582 Appendix A: Troubleshooting a WS Switch320657-ARunning TracesTrace commands enable you to perform diagnostic routines. You can set a trace command with a keyword,such as authentication or sm, to trace activity for a particular feature, such as authentication or the sessionmanager.Using the Trace CommandTracing is used only for debugging WSS Software. The command set trace area enables you to viewmessages about the status of a specific portion of the WSS Software.There are many trace parameters that you can run. (See “List of Trace Areas” on page 585.) However, thischapter describes only authentication, authorization, the session manager (sm), and 802.1X users (dot1x), fourareas that you might find most helpful.To focus on the object of the trace, you can add one or more of these parameters to the set trace command:set trace [area] [mac-addr mac-addr] [port port-num] [user username] [levellevel]Tracing Authentication ActivityTracing authentication activity can help you diagnose authentication problems. You can trace all authentica-tion activity, or only the activity for a specific user, MAC address, or port.For example, to trace all authentication activity at level 4, type the following command:23x0# set trace authentication level 4success: change accepted.Tracing Session Manager ActivityYou can trace all session manager commands, or only those for a specific user, MAC address, or port. Forexample, to trace all session manager (sm) activity at level 3, type the following command:23x0# set trace sm level 3success: change accepted.Warning! Using the set trace command can have adverse effects on systemperformance. Nortel recommends that you use the lowest levels possible for initial tracecommands, and slowly increase the levels to get the data you need.
