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COMMUNICATIONS TEST & MEASUREMENT SOLUTIONS

Xgig® iSCSI AnalyzerThe JDSU Xgig Hardware-Based for Ethernet/iSCSI Analysis

The JDSU Xgig® analyzer is a hardware-based Ethernet/iSCSI analyzing tool. Compared to the software-based promiscuous-mode analysis tools embedded in the network application layers, the JDSU hardware-based Xgig analyzer is the most accurate, robust tool in the industry for challenging scenarios.

Xgig versus Promiscuous-Mode AnalysisTypically, a promiscuous-mode software-based adapter discards all bad packets as they are received, and physical-link issues such as code violations or loss of sync are either discarded or ignored. The JDSU hardware-based Xgig analyzer captures 100% data activity on the link.

Xgig versus Network Application Layer ToolsContrary to popular belief, IP and TCP implementations are not always robust and do not always recover from errors on the network. As IP and TCP stacks migrate into hardware-based silicon, software-based tools embedded in the network appli-cation layers cannot always be relied upon to capture every frame and decode accurately. The JDSU hardware-based Xgig analyzer captures all network errors, including those that the network application layer misses.

Additionally, as 10GbE transceivers and physical-layer implementations arise, industry engineers expect a plethora of bugs, centered mainly in the transmission layers of the hardware. This makes the JDSU hardware-based Xgig analyzer increas-ingly more vital for accurate and timely debugging.

The JDSU Xgig Protocol Analysis for iSCSIThe JDSU Xgig iSCSI protocol analysis is part of the JDSU Gigabit Ethernet pro-tocol analyzer solution. Xgig, designed for heavy-duty data traffic and complicated network structures, offers the industry a reliable analysis tool for high-bandwidth protocols such as iSCSI. The JDSU Xgig analysis system streamlines resolution of events that cause performance problems and enables users to design, implement, test, and evaluate the iSCSI protocol.

Network troubleshooters understand that 100% capture isn’t possible with the soft-ware-based solutions as they can lose useful data when capturing and have issues opening large captures.

Many available analysis solutions only capture frames that result from 8B/10B data conversion and drop inter-frame primitives such as idles, the preamble, and the CarrierExtend. These analyzers are not capable of capturing problems that occur in 10-bit data or inter-frame primitives, such as CRC errors within frames and checksum or offload errors, which are automatically discarded by the Ethernet hardware/NIC.

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

The JDSU Xgig analyzer captures 100% of 10-bit frames and inter-frame primitives, with a data rate of up to 10 Gb/s, and stores the traces in a memory buffer with 2GB per port. Xgig ensures that every single bit of a potential problem is captured for analysis by the Expert software. See Figure 1.

In addition, the synchronization feature of the JDSU Xgig analyzer captures Ethernet, Fibre-Channel, and SAS traffic simultaneously and displays all frames and inter-frame primitives, synchronized with an accuracy of 5 nanoseconds. This is vital for debugging bridges between Fibre-Channel and Ethernet networks, as it allows the user to follow the flow of SCSI messages from a Fibre-Channel network to an iSCSI network.

The JDSU integrated suite of Xgig analysis software includes TraceControl, Performance Monitor, TraceView, and Expert.

TraceControlTraceControl is used to define the specific conditions under which a capture occurs. It initiates the capturing and stopping sequence and also provides a traffic library with pre-defined and user-defined protocol templates for frames and inter-frame primitives such as idles and errors. Trace-Control allows the user to define multi-level trigger events and pre-filtering for selective capture in order to save buffer space.

Burst Capture is the Xgig hardware capability that captures and saves bursts of traf-fic around specific error conditions repeatedly over many days. This feature is useful to ensure that errors that happen over long periods of time are understood and kept under control. See Figure 2.

Frunner As an alternative control program to TraceControl, Frunner allows users to control the Xgig hardware by scripting. It can be called from C/C++, Perl, and Python. The Frunner program allows the user to design any combination of cus-tomized triggers and controls.

In conjunction with Frunner, Tgptotxt is a scripting tool that dumps captures into a text output for easy parsing.

Figure 1. Xgig analyzer captures iSCSI/Ethernet preambles, primitives, etc.

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

Performance MonitorPerformance Monitor collects and graphically reports performance metrics and data errors in real time, whenever there is live Gigabit Ethernet traffic on any of the monitored links. The user can view MB/s, Kframes/sec, and physical-layer errors from each direction of the link.

Performance Monitor Views provide quick snapshots of the current running state of the analyzed links, as well as total statistics over time:

Chart View shows port information in a line graph, with a historical view over time.

List View brings up a set of Table Views with monitor data for each port.

Current View shows the current snapshot, as selected from a tab at the bottom of List View.

Meter View indicates the current transfer rate (1.25 to 10 Gb/s) and the metered representation of the transfer.

LED View shows the current status of all ports.

LED Summary View shows the summary status of all ports.

Figure 2. Burst Capture option

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

TraceViewTraceView, in Figure 3, displays captured traffic. TraceView is capable of opening over 64 GB in a matter of seconds, the biggest capture possible in the industry.

TraceView is organized as standard capture-viewing software, with a spreadsheet display on top and a detailed window underneath. The spreadsheet shows each cap-tured event, either a frame or inter-frame, on a single line. The detailed window at the bottom displays the details for the current frame selected such as raw bytes, pro-tocol decodes, errors, and 10-bit data.

The third window at the bottom displays a graph of the captured traffic pattern, allowing the user to quickly identify islands of traffic throughout the trace.

Unlike the competition’s viewing software, TraceView’s spread-sheet is 100% con-figurable. The user can add or remove any protocol field as a TraceView column. TraceView also has patented search and filter capabilities, viewed by many as Best-in-Class. With 2 to 5 clicks, the user can search or filter any field value or string in the entire capture. See Figure 4.

Figure 3. A typical TraceView display

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

Specifically for iSCSI, TraceView filters out all TCP data frames in 3 clicks, keeping only the frames with iSCSI BHS headers. The user can toggle the TCP data frames ON/OFF with a single click. See Figure 5.

TraceView imports 13 common capture-file formats, allowing the users to benefit from its extraordinary viewing and searching capabilities. In addition, TraceView can export Ethernet captures to surveyor-file format.

Figure 4. Smart Match filtering search

Figure 5. ON/OFF TCP frames

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

EXPErTExpert offers state-of-the-art post-capture trace analysis, providing a summary of errors and suspicious protocol behaviors in each capture. Expert calculates and reports over 1800 metrics and 1200 error conditions across different protocols, for which the following are pertinent to iSCSI:

– 26 metrics/26 experts for GigE– 48 metrics/23 experts for IP– 54 metrics/70 experts for IPv6– 124 metrics/59 experts for TCP– 325 metrics/288 experts for iSCSITopology View shows the network topology as derived from trace data, includ-ing the locations of initiators, targets, and expanders. Topology View is built from advanced network-detection and topology-determination algorithms and shows any device actively participating on the links.

Error Log shows a list of Expert errors, warnings, and informa-tion events identified within the trace. When processing a trace, Expert rebuilds protocol stacks and layers to identify erroneous and other undesirable behaviors within the network.

Graph View shows a highly-configurable time-based graph representing trace activ-ity. Activity can be tracked either for individual devices or for aggregated devices. Data from multiple analyzers can be overlaid on the graph, allowing for simultane-ous analysis.

In addition to analyzing captures, Expert reconstructs the TCP stream and gener-ates an iSCSI PDU trace in which each frame corresponds to a single iSCSI PDU. Expert’s new iSCSI PDU trace can be either interleaved with the original Ethernet trace or viewed separately. The iSCSI PDU trace allows the user to isolate iSCSI protocol from TCP/IP layers, which is especially useful when iSCSI PDUs are mis-aligned with the containing frames.

Figure 6. Xgig state-of-the-art Expert software

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Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

Graphical Protocol Decode KitThe JDSU Xgig analyzer software offers an optional Graphical Protocol Decode Kit tool, which allows users to add their own protocol decodes or modify the decodes provided by JDSU. The tool is entirely graphical. No programming skills are needed, and any network engineer can learn it easily in a matter of minutes.

This tool was patented and originally implemented only for JDSU and their own decode writing purposes and is now included as part of the Xgig analyzer solution at customers’ request.

Figure 7. Xgig state-of-the-art Graphical Protocol Decode Kit

Xgig® iSCSI Analyzer

Product specifications and descriptions in this document subject to change without notice. © 2009 JDS Uniphase Corporation 30162797 500 0809 XGIGISCSIANALYZER.DS.SAN.TM.AE Aug 2009

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Appendix A: Xgig Decoding Protocol List

Fibre Channel

FC-FS, FC-LS, FC-GS, FC-SW, FC-VI, FCP, SCSI, FICON, VSAN

SAS

SMP, SSP

SATA

SATA, STP

Ethernet

DLC, ISL, LLC, SNAP, ARP, VLAN, IPX, NCP, SAP, IPXRIP, NETBIOS,

IBMNB, MPLS Label, PPPoE Discovery, PPPoE Session, LCP,

CHAP, IP, IPv6

IP

ICMP, IGMP, ESP, TCP, UDP, AH, OSPF

TCP/UDP

iSCSI, FCIP, iFCP, iSNS, LDP, HTTP, SSH, NFS, RPC, RPCBIND,

NBSS, Mount, DHCP, PORTMAP, MPA, DDP, RDMAP, iSER, SMB

Ethernet type II

IEEE 802.2, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3x, IEEE 802.5, IEEE SNAP,

Loopback, SNAP & LACP

Bridge Protocols

BPDU, GARP (802.1p), GMRP, GVRP, IEEE 802.1D, IEEE 802.1Q

VLAN, IEEE 802.11, Cisco, CDP, DISL, EIGRP, HSRP, IGRP, ISL, VTP

AppleTalk Phase 2

AARP, ADSP, AEP, AFP, ASP, ATP, AURP, DDP, DDP EIGRP, LLAP,

NBP, PAP, RTMP, ZIP

Microsoft

NMPI, SMB, SMB+ (CIFS)

Oracle

TNS (TCP/IP only), SQLNET

Intel

ISUP, MGCP, MTP2, MTP3, RTSP, SCCP, SIP, TCAP, TCCP, TUP

TCP/IP Suite

ARP, BGP (Version 4), BOOTP, CharGen, DHCP, Discard, DNS,

Echo, EGP, Finger, FTP, GGP, Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, ICMP, Ident,

iFCP (v0.3), IMAP, IP, iSCSI (v0.13), LDAP, MIME, Mobile IP

(A11), MOUNT, MPLS (v1), NetBIOS, NETCP, NFS, NIS, NNTP,

NTP, OSPF, PH, POP3, PORT MAPPER, RARP, RIP (Version 2),

RMCP, RPC, SLP (v2), SMTP, SNMP (v1, v2, v3), TCP, TELNET,

TFTP, UDP, Unix Remote,

Services

(lpr, rcp, rexec, rlogin, rsh)

VRRP, WebNFS, Whols, XDMCP, XDR, Xwindows

ISO

CLNP, NP, ESIS, ISIS, ISO

IPV6

DHCPng, ICMPng, IDRng, IPng, OSPFng, RIPng, RSVPng

IPX/SPX

Diagnostic, Error, IPX, IPX EIGRP, IPX Ping, IPX RIP, IPX WAN,

IPX BCAST, NBCAST, NCP, NDS, NetBIOS, NLSP, Packet Burst,

SAP, Serialization, SPX, SPX II Watchdog

DECnet Phase IV

CTERM, DAP, DRP, FOUND, LAT, LAVC, MOP, NICE,

NSP, Banyan Vines

VARP

VICP, VIP, VIPC, VRPC, VRTP, VSPP

VPN

L2F, L2TP, LDP (v1), PPPOEDS, PPPOESS, PPTP

LOA

LOA

IP Multicast Suite

DVMRP, IGMP, MOSPF, PIM-DM, PIM-SM, RSVP

IpSec/Security

AH, ESP, ISAKMP, , BEROS, RADIUS, SOCKS, SSH,

TACACS, TLS, SKIP

XNS

Echo Protocol, Error Protocol, IDP, NetBIOS over SPP,

PEP, RIP, SPP

IBM

3270, FDC, FID2, FM, NC, NetBEUI, NetBIOS, IBM_RT, SC,

SNA, XID

PPP

GRE, PPPCHAP, PPPIPCP, PPPIPXCP, PPPLCP, PPPNBFCP,

PPPOE, PPPPAP

Fujitsu Suite

FNA, LNDFC

Multi-QoS plug-in.

H.323 (ITU), ASN.1, GK DISC, H.225.0, H.245, Q.921, Q.931,

H.450.1, RAS, T.38(Fax over IP), T.120

Multi-Media

MGCP, P (v2), RTP, RTSP, SDP, SGCP, SIP (v2.0)

Codecs (ITU)

G.711, G.721, G.722, G.723, G.728, G.729, H.261, H.263,

CELL-B, MPEG (v1, v2), JPEG

IP Telephony (Cisco)

SSP, SCCP, RUDP

Other

CCMAIL, NOTES, Shomiti RSP, XWIN

Note that the following list of protocols is not exhaustive. Please contact JDSU Customer Support to inquire about any protocol not listed.