Diagnostic Tools for Servers

Note

This feature is available only for administrators and Infoblox Technical Support.

In addition to the Device UI, administrators can use additional diagnostic tools to get more visibility into individual NIOS-X servers. If you are an admin user, you can execute these diagnostic tools and have the diagnostic results displayed in a browser connected to the Infoblox Portal, with the ability to download the results. Certain diagnostic tools require certain services to be running on the server.

To run diagnostic tools on your servers, complete the following:

From the Infoblox Portal, click Configure > Servers.
Select the check box of the server on which you want to run the diagnostic tool.
Click Server Actions > Troubleshoot, and then select one of the following tools. For each tool, you can click Download in the respective dialog to download the diagnostic results. All results are downloaded as a text file.
- Traceroute: In the dialog, complete the following:
  - Target: Enter the target domain on which you want to execute the traceroute command. Example: csp.infoblox.com.
  - Port: Enter the port you use to communicate with the Infoblox Portal.
  - Network Interface: Select the network interface you want to use to execute the traceroute command on the server. This allows you to capture all transmitted and received traffic over the selected interface. You can also view the routes and hops used for the server using the selected interface. Note that you can select only one interface at a time. If you do not select an interface, the traceroute command will be executed on all interfaces for the server. You cannot select a combination of interfaces.
  - Click Execute when you complete the configuration. Results are displayed in the Traceroute Results section. Note that the results support up to four hops.
- DNS Test: The DNS Test tool is used to test the local resolver's connectivity and it's ability to resolve Infoblox endpoints. In the dialog, enter csp.infoblox.com as the Domain Name, and click Execute. Results are displayed in the DNS Test Results section. Note that this tool is used to confirm whether the Infoblox endpoints (such as csp.infoblox.com, cp.noa.infoblox.com, and others) are resolvable by the configured DNS local resolver. These domains must be resolved in order to connect to the cloud.
- Traffic Capture: In the dialog, complete the following:
  - Timeframe: Select the timeframe for the traffic capture. A valid value is from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.
  - Source and Destination: Enter a valid IP address or FQDN for your source and target devices. These fields are optional.
  - Port: Enter the port you use to communicate with the Infoblox Portal.
  - Service: Select the service you want to capture for the report. If you do not select any service, traffic for all services currently running on the server will be captured.
  - Network Interface: Select the network interface you want to use to execute the traffic capture operation. This allows you to capture all traffic over the selected interface. Note that you can select only one interface at a time. If you do not select an interface, the traffic capture will be executed on all interfaces for the server. You cannot select a combination of interfaces.

Note

Note that the troubleshoot dialog remains open until the traffic capture operation is complete. Depending on the volume of traffic, this operation might take up to 10 minutes to complete. Once the traffic capture is complete, you can click Download to download the results.

NTP Test: When you select this option, the NTP test will be executed and the results displayed in the NTP Test Results section in the troubleshoot dialog.

The following is a sample NTP test result and the definitions of parameters:

############### TIMEDATECTL ###############

Local time: Wed 2024-05-01 22:16:59 UTC
Universal time: Wed 2024-05-01 22:16:59 UTC
RTC time: Wed 2024-05-01 22:17:00
Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
System clock synchronized: yes
NTP service: n/a
RTC in local TZ: no

Parameter	Definition
Local time	The current time observed in the server's time zone.
Universal time	The current time in UTC format, which is the primary time standard used globally to regulate clocks and time.
RTC time	The current time in RTC (Real-Time Clock) format. RTC is a digital clock that keeps track of time even when the power is off or low on the respective device.
Time zone	The time zone in which the server resides. A time zone is a region or locality in which the same standard time is being kept.
System clock synchronized	The status here defines whether the system clock is synchronized at the server level or not. The value can be yes or no, as defined below: yes: When the on-premise NTP service is removed or stopped, the container will be removed as well. In this case, the server starts to manage the NTP service. Thus, the system clock synchronized status is yes. no: Once the on-premise NTP service has been enabled and started, the NTP service will be running at the container level. Thus, the system clock synchronized status at the server level is no.
NTP service	If the Linux Kernel is not running the NTP service, the value is n/a (not available).
RTC in local TZ	This defines whether the RTC (Real-Time Clock) in Linux is managing the NTP service in the local time zone. The value can be yes or no, as defined below: yes: The Linux Kernel is managing the NTP service. no: The Linux Kernel is not managing the NTP service.

Note

Check to verify that your NTP is properly configured on your machine. If not, configure NTP prior to running the diagnostic test.

To configure NTP on ubuntu, run the following command:

     sudo apt-get install ntp

Restart Server: Select this to restart the selected server. In the confirmation dialog, click Confirm to restart a server. Only Admin users can restart a server. If your server is disconnected, you can restart the server using the server's local UI.