Description

The intention of the article is to provide steps to isolate packet loss between directly connected interfaces with larger frame sizes . 
user@PE1> ping  192.168.1.1 source 192.168.1.2 size 9150 do-not-fragment count 100   
PING 192.168.1.1  (192.168.1.1) from 192.168.1.2: 9150(9178) bytes of data.
9158 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=20.8 ms
9158 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=22.4 ms
9158 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=29.4 ms

>snip<

35 packets transmitted, 21 received, 40% packet loss, time 34388ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 12.736/38.288/190.566/48.581 ms
 

Symptoms

Customer reported that on a newly turned up device when they are ping to a directly connected interface with Jumbo frames they are observing packet loss between 25-40% . Packet loss was however not seen with normal frame sizes.

Solution

To isolate the issue check for following.

1. Check for any L1 related issues first .
2. Check the MTU configured on both the local and remote interfaces .  
3. Check to see if there are any interface related drops seen on both the local and remote interface.
4.Check for any PFE related drops seen increasing on the FPC’s for both local and remote .


If following checks looks good then we need to check other options.

1. Open two sessions for both the boxes . On one session start a ping and on the other session perform a packet capture matching icmp. Perform the step on both the boxes . Use below KB for reference. Keep an eye on the sequence number on both boxes to see if there are any missing sequence numbers and if there is then which box is reporting it . 

https://supportportal.juniper.net/s/article/Junos-Sample-monitor-traffic-interface-CLI-commands-to-filter-and-capture-traffic?language=en_US
2. If from the above step we are unable to narrow down then configure firewall filter. It is important to make sure firewall filter is applied on both ingress and egress on both local and remote box. 


user@PE1> show configuration | display set | match JTAC

Aug 09 05:14:20
set interfaces ae1 unit 0 family inet filter output JTAC_TEST
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 1 from source-address 192.168.1.2/32
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 1 from destination-address 192.168.1.1/32
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 1 from protocol icmp
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 1 then count TEST
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 1 then accept
set firewall family inet filter JTAC_TEST term 2 then accept


user@PE1>show firewall                                                                
Aug 09 05:24:01

Filter: JTAC_TEST                                             
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
TEST                                               119314                   13
Filter: JTAC_TEST_OUT                                         
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
TEST_O                                             137670                   15
Filter: RE_IPV4_FILTER                                
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
DROP                                                19763                  385
Policers:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
POLICER-ICMP                                9178                    1
---(refreshed at 2024-08-09 05:35:24 UTC)---
Filter: JTAC_TEST                                             
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
TEST                                               339586                   37
Filter: JTAC_TEST_OUT                                         
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
TEST_O                                             413010                   45

Filter: RE_IPV4_FILTER                                
Counters:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
DROP                                                20617                  393
Policers:
Name                                                Bytes              Packets
POLICER-ICMP                                        64246                    7

From the firewall output we can see along with JTAC_TEST & JTAC_TEST_OUT the policer filter counter is also increasing , the number of dropped packets on the configured counter is matching with policer counter indicating that there might be rate limiting applied on the Protect RE filter which might be dropping the packet. Check with customer if the policer value can be modified . 
 

Modification History

2024-08-20 : Article Created