Description

There may often be a need to understand the meaning, type, and severity of some of the common syslog messages seen while monitoring a network environment and the various devices. However, most log messages present only abbreviations instead of descriptions.

This article describes how to retrieve the meaning of these messages.

 

Solution

To get additional descriptions of common syslog messages, use the help syslog command. This command can be used in configuration mode.

The syntax is as follows: help syslog <string>

Example A

[edit]
root@switch# help syslog UI_CHILD_EXITED
Name:          UI_CHILD_EXITED
Message:       Child exited: PID <process-id> , status <exit-status> <core-dump-status> , command ' <command> '
Help:          Child process of mgd exited
Description:   The management process (mgd) created a child process to execute the indicated command for it. The child process 
               exited unexpectedly with the indicated status code.
Type:          Error: An error occurred
Severity:      notice
Cause:         An internal software failure occurred.
Action:        Contact your technical support representative.
[edit]
root@switch#

Example B 
root@B7_30> show log messages | find snmp | last 300    
Dec 29 04:11:12  J2350-B7_30 snmpd[4235]: SNMPD_TRAP_QUEUED: Adding trap to 172.19.46.70 to destination queue, 43 traps in queue
Dec 29 04:11:12  J2350-B7_30 snmpd[4235]: SNMPD_TRAP_QUEUED: Adding trap to 172.19.46.70 to destination queue, 44 traps in queue

root@B7_30> help syslog SNMPD_TRAP_QUEUED 
Name:          SNMPD_TRAP_QUEUED
Message:       Adding trap to <trap-destination> to <queue-name> queue, <size>
               traps in queue
Help:          Trap was queued for later transmission
Description:   A trap was queued for later transmission.
Type:          Event: This message reports an event, not an error
Severity:      info
Cause:         Possible causes include the following: (a) the system is not
               completely initialized, (b) a route does not exist, or (c) traps
               are being throttled.

Example C

{master:1}
root@EX4300> help syslog ESWD_MAC_LIMIT_DROP
Name:          ESWD_MAC_LIMIT_DROP
Message:       MAC limit ( <limit> ) exceeded at <interface-name> : dropping the
               packet from src <mac-address> e
Help:          Learning requests were dropped because MAC limit exceeded
Description:   Learning request was dropped because the number of MAC addresses
               learned on an interface has reached the user configured limit.
Type:          Error: An error occurred
Severity:      alert
Facility:      LOG_DAEMON
Cause:         More learning requests were received by the system than the user
               configured.

 

Note: Most syslog messages can be decoded by using this command, as long as the messages have a syslog tag. For example, syslog messages with the tag ALARMD_IFDEV_RTSLIB_FAILURE or CHASSISD_FAN_FAILURE can be deciphered by using the above command. However, syslog messages without tags cannot be resolved.

To know more about displaying and interpreting syslog messages and their severity levels, refer to Displaying and Interpreting System Log Message Descriptions and .

 

Modification History

2018-10-24: Related links section updated to include some documentation reference and the EX and QFX groups added to the product categories list; EX example added to Solution section

 

Related Information