Accessing the hidden console of VIPs of a 7500

The 7500 platform use the VIP (Versatile Interface Processor) for WAN interfaces. When dCEF is active the actual processing of the packets is done by these interfaces. Each one has its own CPU, memory, etc. The troubleshooting of this VIPs is difficult from the main IOS. In order to gain access to a deeper level you can access the hidden "console" of each VIP.

The hidden command for this is "if-con X" where X is the position of the VIP. There you will have a subset of commands only related to the VIP hardware itself. Under that CLI you may also run the also hidden command "sh process cpu" or "sh process memory" which will inform the processes and memory utilization related to the VIP itself.



Take a look at this sample session:

RT7500#if-con 2
Console or Debug [C]: C
Entering CONSOLE for VIP6-80 RM7000B 2
Type "^C^C^C" or "if-quit" to end this session

% Type "show ?" for a list of subcommands
VIP-Slot2>sh process memory sorted
Total: 257505888, Used: 91158344, Free: 166347544
PID TTY  Allocated      Freed    Holding    Getbufs    Retbufs Process
9   0  294293084 4241136340   62089916          0          0 CEF LC IPC Backg
0   0     156416       1568   28046376          0          0 *Init*
3   0     327264          0     327296          0          0 CEF process
0   0   95840700     151828     268172     405780          0 *Dead*
24   0 2759865168 3045964672      72608          0          0 CEF LC Stats
38   0      14832      12576      37904          0          0 Exec
15   0      20896          0      13216          0          0 Net Background
26   0          0          0      12864          0          0 MDFS MFIB Proces
30   0          0          0      12864          0          0 MDFS LC Process
23   0          0          0      12864          0          0 MLP Input
31   0          0          0      12864          0          0 Encrypt Proc
16   0          0          0      12864          0          0 Logger
32   0          0          0       8864          0          0 Key Proc
36   0     712384          0       7904     168740          0 Per-minute Jobs
11   0       2368          0       7616          0          0 IPC Seat Manager
37   0        160          0       7040          0          0 CEF Scanner
17   0      25968          0       6944          0          0 TTY Background
14   0          0          0       6848          0          0 Critical Bkgnd
13   0          0          0       6848          0          0 SERIAL A'detect
12   0          0          0       6848          0          0 IPC Deferred Por
10   0      20992          0       6848          0          0 IPC Periodic Tim
...

VIP-Slot2>sh process cpu sorted
CPU utilization for five seconds: 6%/5%; one minute: 6%; five minutes: 6%
PID Runtime(ms)   Invoked      uSecs   5Sec   1Min   5Min TTY Process
38         152       133       1142  0.32%  0.05%  0.01%   0 Exec
2          24    942306          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Load Meter
3       58308   7051777          8  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 CEF process
4     9021216    540686      16684  0.00%  0.13%  0.12%   0 Check heaps
5           0       649          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Pool Manager
6           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Timers
7           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Serial Backgroun
8          12     78527          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 IPC Dynamic Cach
9      446046  24596127         18  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 CEF LC IPC Backg
1           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Chunk Manager
11           4        13        307  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 IPC Seat Manager
12         104   4711140          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 IPC Deferred Por
13           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 SERIAL A'detect
14           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Critical Bkgnd
15         916    604255          1  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Net Background
16           0        20          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Logger
17         284   4711140          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 TTY Background
18        1344   4711140          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Per-Second Jobs
10         268   4711140          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 IPC Periodic Tim
19           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 CSP Timer
21           0         1          0  0.00%  0.00%  0.00%   0 Hawkeye Backgrou
...

VIP-Slot2>sh cef interface atm 0/0
ATM2/0/0 is up (if_number 3)
Corresponding hwidb fast_if_number 53
Corresponding hwidb firstsw->if_number 3
Internet Protocol processing disabled
Hardware idb is ATM0/0 (53)
Software idb is ATM0/0 (3)
Fast switching type 9, interface type 60
IP Distributed CEF switching enabled
IP VIP CEF VPN switching turbo vector
Input fast flags 0x24001, Output fast flags 0x1, Flags 0x80000
ifindex 2(1)
Slot 2 Slot unit 0 VC -1
Transmit limit accumulator 0xE8001A0A (0x0)
IP MTU 4096
Switching statistics:
Input: 2045821909 packets, 4763385945326 bytes
Output: 258298428 packets, 30703495813 bytes
0 input drops, 5112 output drops

VIP-Slot2>sh controllers
Interface ATM0/0 is up
Hardware is TI1570 ATM
slot 0, unit 0, subunit 0, fci_type 0x00000017, max_pak_size 4154
particle size 512, pool size 2048, cache size 2048, cache end 1023
Fallback pool cache size 89761, cache end 89761
rx free buf ring size 1024, init buffers 1024, current buffers 1023
rx max spin 64
tx seg rings size 256, tx max spin 64, tx scheduler table size 48


enabled 0, disabled 0, throttled 0
vc_per_vp 1024, max_vp 6, max_vc 6144, total_vc 30
rx cells 4082603089
hec error 0, aal5 discard 0, unknown prot 10214, unknown reg 0x100000C2
pkt overflow 0, crc error 10390, no buf 0, rx freeze 2
timeout 0, abort 134441, congestion_cell 0, rx dma error 0
tx cells 3733330619, tx count 0, tx limited FALSE
abort 0, no desc 0, align 0, discard 0, tx freeze 0
tx dma error 0
PCI detect parity error 0, system error 0
master abort error 0, receive target abort error 0
signaled target abort error 0, data parity error 0

Device values:
TI1570    device number 0, base addr 0x50800000, pci base off 0x800000
PLX9060ES device number 1, base addr 0x50900000, pci base off 0x904000
rx vpi table   0x50804000, rx dma table 0x50810000, rx fbrp table 0x50803800
tx sched table 0x50800000, tx dma table 0x50808020, tx sched interv 48
rcmplr 0x38008000, rcmplr ptr 0x3800D960,    rfbr 0x30018000,   rfbr
ptr 0x30018128
tcmplr 0x38010000, tcmplr ptr 0x380125CC

PLIM type ID 00A0, state 3, line rate 155520 kbps, rx fifo ovr 0

pacb.pa_bay 0x0, pacb.pa_device 0x0
pacb.pak_to_host 0x602A47F8, pacb.vip_memd_ifcntl 0x6093C1C0
pacb.pa_ifindex 0x0, idb->lc_ip_turbo_fs 0x60382B48
vcstats failed 0
dfs is enabled, idb->ip_routecache = 0x15
idb : 0x60C8DF00, lane client mac address : 00d0.bc80.f840

VIP-Slot2#if-quit

Disconnecting from slot 2 CONSOLE after 00:42:39

Anyway, this is a nice to know. If you have real issues and you want to troubleshoot the VIP you might find more useful the following links:

Hardware Troubleshooting for the Cisco Versatile Interface Processor (VIP)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps3088/products_tech_note09186a008009476c.shtml#symptoms

Troubleshooting Versatile Interface Processor (VIP) Crashes

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2643/products_tech_note09186a0080094b15.shtml#beforecase