Cisco Cisco IOS Software Release 12.0(18)S

This document describes the Event Tracer feature. It includes the following sections:

The Event Tracer feature provides a binary trace facility for troubleshooting Cisco IOS software. This 
feature gives Cisco service representatives additional insight into the operation of the Cisco IOS 
software and can be useful in helping to diagnose problems in the unlikely event of an operating system 
malfunction or, in the case of redundant systems, route processor switchover. 

This feature is intended for use as a software diagnostic tool and should be configured only under the 
direction of a Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) representative. 

Event tracing works by reading informational messages from specific Cisco IOS software subsystem 
components that have been preprogrammed to work with event tracing, and by logging messages from 
those components into system memory. Trace messages stored in memory can be displayed on the screen 
or saved to a file for later analysis. 

By default, trace messages saved to a file are saved in binary format without applying additional 
processing or formatting. Saving messages in binary format allows event tracing to collect informational 
messages faster and for a longer time prior to a system malfunction or processor switchover. Optionally, 
event trace messages can be saved in ASCII format for additional file processing. 

12.0(18)S

This feature was introduced.

12.2(8)T

This feature was integrated into Cisco IOS Release 12.2(8)T.