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Cisco ME 3400 EthernetAccess Switch SoftwareConfiguration Guide
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Chapter36 Troubleshooting
Using Layer 2 Traceroute
Layer 2 Traceroute Usage Guidelines
These are the Layer 2 traceroute usage guidelines:
•Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) must be enabled on all the devices in the network. For Layer 2
traceroute to function properly, do not disable CDP.
Note CDP is available only on NNIs.
For a list of switches that support Layer 2 traceroute, see the “Layer 2 Traceroute Usage Guidelines”
section on page 36-14. If any devices in the physical path are transpar ent to CDP, the switch cannot
identify the path through these devices. For more information about enabling CDP, see Chapter22,
“Configuring CDP.”
•A switch is reachable from another switch when you can test connec tivity by using the ping
privileged EXEC command. All switches in the physical path must be re acha ble f rom e ach oth er.
•The maximum number of hops identified in the path is ten.
•You can enter the traceroute mac or the traceroute mac ip privileged EXEC command on a switch
that is not in the physical path from the source device to the destination device. All switches in th e
path must be reachable from this switch.
•The traceroute mac command output shows the Layer 2 path only when the specified source and
destination MAC addresses belong to the same VLAN. If you specify source a nd destination MAC
addresses that belong to different VLANs, the Layer 2 path is not identified, and an error message
appears.
•If you specify a multicast source or destination MAC address, the path is not identified, and an error
message appears.
•If the source or destination MAC address belongs to multiple VLANs, you must specify the VLAN
to which both the source and destination MAC addresses belong. If the VLAN is not specified, the
path is not identified, and an error message appears.
•The traceroute mac ip command output shows the Layer 2 path whe n th e specified so urc e a nd
destination IP addresses belong to the same subnet. When you specify the IP addr esse s, th e s witc h
uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to associate the IP addresses with the corresponding
MAC addresses and the VLAN IDs.
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If an ARP entry exists for the specified IP address, the switch uses the associat ed MAC address
and identifies the physical path.
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If an ARP entry does not exist, the switch sends an ARP query and tries to resolve the IP
address. If the IP address is not resolved, the path is not identified, and an error message
appears.
•When multiple devices are attached to one port through hubs (for example, multiple CDP neighbor s
are detected on a port), the Layer 2 traceroute fea ture is not supp ort ed. Wh en more than on e CDP
neighbor is detected on a port, the Layer 2 path is not identified, and an error message appear s.
•This feature is not supported in Token Ring VLANs.