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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: Re: VCCT and CA sniffer
From: Brad Cumbia <[email protected]>
To: Rok Sabjan <[email protected]>
Cc: EPICS tech-talk <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:42:56 -0400
In addition to only filtering CA traffic, the plug-in for Ethereal would also be able to 'dissect' the CA packet, that is, give meaning to the plain hex-codes. Thus, every CA packet would have fields revealing CA-specific information, such as:

 * what CA command is in a packet (CA_PROTO_SEARCH, CA_PROTO_READ_NOTIFY, ...)
 * what are the parameters of the command (channel name being sought for, channel name that was resolved, the value of the field that was returned, ...)
 * ...

Then, filtering and searching operations could also be made relative to those fields. Example filter:

"find all packets that concern record ABCD"



That sounds good to me.


Brad Cumbia
Accelerator Network Administrator/Senior Controls Technologist
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Electrical Engineering Support Group
Instrumentation & Control Systems
Accelerator Computing Environment
12000 Jefferson Avenue
Newport News, Virginia 23606
Phone (757)269-5839
Pager (757)584-5839
Fax (757)269-7309
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Rok Sabjan wrote:
Hi Ned, Matthieu et al.,

thanks for the interest. I asked our expert what would be the benefits and here is his answer:

In addition to only filtering CA traffic, the plug-in for Ethereal would also be able to 'dissect' the CA packet, that is, give meaning to the plain hex-codes. Thus, every CA packet would have fields revealing CA-specific information, such as:

* what CA command is in a packet (CA_PROTO_SEARCH, CA_PROTO_READ_NOTIFY, ...)
* what are the parameters of the command (channel name being sought for, channel name that was resolved, the value of the field that was returned, ...)
* ...


Then, filtering and searching operations could also be made relative to those fields. Example filter:

"find all packets that concern record ABCD"

I hope this is interesting enough. If you need additional information, please let me know.

Best regards,
Rok



Matthieu Bec wrote:


Hi Ned,


Could we get a bit more description, maybe a draft from Cosylab what the plugin could possibly do? It sounds very interesting.

Regards,
Matthieu

Ernest L. Williams Jr. wrote:

On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 14:59 -0400, Matt Bickley wrote:

Ned Arnold wrote:

All -

COSYLAB is interested in adding Channel Access support to Ethereal (an open source protocol sniffer) ... for a small fee of course. I'd like some feedback on whether this seems useful ... and how much your institution would be willing to pitch in.

It would be one way to feel a little more independent and confident in one's ability to investigate site-specific communication anomalies, so it has a real payback for your project.

Send comments <and checks> to tech-talk.

We already use ethereal, and it has been very helpful for us in diagnosing network issues and in making us aware of poorly behaving clients. You have to wade through a lot of extraneous traffic to find the CA-relevant, however. If ethereal had CA support, the tool would be easier to use by anyone, not just network protocol experts.

What we have done is to create some nice filters using ethereal to pick out the EPICS CA TCP and UDP traffic.


Thanks, Ernest








References:
Re: VCCT and CA sniffer Ned Arnold
Re: VCCT and CA sniffer Matt Bickley
Re: VCCT and CA sniffer Ernest L. Williams Jr.
Re: VCCT and CA sniffer Matthieu Bec
Re: VCCT and CA sniffer Rok Sabjan

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