Tracing

The Windows 2000 Routing and Remote Access service has an extensive tracing capability that you can use to troubleshoot complex network problems. Tracing records internal component variables, function calls, and interactions. Separate routing and remote access components can be independently enabled to log tracing information to files (file tracing). You must enable the tracing function by changing settings in the Windows 2000 registry.

Caution

Do not use a registry editor to edit the registry directly unless you have no alternative. The registry editors bypass the standard safeguards provided by administrative tools. These safeguards prevent you from entering conflicting settings or settings that are likely to degrade performance or damage your system. Editing the registry directly can have serious, unexpected consequences that can prevent the system from starting and require that you reinstall Windows 2000. To configure or customize Windows 2000, use the programs in Control Panel or Microsoft Management Console (MMC) whenever possible.

You enable tracing for each routing protocol by setting the registry values described later in this section. You can enable and disable tracing for routing protocols while the router is running. Each installed routing protocol or component is capable of tracing and appears as a key (such as OSPF and RIPV2).

Tracing consumes system resources and should be used sparingly to help identify network problems. After the trace is captured or the problem is identified, you should immediately disable tracing. Do not leave tracing enabled on multiprocessor computers.

The tracing information can be complex and very detailed. Most of the time this information is useful only to Microsoft support engineers or to network administrators who are very experienced with the Windows 2000 Routing and Remote Access service.

File Tracing

To enable file tracing for each component (represented as Component below), you must set the value of the EnableFileTracing registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Tracing\ Component to  1 . The default value is  0 .

To set the location of the trace file for each component, you must set the value of the FileDirectory registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Tracing\ Component . The location of the log file is entered as a path. The file name for the log file is the name of the component for which tracing is enabled. By default, log files are placed in the systemroot \Tracing directory.

To set the level of file tracing for each component, you must set the value of the FileTracingMask registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Tracing\ Component . The tracing level can be from 0 to 0xFFFF0000 . By default, the level of file tracing is set to 0xFFFF0000 , the maximum level of tracing.

To set the maximum size of a log file, you must set the value of the MaxFileSize registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tracing \ Component . You can change the size of the log file by setting different values for MaxFileSize . The default value is 10000 (64 KB).