Sunday, December 29, 2019

What NETWORK problem is best/easiest troubleshot by looking at packets in Wireshark?

Yesterday I made a semi-obnoxious comment in another thread that got me downvoted pretty hard. (At least for this sub.) That comment was that a good networking engineer didn't really need to learn how to read packet captures in Wireshark as a core networking skill, because our primary responsibilities are layers 1 through 3, and you should never need to open up Wireshark to troubleshoot ANY issue in those layers.

However, I also posed a question in response to my backlash: If I'm wrong, prove me wrong. Name any situation where a NETWORKING problem (read: layers 1-3, something that you would have to fix on a switch or router) where you could only, or most easily, solve the problem by jumping to Wireshark and looking at packet captures.

And honestly, no one was able to answer it. I stand by what I said, that for a Networking Engineer, you don't need to EVER go to Wireshark to solve any NETWORKING problem. Problems of a higher layer? Absolutely. If you want to see if a server didn't send a SYN+ACK, or see what error message it sent, something like that, that's not a Networking problem. At that point you're doing the application owner's or the server owner's job for them. You are NOT troubleshooting a network issue at that point. You're doing someone else's job for them. Wireshark is their tool, not ours.

Here were some of the attempts at answering my inquiry, and my replies to them.

  • Attempt: A VoIP Customer (apparently you are working at a UCaaS vendor?) is complaining of call drops and quality issues, and wants you to verify that their traffic is being marked with the proper DSCP values. What easier way to do this is there than viewing their traffic in Wireshark?

  • My Response: Netflow, or even show policy-map interface and verify that the counters for Priority Queue and Signaling Queue are incrementing. Anyway, Netflow is the best answer, if the question is "verify that the traffic is being marked with the proper DSCP." Why would you EVER default to pulling captures and viewing them in Wireshark when Netflow, SFLOW, etc can easily tell you what traffic is going across your device, and if it has any DSCP markings. Done. Easy. Next!

  • Attempt: How are you going to verify asymmetric routing? Only Wireshark can show you if packets with the wrong destination address are reaching a host.

  • Response: That's not how asymmetric routing works. It doesn't cause packets with the wrong destination address to reach a host. ARP problems can typically cause that, and that's most easily troubleshot using show commands on your switch and/or router.

  • Attempt: ICMP is working to the server, but SSH is not.

  • Response. Then that's a higher layer issue, and it's NOT our problem as a Networking Engineer. It's not like we have protocol-based PBR installed on our network. We route packets based on destination address, if ICMP is working, but SSH is not, the problem is so obviously a server/app problem at that point a Networking Engineer does not need to be the one who is assigned to that ticket.

Anyway I am just curious since that hit a smaller audience, if I open this one up to the entire subreddit, does anyone have any GOOD examples of a NETWORKING problem (again layers 1-3, something you need to fix on a router/switch) where jumping into Wireshark to look at pcaps is the best/easiest way to troubleshoot that. Because I honestly believe that there's basically no reason to ever do that. imo if you are at the point of looking at stuff in Wireshark, then you are already the wrong person looking at the issue, and it should go to the app/dev/server guy instead.



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