Description

This article shows how to perform a core dump for analysis. Routers generate core-dumps when a serious issue is encountered. The support engineers need the core-dump(s) to decode them and determine whether the issue is a known hardware or software issue.

In order for JTAC to decode the core-dump, the core-dump needs to be taken from the router and then uploaded to the Juniper FTP server.

Symptoms

 

Solution

 

 The first step is to locate the core-dumps .

You can issue the command:

> show system core-dumps

Example output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12345678 Feb 14 16:40 /var/crash/core-TAZ-TBB-0.gz.core.0
/var/tmp/*core*: No such file or directory
/var/crash/kernel.*: No such file or directory
/tftpboot/corefiles/*core*: No such file or directory
The output shows us that the core-dump is located in the /var/crash/ directory.


Once you know where the file is located, you want to copy it to a remote system.

The steps for that are provided in this Juniper document:

www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos9.6/information-products/topic-collections/nog-baseline/files-directories-copying.html


Once you have copied it to another location, such as a PC, you will want to upload it to the Juniper FTP server.

FTP to ftp.juniper.net .
    root@router> ftp 207.17.137.56
Login as user "anonymous".
Name (ftp.juniper.net:jtac): anonymous .
Use your email address as the password.
Change the directory to "pub/incoming".
    ftp> cd pub/incoming
If you have not created a directory with the case number, do so now, otherwise skip to step 6.
    ftp> mkdir <Your Case Number>
Change the directory to the directory with your case number.
    ftp> cd <Your Case Number>
Set file transfer to binary. 
    ftp> binary
"put" the file onto the Juniper Networks FTP server. 
    ftp> put <Your File Name>
Once done, you can quit.
    ftp> quit

At this point, you wait for JTAC to receive the core-dump and decode it.

On average, it takes about 30 minutes for the core-dump to get to the server, though it can take longer. 

Modification History

2025-06-26: Minor, non-technical update

2013-02-20: Article created