Collecting logs for UCCE. Method 1 - Diagnostic Framework Portico

One of the frequently asked questions when working with Cisco Contact Center Enterprise (hereinafter referred to as UCCE) is "How can I collect UCCE logs to investigate this or that problem?". There are several ways to do this, and in this post we will look at collecting logs through the UCCE diagnostic portal - the so-called Diagnostic Framework Portico.

Diagnostic Framework Portico is a web portal that is used for UCCE maintenance and diagnostic purposes. In particular, it allows you to view the statuses of UCCE components and their processes installed on a given virtual machine (VM). It should be noted that this web portal is not centralized, but works only within a specific VM and shows information related only to this VM. For example, if you run Diagnostic Framework Portico on a VM where Logger A is installed, then you will see information and logs only for Logger A. In order to see information about other UCCE components, you need to go to the VM with another installed UCCE component, and run Diagnostic Framework Portico on this VM.

To demonstrate this method, I will use our laboratory UCCE, on which all components are installed on one virtual machine (i.e. we have a SPRAWLER configuration). Therefore, in my case, Diagnostic Framework Portico will show all components and all their processes, but this, of course, is a special case. In real systems, the UCCE architecture consists of several VMs, so you have to run the Portico on each of them.

The easiest way to run Diagnostic Framework Portico is from the VM desktop. Open RDP to the desktop of the VM, then in the Unified CCE Tools folder find the Diagnostic Framework Portico shortcut. 

Double-click on the shortcut opens a web browser, which, in fact, gives access to the diagnostic portal (if Portico doesn't open please see the Solution). Upon login, you will be asked for an administrator username and password. Upon successful login, you will be taken to the initial screen of the Diagnostic Framework Portico. On the left there is a menu with the Portico's options and commands. First you need to set the log detail level for the required process of the UCCE component. To do this, select the SetTraceLevel option in the Trace section. Next, select the component and its process. In our example, we will select Router A and the process rtr (router), which is responsible for call routing in your ICM.

In the Level drop-down list, select the desired logging level and click the Submit button. It is recommended to leave the minimum logging level 0 at  first, and to increase the number of messages in the log if necessary only (by increasing this value), since an increased logging level significantly loads the CPU of the VM.

Then you can make test calls and start collecting and downloading a file with logs. In the same Trace section, select the ListTraceFiles option. In the Component drop-down list, select the desired component and its process (in our example, this is Router A and its rtr process). Next, set the time period to filter out unnecessary messages in the log, and click the Submit button.

After processing the request, the system will generate a zip file for you, which will contain the required log. To download the file, simply click on the link below and download the zip file to the VM.

Open the saved file. Inside the zip archive there is a text file with the log that can be opened with any text editor. Next, do an analysis of the log for a particular malfunction. In our log, which was used for demonstration, it is clearly seen that the rtr process has established a connection through the appropriate PG with CVP and CUCM (the log was taken immediately after the ICM start).

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in collecting logs through the Diagnostic Framework Portico on UCCE components. However, the described method allows you to collect the log of one process only. If you need to collect logs of several processes, then all the steps will have to be repeated several times. For the simultaneous collection of several logs, another method is more suitable - through the Real Time Monitoring Tool, which we will discuss in the next part.