Troubleshooting Tips for TracePlus/Web Detective (Spirent Edition)TracePlus/Web Detective (Spirent Edition) is a powerful packet analysis and web performance troubleshooting tool often used in lab and production environments for network forensics, performance tuning, and application behavior analysis. This guide provides practical, step-by-step troubleshooting tips grouped by common problem areas: installation and licensing, capture and decoding, performance and resource issues, analysis accuracy, and interoperability with Spirent test systems. Each section includes checks, likely causes, and suggested fixes to get you back to productive analysis quickly.
1. Installation and Licensing Issues
Common problems: installer failures, missing dependencies, license errors, or the product not launching.
Checks
- Verify system requirements (OS, RAM, disk space, and supported NIC drivers).
- Confirm the correct edition (Spirent Edition) installer was used.
- Ensure you have local administrator privileges during installation.
- Check license file validity and that the license matches product version and host ID.
Likely causes and fixes
- Corrupt installer: re-download the installer from an official source and verify checksum if provided.
- Missing dependencies: install required runtimes (e.g., specific Visual C++ redistributables). Consult release notes for the exact dependencies.
- Permission issues: run the installer as administrator and temporarily disable antivirus or endpoint protection that may block installation.
- License mismatch or expired license: contact licensing admin or Spirent support to obtain a matching license file. Use the licensing utility (or license manager) included with the product to re-point or update the license.
- Host ID changes: if you moved hardware or changed NICs, the host ID may have changed—request a license reissue or use a floating license server if available.
Diagnostic tips
- Review installer logs—these typically indicate the failing step.
- Check Windows Event Viewer (Application/System) for errors tied to the installer or app startup.
- If the app won’t start, scan for missing DLLs using dependency tools (e.g., Dependency Walker).
2. Capture Problems (No Traffic or Incomplete Traffic)
Common problems: TracePlus/Web Detective shows no packets or misses traffic from test systems.
Checks
- Confirm the capture interface is correct and up.
- Ensure you have sufficient privileges to capture on the interface (Windows requires elevated privileges; on Linux, use sudo or set capabilities).
- Verify physical connectivity and link lights, or virtual NIC bindings for VMs.
- Check capture filters—both BPF/PCAP filters and any GUI filters that may exclude traffic.
- If capturing on a TAP or span/mirror port, verify the mirror configuration and that the mirrored port includes the relevant traffic directions (ingress/egress).
Likely causes and fixes
- Wrong interface selected: reopen capture dialog and pick the correct NIC (look at IP addresses/MAC).
- Promiscuous mode disabled: enable promiscuous mode for full-frame capture.
- VLAN or hardware offload issues: disable NIC offloads (checksum, segmentation, large receive) temporarily—these can alter captured frames.
- Incorrect span configuration: correct switch mirroring settings or use a network TAP to ensure full-duplex capture.
- Filters too restrictive: remove or broaden capture filters to confirm traffic presence.
- VM networking: use bridged adapters or ensure the hypervisor supports promiscuous mode and is enabled for the VM.
Diagnostic tips
- Use a quick continuous ping (ICMP) or iperf traffic to verify capture sees packets.
- If traffic appears intermittent, capture a wider slice (no filters) for a short time and examine headers for unexpected encapsulation (VXLAN, GRE).
- On Windows, check that NDIS capture driver (e.g., WinPcap/Npcap) is installed and updated. Reinstall Npcap in WinPcap-compatible mode if needed.
3. Decoding and Protocol Dissection Errors
Common problems: malformed packets, wrong protocol interpretation, or missing higher-layer reassembly (HTTP, TCP streams).
Checks
- Confirm TracePlus/Web Detective’s protocol definitions are up to date for the Spirent Edition.
- Verify the capture includes all relevant packets for reassembly (no packet drops or missing TCP segments).
- Examine link-layer headers—unexpected encapsulation (e.g., MPLS, GRE, VXLAN, CAPWAP) can hide higher-layer protocols.
Likely causes and fixes
- Missing encapsulation support: configure TracePlus/Web Detective to recognize or strip encapsulation, or pre-process captures with a tool that decapsulates (e.g., tshark with -o options).
- TCP reassembly gaps: ensure full capture with no packet loss; increase buffer sizes or capture duration in smaller chunks to avoid memory pressure.
- Incorrect timestamps: if timestamps are inconsistent (multiple capture sources), align or correct them before reassembly.
- Outdated dissectors: install product updates/patches that add or fix protocol dissectors.
Diagnostic tips
- Compare suspect captures with Wireshark/tshark to see if other tools decode the same traffic correctly—this can isolate tool-specific issues.
- Inspect raw hex of a few packets to confirm expected headers and offsets.
- Use TCP stream reconstruction and verify sequence/ack numbers to locate missing segments.
4. Performance and Resource Problems
Common problems: slow UI, high CPU/RAM usage, long load times for large captures.
Checks
- Note capture file size and system resources (CPU, memory, disk I/O).
- Check whether hardware acceleration (GPU/CPU) or multi-threading settings are enabled in the app.
- Determine whether disk is SSD or HDD—large captures benefit greatly from SSDs.
Likely causes and fixes
- Very large pcap files: split captures into smaller files or use indexed capture formats if supported.
- Insufficient RAM: increase system memory or use streaming/partial loading options instead of loading whole capture into memory.
- Single-threaded processing: enable multi-threaded decoding/analysis if the product supports it.
- Disk I/O bottleneck: move captures to faster storage (NVMe/SSD), or ensure file system is not heavily fragmented.
- Excessive background analysis: disable automatic analysis or lower the verbosity of live decoders while working interactively.
Diagnostic tips
- Monitor Task Manager/Resource Monitor (Windows) or top/iotop (Linux) during heavy operations.
- Try opening the same file on a more powerful machine to confirm whether issue is local resource constraints.
5. Accuracy of Timings and Latency Measurements
Common problems: reported RTTs, transaction timings, or inter-packet timings seem incorrect.
Checks
- Validate that timestamps are precise and consistent—are you using hardware timestamping or system timestamps?
- Check for time synchronization across systems (NTP/PTP) and between Spirent test systems and the capture host.
- Ensure no capture truncation or packet reordering occurred (this will affect timing and sequence-based metrics).
Likely causes and fixes
- Clock drift: ensure NTP/PTP is properly configured; for high-precision timing use NIC or capture hardware that supports hardware timestamps.
- Buffering and driver-induced latency: update NIC drivers and disable features that interfere with accurate timestamps.
- Capture aggregation across multiple interfaces without timestamp correlation: use synchronized capture hardware or tools that support multi-source timestamp alignment.
Diagnostic tips
- Compare application-reported timings (e.g., Spirent’s test results) with packet-level measurements to find discrepancies.
- For critical latency verification, enable hardware timestamping on supported NICs and confirm the capture tool is using it.
6. Interoperability with Spirent Test Systems
Common problems: mismatched traffic patterns, protocol emulation differences, or issues when analyzing Spirent-generated captures.
Checks
- Confirm test configuration on Spirent (traffic types, encapsulations, rate limiting) matches expectations.
- Verify capture placement—are you capturing at the DUT, at the Spirent port, or a mirror of both? The capture point matters for accurate analysis.
- Check whether Spirent injected traffic uses features like jumbo frames, VLAN stacking (QinQ), or encapsulations (e.g., ERSPAN) that require special handling.
Likely causes and fixes
- Capture point mismatch: capture at the correct location for the metric of interest (e.g., ingress vs. egress).
- Encapsulation or tunnel use: enable appropriate decapsulation or configure TracePlus/Web Detective to interpret the encapsulation type.
- High packet rates: ensure the capture host and NIC can handle line-rate capture; use dedicated capture appliances or Spirent’s internal capture options if necessary.
Diagnostic tips
- Reproduce a small, controlled test (single stream at low rate) and verify TracePlus/Web Detective decodes that correctly before scaling to full tests.
- If Spirent provides native capture/export tools, compare those captures with the ones taken externally to identify capture-related artifacts.
7. GUI, Export, and Reporting Issues
Common problems: export fails, reports missing fields, or inconsistent CSV/PCAP output.
Checks
- Verify output paths are writable and that there’s sufficient disk space.
- Confirm export formats and options are set correctly (selected fields, time ranges).
- Check whether the current view/selection is what you expect—some tools export only selected flows or visible items.
Likely causes and fixes
- Permission issues: run the app with necessary permissions or choose a directory with write access.
- Large exports causing timeouts or memory exhaustion: export smaller selections or use command-line/export utilities if available.
- Missing fields due to filter or view settings: reset view to defaults or include additional fields in the export template.
Diagnostic tips
- Try exporting to a different format (PCAP vs. CSV) to isolate whether the issue is format-specific.
- Reproduce export on a different machine or with a sample capture to confirm whether it is environment-specific.
8. Corruption, File Compatibility, and Recovery
Common problems: open failures, apparent corruption, or version-incompatibility when opening PCAP/PCAPNG files.
Checks
- Identify file format (pcap vs pcapng) and product version compatibility.
- Run file integrity checks (file size, hash) and try opening with other tools (e.g., Wireshark) to confirm corruption.
Likely causes and fixes
- Version mismatch: upgrade TracePlus/Web Detective or use a compatible conversion tool to convert captures into a supported format.
- Partial file writes: ensure captures were closed properly; if interrupted, use recovery tools or import partial content into Wireshark for extraction.
- Corruption during transfer: re-transfer via binary-safe methods (SCP, SFTP) and validate checksums.
Diagnostic tips
- Attempt to salvage packets using tshark or editcap to extract readable sections from malformed files.
9. When to Contact Spirent Support
Contact support when:
- Licensing issues cannot be resolved by reissuing or reconfiguring licenses.
- You encounter reproducible crashes, data corruption, or behavior that indicates a bug.
- Complex interoperability problems with Spirent test equipment persist after basic checks.
What to provide
- Product version, build number, and license type.
- OS version, NIC model, and driver versions.
- Capture files demonstrating the issue (or small reproducible sample).
- Detailed steps to reproduce, timestamps, and any logs (application logs, Windows Event Viewer entries).
10. Quick Checklist (Summary)
- Ensure installer and license match product and host ID.
- Confirm correct capture interface, promiscuous mode, and mirror/TAP configuration.
- Disable NIC offloads and enable hardware timestamping when precise timing is needed.
- Update decoders/dissectors and check for encapsulation; decapsulate if necessary.
- Split large captures, use SSDs, and increase RAM for heavy analysis.
- Reproduce issues with a small controlled test and compare results with Wireshark/tshark.
- Collect logs, sample captures, and environment details before contacting Spirent support.
Troubleshooting TracePlus/Web Detective (Spirent Edition) often comes down to systematic checks: verify the capture path, validate timestamps and decoders, ensure adequate resources, and confirm interoperability settings with Spirent test systems. When in doubt, isolate with a minimal test case and escalate to Spirent support with captures and logs for faster resolution.
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