This section describes the types of SE PCAPs to enable packet capture accordingly.

To start packet capture for an NSX Advanced Load Balancer SE, use the debug serviceengine <SE IP address> command.

The various types of SE PCAPs are tabulated below:

SE PCAPs

Description

Minimum Supported Version

SE level PCAP

Captures every ingress and egress packets received/sent by a given SE.

File format: se_core_<core_num>.pcap

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_rx, debug_pcap_tx

17.2.12

Dropped PCAP

Packets dropped by SE are captured and stored into pcap file. Reason for drop is stamped on the comment section of the packet.

File format: se_dropped_<core_num>.pcapng

Note:

Few dropped packets might not be present in this capture file but this gives some level of visibility.

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_drop

18.2.5

IPC PCAP

IPC messages exchanged between SE’s are captured. Type of IPC message is stamped on comment section of the packet.

File format: se_ipc_<core_num>.pcapng

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_se_ipc

18.2.5

DOS PCAP

DOS packets are captured.

File format: se_dos_<core_num>.pcap

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_dos

17.2.12

NAT PCAP

Captures all the NATed traffic on a given SE. Packet comments help in determining if a flow is external/internal.

File format: se_nat_<core_num>.pcapng

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_nat

21.1.1

ROUTING PCAP

Capture all the packets that are routed by a given SE.

File format: se_routing_<core_num>.pcapng

SE debug flag: debug_pcap_routing

21.1.1

Note:

Capture knob under debug serviceengine <SE IP address> command will help in enabling all types of captures at once. Since, this starts all the SE captures, disk memory might be consumed.