# Using Debug Tool

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Descriptions

Debug is a troubleshooting tool that is available from the privileged exec mode. This debug can be used to display information about various application operations and the related traffic generated or received by the application entity, as well as any error messages. This tool is very useful and informative, but you must be aware of the following facts regarding its use:

•Debug is treated as a very high priority task. It can consume a significant amount of resources, and the entity is forced to process-switch the packets being debugged.

•Debug must not be used as a monitoring tool - it is meant to be used for a short period of time and as a troubleshooting tool. By using it you discover significant facts about the working and faulty application components.

The following is a list of recommendations on proper usage of the debug tool:

•You need a Telnet tool to monitor debug output from within a Telnet session.

•The debug command is used to diagnose a specific facility, task, or protocol.

•Turning debugging on for everything (using the log all command) is seriously discouraged in production networks. You get a tremendous amount of information, very fast, but it can severely diminish the system's performance or even render it unusable. The log all command is also quite useless since it presents overlapping information that is difficult if not impossible to interpret.

•If possible, use the debug command during periods when network traffic is not at its peak and fewer critical business applications are active. The debug command has a higher priority (with respect to CPU cycles) than network traffic.

•Always remember to undo debug as soon as possible. You can use the log none command to turn off all types of debugging that may be on.

•For troubleshooting, also consider using protocol analyzers to capture and display network traffic. These have little or no impact on your network performance, yet they provide valuable information.

Download Debug User Manual in HTML Help format for more information about the debug usage.

Please note registration for HTML Help (.chm) files is required since Microsoft issued a security patch for Microsoft Internet Explorer, disabling in general all HTML Help files that are viewed from a network drive. HHReg is a utility to remove this limitation by explicitly registering HTML Help files in the Windows registry to make them available for viewing.

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