided into eight levels based on its severity, from 1 to 8. Refer to Table 1-1 for definition and description of these severity levels. Note that there is a forward slash “/” between the level (severity) and digest fields.

VIII. Digest

The digest field is a string of up to 32 characters, outlining the system information.

Note that there is a colon between the digest and content fields.

For system information destined to the log host,

l           If the character string ends with (l), it indicates the log information

l           If the character string ends with (t), it indicates the trap information

l           If the character string ends with (d), it indicates the debugging information

IX. Source

This field indicates the source of the information, such as the source IP address of the log sender. This field is optional and is displayed only when the output destination is the log host.

X. Context

This field provides the content of the system information.

1.2  Information Center Configuration

1.2.1  Information Center Configuration Task List

Complete the following tasks to configure information center:

Task	Remarks
Configuring Synchronous Information Output	Optional
Configuring to Display the Time Stamp with the UTC Time Zone	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to the Console	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to a Monitor Terminal	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to a Log Host	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to the Trap Buffer	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to the Log Buffer	Optional
Setting to Output System Information to the SNMP NMS	Optional

 

1.2.2  Configuring Synchronous Information Output

Synchronous information output refers to the feature that if the system information such as log, trap, or debugging information is output when the user is inputting commands, the command line prompt (in command editing mode a prompt, or a [Y/N] string in interaction mode) and the input information are echoed after the output.

This feature is used in the case that your input is interrupted by a large amount of system output. With this feature enabled, the system echoes your previous input and you can continue your operations from where you were stopped.

Follow these steps to configure synchronous information output:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable synchronous information output	info-center synchronous	Required Disabled by default

 

 

1.2.3  Configuring to Display the Time Stamp with the UTC Time Zone

To add UTC time zone to the time stamp in the information center output information, you must:

l           Set the local time zone

l           Set the time stamp format in the output direction of the information center to date

l           Configure to add the UTC time zone to the output information

Follow these steps to configure to display time stamp with the UTC time zone:

To do…		Use the command…	Remarks
Set the time zone for the system		clock timezone zone-name { add | minus } time	Required By default, UTC time zone is set for the system.
Enter system view		system-view	—
Set the time stamp format in the output direction of the information center to date	Log host direction	info-center timestamp loghost date	Required Use either command
	Non log host direction	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } date
Set to display the UTC time zone in the output information of the information center		info-center timestamp utc	Required By default, no UTC time zone is displayed in the output information

 

1.2.4  Setting to Output System Information to the Console

I. Setting to output system information to the console

Follow these steps to set to output system information to the console:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable system information output to the console	info-center console channel { channel-number | channel-name }	Optional By default, the switch uses information channel 0 to output log/debugging/trap information to the console.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of time stamp in the output information	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } { boot | date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the log and trap output information is date, and that of the debugging output information is boot.

 

 

Table 1-4 Default output rules for different output directions

Output direction	Modules allowed	LOG		TRAP		DEBUG
		Enabled/disabled	Severity	Enabled/disabled	Severity	Enabled/disabled	Severity
Console	default (all modules)	Enabled	warnings	Enabled	debugging	Enabled	debugging
Monitor terminal	default (all modules)	Enabled	warnings	Enabled	debugging	Enabled	debugging
Log host	default (all modules)	Enabled	informational	Enabled	debugging	Disabled	debugging
Trap buffer	default (all modules)	Disabled	informational	Enabled	warnings	Disabled	debugging
Log buffer	default (all modules)	Enabled	warnings	Disabled	debugging	Disabled	debugging
SNMP NMS	default (all modules)	Disabled	debugging	Enabled	warnings	Disabled	debugging

 

II. Enabling system information display on the console

After setting to output system information to the console, you need to enable the associated display function to display the output information on the console.

Follow these steps to enable the system information display on the console:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enable the debugging/log/trap information terminal display function	terminal monitor	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable debugging information terminal display function	terminal debugging	Optional Disabled by default.
Enable log information terminal display function	terminal logging	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable trap information terminal display function	terminal trapping	Optional Enabled by default.

 

 

1.2.5  Setting to Output System Information to a Monitor Terminal

System information can also be output to a monitor terminal, which is a user terminal that has login connections through the AUX, or VTY user interface.

I. Setting to output system information to a monitor terminal

Follow these steps to set to output system information to a monitor terminal

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable system information output to Telnet terminal or dumb terminal	info-center monitor channel { channel-number | channel-name }	Optional By default, a switch outputs log/debugging/trap information to a user terminal through information channel 1.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of time stamp in the output information	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } { boot | date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the log and trap output information is date, and that of the debugging output information is boot.

 

 

II. Enabling system information display on a monitor terminal

After setting to output system information to a monitor terminal, you need to enable the associated display function in order to display the output information on the monitor terminal.

Follow these steps to enable the display of system information on a monitor terminal:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enable the debugging/log/trap information terminal display function	terminal monitor	Optional Enabled by default
Enable debugging information terminal display function	terminal debugging	Optional Disabled by default
Enable log information terminal display function	terminal logging	Optional Enabled by default
Enable trap information terminal display function	terminal trapping	Optional Enabled by default

 

 

1.2.6  Setting to Output System Information to a Log Host

Follow these steps to set to output system information to a log host:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable system information output to a log host	info-center loghost host-ip-addr [ channel { channel-number | channel-name } | facility local-number ]*	Required By default, the switch does not output information to the log host. After you configure the switch to output information to the log host, the switch uses information channel 2 by default.
Configure the source interface through which log information is sent to the log host	info-center loghost source interface-type interface-number	Optional By default, no source interface is configured, and the system automatically selects an interface as the source interface.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of the time stamp to be sent to the log host	info-center timestamp loghost { date | no-year-date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the information output to the log host is date.

 

 

1.2.7  Setting to Output System Information to the Trap Buffer

Follow these steps to set to output system information to the trap buffer:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable system information output to the trap buffer	info-center trapbuffer [channel { channel-number | channel-name } | size buffersize]*	Optional By default, the switch uses information channel 3 to output trap information to the trap buffer, which can holds up to 256 items by default.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of time stamp in the output information	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } { boot | date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the output trap information is date.

 

1.2.8  Setting to Output System Information to the Log Buffer

Follow these steps to set to output system information to the log buffer:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable information output to the log buffer	info-center logbuffer [ channel { channel-number | channel-name } | size buffersize ]*	Optional By default, the switch uses information channel 4 to output log information to the log buffer, which can holds up to 512 items by default.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of time stamp in the output information	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } { boot | date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the output log information is date.

 

1.2.9  Setting to Output System Information to the SNMP NMS

Follow these steps to set to output system information to the SNMP NMS:

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Enter system view	system-view	—
Enable the information center	info-center enable	Optional Enabled by default.
Enable information output to the SNMP NMS	info-center snmp channel { channel-number | channel-name }	Optional By default, the switch outputs trap information to SNMP through channel 5.
Configure the output rules of system information	info-center source { modu-name | default } channel { channel-number | channel-name } [ { log | trap | debug } { level severity | state state } ]*	Optional Refer to Table 1-4 for the default output rules of system information.
Set the format of time stamp in the output information	info-center timestamp { log | trap | debugging } { boot | date | none }	Optional By default, the time stamp format of the information output to the SNMP NMS is date.

 

 

1.3  Displaying and Maintaining Information Center

To do…	Use the command…	Remarks
Display information on an information channel	display channel [ channel-number | channel-name ]	Available in any view
Display the operation status of information center, the configuration of information channels, the format of time stamp	display info-center [ unit unit-id ]
Display the status of log buffer and the information recorded in the log buffer	display logbuffer [ unit unit-id ] [ level severity | size buffersize ]* [ | { begin | exclude | include } regular-expression ]
Display the summary information recorded in the log buffer	display logbuffer summary [ level severity ]
Display the status of trap buffer and the information recorded in the trap buffer	display trapbuffer [ unit unit-id ] [ size buffersize ]
Clear information recorded in the log buffer	reset logbuffer [ unit unit-id ]	Available in user view
Clear information recorded in the trap buffer	reset trapbuffer [ unit unit-id ]

 

1.4  Information Center Configuration Examples

1.4.1  Log Output to a UNIX Log Host

I. Network requirements

The switch sends the following log information to the Unix log host whose IP address is 202.38.1.10: the log information of the two modules ARP and IP, with severity higher than “informational”.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-1 Network diagram for log output to a Unix log host

III. Configuration procedure

1)         Configure the switch:

# Enable the information center.

<Switch> system-view

[Switch] info-center enable

# Disable the function of outputting information to log host channels.

[Switch] undo info-center source default channel loghost

# Configure the host whose IP address is 202.38.1.10 as the log host. Permit ARP and IP modules to output information with severity level higher than informational to the log host.

[Switch] info-center loghost 202.38.1.10 facility local4

[Switch] info-center source arp channel loghost log level informational debug state off trap state off

[Switch] info-center source ip channel loghost log level informational debug state off trap state off

2)         Configure the log host:

The operations here are performed on SunOS 4.0. The operations on other manufacturers' Unix operation systems are similar.

Step 1: Execute the following commands as the super user (root user).

# mkdir /var/log/Switch

# touch /var/log/Switch/information

Step 2: Edit the file “/etc/syslog.conf” as the super user (root user) to add the following selector/action pairs.

# Switch configuration messages

local4.info    /var/log/Switch/information

 

 

Step 3: After the log file “information” is created and the file “/etc/syslog.conf” is modified, execute the following command to send a HUP signal to the system daemon “syslogd”, so that it can reread its configuration file “/etc/syslog.conf”.

# ps -ae | grep syslogd

147

# kill -HUP 147

After all the above operations, the switch can make records in the corresponding log file.

 

 

1.4.2  Log Output to a Linux Log Host

I. Network requirements

The switch sends the following log information to the Linux log host whose IP address is 202.38.1.10: All modules' log information, with severity higher than “errors”.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-2 Network diagram for log output to a Linux log host

III. Configuration procedure

1)         Configure the switch:

# Enable the information center.

<Switch> system-view

[Switch] info-center enable

# Configure the host whose IP address is 202.38.1.10 as the log host. Permit all modules to output log information with severity level higher than error to the log host.

[Switch] info-center loghost 202.38.1.10 facility local7

[Switch] info-center source default channel loghost log level errors debug state off trap state off

2)         Configure the log host:

Step 1: Execute the following commands as a super user (root user).

# mkdir /var/log/Switch

# touch /var/log/Switch/information

Step 2: Edit the file “/etc/syslog.conf” as the super user (root user) to add the following selector/action pairs.

# Switch configuration messages

local7.info    /var/log/Switch/information

 

 

Step 3: After the log file “information” is created and the file “/etc/syslog.conf” is modified, execute the following commands to view the process ID of the system daemon “syslogd”, stop the process, and then restart the daemon "syslogd" in the background with the “-r” option.

# ps -ae | grep syslogd

147

# kill -9 147

# syslogd -r &

In case of Linux log host, the daemon “syslogd” must be started with the “-r” option.

After all the above operations, the switch can record information in the corresponding log file.

 

 

1.4.3  Log Output to the Console

I. Network requirements

The switch sends the following information to the console: the log information of the two modules ARP and IP, with severity higher than “informational”.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-3 Network diagram for log output to the console

III. Configuration procedure

# Enable the information center.

<Switch> system-view

[Switch] info-center enable

# Disable the function of outputting information to the console channels.

[Switch] undo info-center source default channel console

# Enable log information output to the console. Permit ARP and IP modules to output log information with severity level higher than informational to the console.

[Switch] info-center console channel console

[Switch] info-center source arp channel console log level informational debug state off trap state off

[Switch] info-center source ip channel console log level informational debug state off trap state off

# Enable terminal display.

<Switch> terminal monitor

<Switch> terminal logging

1.4.4  Configuration Example

I. Network requirements

l           The switch is in the time zone of GMT+ 08:00:00.

l           The time stamp format of output log information is date.

l           UTC time zone will be added to the output information of the information center.

II. Network diagram

Figure 1-4 Network diagram

III. Configuration procedure

# Name the local time zone z8 and configure it to be eight hours ahead of UTC time.

<Switch> clock timezone z8 add 08:00:00

# Set the time stamp format of the log information to be output to the log host to date.

<Switch> system-view

System View: return to User View with Ctrl+Z.

[Switch] info-center timestamp loghost date

# Configure to add UTC time to the output information of the information center.

[Switch] info-center timestamp utc