Description

 When facing challenges with Session Smart™ Router, compiling comprehensive technical data and a detailed timeline of troubleshooting actions taken becomes pivotal for a swift and effective resolution. This guide serves as a detailed checklist, offering a systematic approach to gather vital logs, timestamps, and troubleshooting data before initiating a support ticket with JTAC (Juniper Technical Assistance Center) for in-depth analysis. 

Symptoms

Accurately pinpointing the symptoms of a problem stands as a critical step, guiding us toward uncovering its root cause. Identifying the symptoms acts as a guiding beacon, leading us along a strategic path to understand, address, and ultimately resolve the issue at its core.
Examples of few symptoms:
1. Frequent High CPU.
2. Intermittent packet loss.
3. Application Slowness reported by end user.
4. Executing commands on the SSR is slow.

Solution

Technical Support Info (TSI) log:

The TSI log file serves as the fundamental diagnostic resource, offering comprehensive insights into the Session Smart™ Router's operational status. Providing the 'TSI' log file is mandatory when opening a ticket, as it encapsulates critical system data, configurations, and operational details. This comprehensive log is indispensable, facilitating in-depth assessments, accurate diagnosis, and swift resolution of identified concerns, ensuring a streamlined and effective support process. TSI logs also include any active packet-captures or session-captures running on the SSR when it is being saved.

Various methods exist to acquire the TSI log from the Session Smart™ Router. This article aims to present three different methods in a systematic order, empowering users to efficiently retrieve the TSI log file. By outlining these steps in a clear sequence, users can confidently access the TSI logs from the SSR router, ensuring a comprehensive collection of pertinent system information for effective troubleshooting and swift resolution of identified issues.

Obtaining TSI log from conductor and SSR router is same and below procedure can be followed to get the logs to JTAC

Saving TSI the Juniper recommended way:

The Juniper recommended method involves saving the 'TSI' file directly on the router using the PCLI (Programmable Command-Line Interface). Once stored, users can conveniently download this file from the Conductor GUI (Graphical User Interface). This approach ensures a structured and secure retrieval of the log, aligning with best practices endorsed by Juniper for efficient troubleshooting.

Accessing the SSR Router's Terminal:
Open the terminal interface of the SSR router via direct SSH or by selecting the terminal option from the conductor GUI. Below image shows how to open remote terminal from GUI

 

          A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated             
Login and execute:
Log in using 'admin' credentials or your LDAP/RADIUS PCLI username with administrative privileges for the SSR and Execute the command: 'save tech-support-info'
Upon execution, the SSR will gather required diagnostic information, and a progress message will display during the process. The process duration may vary based on the system's log entries. This process may take about 5 to 10 minutes
The resulting archive will be saved to /var/log/128technology/ with a specific format tech-support-info-YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.zip, indicating the date and time of creation.

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Accessing the Saved 'tech-support-info' from GUI:

Post saving the file, navigate to the logs section on the conductor GUI and select the appropriate router from the list in the ROUTER CONTEXT on top section and look for the 'Saved Tech Support Info' (highlighted in image below) option, click on it to filter and display only the saved TSI logs. Ensure the filename matches the generated file from the PCLI to avoid downloading outdated TSI logs. Download the verified 'tech-support-info' file from the GUI interface for further analysis or when opening a support ticket.
 

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Alternative Method: Direct Download via Conductor GUI

For real-time access without prior storage, customers can opt to download the 'tech-support-info' file directly from the GUI of the conductor/SSR router. However, this method necessitates a robust and stable network connection between the SSR router and the accessing computer.
 
Access Conductor GUI Logs Section:
In the Conductor GUI, navigate to the logs section mentioned earlier and make sure the appropriate SSR router is selected in the ROUTER CONTEXT field. There, we'll find the 'DOWNLOAD TECH SUPPORT INFO' option, as shown in the image below.
 
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Clicking the 'DOWNLOAD TECH SUPPORT INFO' option initiates an immediate download of the TSI logs to your computer. However, note the following considerations:
This process will not save a local copy of the TSI file on the SSR router. If download fails in middle, the user needs to re-initiate the download process again, which starts from beginning.

Final approach and last Resort: leveraging shell prompt (Linux)

In scenarios where the PCLI encounters functionality issues or when the SSR router operates under adverse conditions, users can opt for an alternate method for saving the "TSI' file directly onto the router's shell. This approach serves as a pivotal backup strategy, preserving critical diagnostic data despite severe operational challenges faced by the router.
 
Below is an example illustrating the process in the shell environment:
[t128@localhost ~]$ sudo save-tech-support-info
[sudo] password for t128:
2023/12/16 13:05:58 Skipping path "/var/tmp/ssr": lstat /var/tmp/ssr: no such file or directory
2023/12/16 13:05:58 pcli-before-and-after: Running 'before' step
2023/12/16 13:05:58 Found 50 Shell commands
<<snip>>
<<snip>>
2023/12/16 13:08:27 Archive saved to tech-support-info.zip
The "sudo save-tech-support-info" command generates the TSI archive,
In the below output, displaying the path where the 'tech-support-info.zip' file is saved. Typically, it resides in the directory where the command is executed.
[t128@localhost ~]# pwd (present working directory) 
/home/t128
[t128@localhost ~]$ ll 
total 280 -rw-r----- 1 root root 286720 Dec 16 14:14 tech-support-info.zip
This addition emphasizes the limitations of visibility in the GUI's logs section when employing the shell-based method to save the 'tech-support-info' file, highlighting the importance of seeking assistance from JTAC engineers to access and utilize this crucial diagnostic file for troubleshooting purposes.
 
It is advisable to save the TSI log before any recovery break-fix action being performed on the SSR as in when the problem persists, this help to capture the problem while it is affecting the SSR.

Modification History

Modified the article based on KCS coach review.

Related Information

Packet captures on the SSR is another important tool to capture live packets on the network when troubleshooting the WAN links or any application behavior.
Selective packet capture is a very powerful tool available on the SSR for troubleshooting specific service related paths and sessions, this will create packet captures across all the SSR routers the packets traverse in the network.