Net Protocol Suite Read Me

Overview

This Read Me file contains last-minute product information for the Net Protocol Suite™ software for Microsoft Windows.  For full instructions on using the Net Protocol Suite™, please see the User's Manual and other documents provided with this product. For the latest information on products used with the Net Protocol Suite software, please visit the Teledyne LeCroy website:

Ethernet Test Solutions
Ethernet Network Test Solutions for Traffic Generation and Analysis-Teledyne Lecroy

Fibre Channel Test Solutions
Fibre Channel Test Solutions for Traffic Generation and Analysis-Teledyne Lecroy

System Requirements

For optimal performance, it is recommended that the software is installed and operated on a host machine that is of a recent generation of personal computers architecture, and that at least the minimum requirements for memory, storage and display requirement are kept. However, the software could operate on some machines that are below the minimum requirements specified here, at the cost of slower performance of the system and limited usability of the software.

Software

Operating System

• 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016.

• The latest Windows Updates are required.

Required applications

To view some documents, you might need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Hardware

Memory (RAM)

For improved performance of the software, it is recommended that 16GB of RAM is installed on the host machine. Memory as little as 2GB would still allow the software to function but would impair its performance.

Non-volatile Storage (SDD or Hard Disk)

SSD storage is highly recommended for the best possible performance and user experience.

Storage space of 4GB is required for installing the Net Protocol Suite™ software on the host machine. Additional storage space is needed for the operation of the software application and for storing recorded data in files. Please remember that storing large captured traces can result in multiple gigabytes of file sizes and can quickly fill your available storage space.

Display

To take full advantage of the rich visualization and analysis of Teledyne LeCroy software it is recommended that the display is set to at least 1050 lines of vertical resolution with at least 24-bit color depth. The minimum requirement for the display is a resolution of 1024x768 with at least 16-bit color depth.

Connectivity

It is recommended that a Gigabit (1000Mbps) Ethernet link is used for the connection with the SierraNet analyzers. At minimum the host machine should have either a 100/1000Mbps Ethernet connection to the network or a USB 2.0/3.0 port.

If multiple analyzers are daisy chained and connected to the same host machine, one Ethernet connection or one USB port is required for each analyzer.

Please note that there is no connectivity requirement if the analysis application is used to only view pre-recorded traces.

For tips as for how to improve on the performance of the Teledyne LeCroy analysis system and more specifically on the performance of the software, please refer to the User Manual.

Installation

Please refer to the “Installing your Analyzer” chapter of the User's Manual for the details of Net Protocol Suite™ software installation.

Web Installation

• Run the setup and follow on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

 USB Driver Installation

• USB driver files are automatically installed with the Net Protocol Suite™ software installation.  Users must have administrator privileges to install the required device drivers.

• Do not connect the analyzer to the USB port until the software installation is complete. If you need to manually reinstall the device drivers, they are located in the Net Protocol Suite™ program folder. For example: C:\Program Files\LeCroy\Net Protocol Suite\Windows\Drivers\x64-Win10

Release Notes

 What’s New

• This is version 6.70 of the Net Protocol Suite™ software.

• This release contains the following components:

  • Net Protocol Suite™ version 6.70

  • CrossSync version 2.57

  • Link Expert version 5.34

New Features and Enhancements

Resolved Issues

Known Issues

Sync Header error injection has following limitations:

• This error injection does not work when Base-R FEC is enabled

• This error injection does not work when RS FEC is enabled

Jammer Marker Limitation in M328:

• Depending on FEC type Jammer Marker might have different offsets from expected location.

10G Speed: NoFEC, BaseR_FEC: 20 ns

25G Speed: NO FEC, BaseR-FEC: 10 ns

RS-FEC: 120 ns approximately

FC 16G Speed: 10ns

FC32G Speed: 100ns approximately

When a Jammer Marker is placed on excluded data, the analyzer places it on the next valid sequence.

Port to Port Time stamp accuracy for T328 Analyzer Platform are as follows:

(Measured the worst-case latency by sending the traffic on one port and looping back the exact same traffic to another Port and measuring latency between these 2 ports)

Fibre Channel

32G --> +/- 15ns
16G --> +/- 25 ns

Ethernet

25G --> +/- 17 ns
10G --> +/- 30 ns

Port to Port Time stamp accuracy for M648 Platform Analyzer mode on SFP APT ports are as follows:

(Measured the worst-case latency by sending the traffic on one port and looping back the exact same traffic to another Port and measuring latency between these 2 ports)

Fibre Channel

64G --> +/- 11ns

32G --> +/- 13ns

16G --> +/- 22 ns

Ethernet

50G --> +/- 13 ns

25G --> +/- 15 ns

10G --> +/- 26 ns

FEC counters are valid only for PAM4 speeds (50G PAM4, 64G PAM4, 100G PAM4 and 200G PAM4).

Jammer marker is not supported in 200G speed on M648 platforms. (NETPS-21841)

CATC sync cable needs to be removed when not used. Even if the cascaded unit is powered off the CATC sync cable needs to be removed for proper operation.

When using CrossSync, multiple monitors are recommended.

During Batch scenario operation, do not close the Batch window while a running scenario is uploading a recorded trace. Doing so may corrupt that trace and cause unpredictable behavior.

Connecting both the USB and Ethernet host interfaces of the Analyzer at the same time is not supported. Doing so may cause unexpected behavior.

Incomplete Windows Updates have been known to cause intermittent instability. If you experience intermittent application crashes or hangs, please reboot your host system to ensure that all Windows Updates have completed, then relaunch the Net Protocol Suite application.

The Jammer needs some periodic idles on the link it is monitoring in order to maintain the link properly. If there are not sufficient idles, you may encounter CRC and/or delimiter errors.

iWARP command triggers configured without a port number may falsely trigger on certain traffic patterns.

In some traffic scenarios with relatively large FC data sequences, if the entire sequence is not captured in the trace, the Link Utilization graph may not accurately present utilization during that sequence.

Under some conditions, the decoding of dynamic key-value pair fields (e.g., like ones in iSCSI Login Requests) might be incorrect. To resolve this, close the application, delete the directory ‘C:\Users\Public\Documents\LeCroy\Net Protocol Suite\SupportFiles\Software\Config\XML\DynamicFields’, then re-launch the application.

RTT analysis requires you to have free disk space of at least 3x the size of your trace file.

In the VSE output log window, the application might crash if you attempt to copy a huge amount of text (>10MB). (NETPS-19418)

In Advanced Search/Filter, the default match criteria for items from the library might not match exactly with data in a trace; in some cases, you might need to customize the match criteria.

In general, the time required to upload/index a trace depends on the number of captured events rather than on the size of the recording buffer.

The size of a trace file can be up to 2 times larger than the size of the corresponding recording buffer.

In Jammer scenarios, the sequencer state machine needs a small amount of time to transition from one state to another. During this time, conditions in the target state are not yet active, so no actions will occur.

Pre-capture filtering on Auto-negotiation and Link Training items is only supported globally, not within the sequencer state machines.

• Jamming on Link Training items is only supported on SierraNet M648. (NETPS-22110)

In case of a “PCS Data” item in a trace that is flagged with some Protocol Errors, there is no indication of which specific symbols in the PCS Data have the errors.

On certain systems running Trend Micro anti-virus software, Trend Micro’s Ransomware and/or Predictive Machine Learning features might improperly interfere with the Net Protocol Suite installation process, causing some or all of the following issues:

• “Driver Installer” error during the installation.

• Net Protocol Suite application fails to launch after installation.

• CrossSync application fails to launch after installation.

Software packages signed by Teledyne LeCroy, Inc., do not contain any malware nor viruses. If you encounter any of these issues, please contact your IT administrator about disabling Trend Micro’s Ransomware and/or Predictive Machine Learning features.

Projects extracted from a multi-segmented trace show the wrong count of segments, and are not editable.

In some cases with a setup of three or more daisy-chained analyzers, after starting recording, the setup might unexpectedly trigger immediately. (NETPS-19487)

Uploading might be abnormally slow on some setups of daisy-chained analyzers that use all ports.

VSE does not recognize changes to external imports referenced from the main script file. If you run your script, then save changes to an external import file, VSE will not apply the change until you close the application and re-open it. This limitation does not apply to the main script file. (NETPS-19877)

Non quick view recording warns insufficient disk space when less than 3x the trace size is available in the user folder.

Variable port delay on M328 TCP/UDP checksum calculations due to the checksum being located in the header.

The frame jam monitor counter doesn't update on the last jammer action when an immediate stop action is carried out after the frame jam.

You cannot use UDD scripts to decode trace packets via VSE. Currently we cannot handle UDD decoding in VSE.

The checkbox for “Multi path I/O exchange handling” (under Preferences->Trace) cannot handle a mix of normal port pairs and multipath traffic. (NETPS-22144)

VSE scripting: AppendHTMLLog can't be mixed with AppendLog. (NETPS-22739)

RoCE v2-NVMe triggering: due to identical header structure and varying data length, the following commands may produce false triggers: Set Features, Compare, Write, Reservation Register, Namespace Management and Connect. (NETPS-22224, NETPS-21219)

Starting with NetPS version 6.00

• Installation into a foreign character-set (non-ASCII) folder is not supported (NETPS-22937)

• When attempting to down-rev from any version 6.00 or greater to any version before 6.00, you must first uninstall the current version (6.00 or greater) manually (no prompt will be given). Failing to do so will result in 2 installations and possible unexpected behavior. (NETPS-22936)

• SierraNet M408/M168

  • Auto calibration is not functional.

  • 10G Ethernet HBAs that use Clause 72 might prevent the Jammer from bringing up the link (40G Jammer works and all Analyzer configurations work). For a possible work around on Mellanox HBAs, please contact Teledyne Support.

  • In 40G Ethernet AJ port configuration, the FC CRC Error detection does not work. FC CRC errors will not trigger the analyzer and will not show up in the trace. Please use the 40GE Analyzer-only port configuration to trigger / detect this error.

  • In a 40G Ethernet jammer configuration, the Connect and Disconnect actions are not supported.

  • The real-time throughput measurements on the SierraNet M408/M168 apply only to incoming traffic pre-jam.

  • When the SierraNet M408 is setup in a jammer configuration, certain 40G Ethernet DUTs may have a problem linking up through the M408 QSFP ports. Analyzer-only configurations are not affected by this limitation.

  • In daisy-chained setups with SierraNet M408/M168, under certain conditions, the Uploader Manager may incorrectly represent the state of the recording memory buffer. However, it is still possible to successfully upload trace data.

  • When changing port configurations, the link on affected ports might be disrupted until the port reconfiguration is completed.

  • In rare cases, when traffic contains small frames and different primitives back-to-back, the analyzer might miss capturing some data. (NETPS-20289)

  • Jammer Markers are added to the next item in the trace. To get accurate location for the markers in all cases, you must include Idles. (NETPS-21574)

  • FC Data length wrong when truncating (off by 8 bytes). (NETPS-20887)

• SierraNet T328

  • When updating a T328 analyzer from 2.00 to a later release, you cannot update the Firmware and BusEngines together at the same time. First, update the FW only, and let the analyzer reset. Then, you can update the BusEngines.

  • Multi-segmented recordings might result in corrupted traces. Use 1 segment only if possible.

  • Timestamps accuracy is +/- 15ns. In certain cases, this might result in a later item having an earlier timestamp than the previous item, or it might result in a later item having a timestamp earlier than the end of the previous item.

  • Multi-sequencer mode in Advanced triggering/filtering is not available.

  • In the 40/100G configuration, when the recording settings are set for auto-speed detection mode, the analyzer might sometimes miss capturing the end of Link Training sequences. As a workaround, set the recording settings to fixed 40G or 100G speed, depending on your link under test.

  • Under certain high link utilization conditions, the analyzer might malfunction and require a power-cycle to return to a working state. If this occurs, it might indicate that the analyzer needs repair; please contact PSG Support for assistance.

  • In daisy-chained setups of multiple analyzers, the timing accuracy between two ports could be reduced to 1us.

  • The analyzer may sometimes fail to lock to Mellanox NIC/Switch 50GbE RS-FEC links.

  • When a T328 and M328 are both inline on a 100G link with a Mellanox NIC/Switch, the link may fail to come up.

  • Traces captured using payload truncation in releases prior to 2.95 may show incorrect values for the packet length. Traces captured with 2.95 or later will show the correct truncated value, but might still show incorrect original length values.

• SierraNet M328

  • Multi-segmented recordings might result in corrupted traces. Use 1 segment only if possible.

  • Under some conditions, a few packets might be recorded around the trigger point on ports that were not configured if there is traffic running through those ports. (NETPS-18893)

  • After switching the M328 port configuration from AJA to analyzer-only on an 8G FC link, the analyzer might begin reporting errors on unused ports. If this occurs, power-cycle the analyzer.

  • In certain conditions, there might be link instability when using 3M copper cables on both sides of the M328. For best performance, use 1M cables when possible.

  • Timestamps accuracy is +/- 15ns. In certain cases, this might result in a later item having an earlier timestamp than the previous item, or it might result in a later item having a timestamp earlier than the end of the previous item.

  • The M328 adds 2-3us of latency to FC 32G links.

  • Multi-sequencer mode in Advanced triggering/filtering is not available.

  • For jamming auto-negotiation packet events, the Modify Frame jammer action may not be used; instead, use the Auto Negotiation Jam action.

  • In daisy-chained setups of multiple analyzers, the timing accuracy between two ports could be reduced to 1us.

  • Some Mellanox HBA/NIC/Switch 50GbE RS-FEC links are not able to come up through the analyzer/jammer.

  • When a T328 and M328 are both inline on a 100G link with a Mellanox NIC/Switch, the link may fail to come up.

  • Traces captured using payload truncation in releases prior to 2.95 may show incorrect values for the packet length. Traces captured with 2.95 or later will show the correct truncated value, but might still show incorrect original length values.

  • The “Analyzer Trigger” jammer action for 50GbE and 100GbE is invalid and does not do anything.

  • M328 FC Jammer does not support a byte mask for replace captured dword (NETPS-22376)

• SierraNet M328Q

  • Timestamps accuracy is +/- 15ns. In certain cases, this might result in a later item having an earlier timestamp than the previous item, or it might result in a later item having a timestamp earlier than the end of the previous item.

  • The M328Q adds 2-3us of latency to FC 32G links.

  • Multi-sequencer mode in Advanced triggering/filtering is not available.

  • For jamming auto-negotiation packet events, the Modify Frame jammer action may not be used; instead, use the Auto Negotiation Jam action.

  • In daisy-chained setups of multiple analyzers, the timing accuracy between two ports could be reduced to 1us.

  • Some Mellanox HBA/NIC/Switch 50GbE RS-FEC links are not able to come up through the analyzer/jammer.

  • Traces captured using payload truncation in releases prior to 2.95 may show incorrect values for the packet length. Traces captured with 2.95 or later will show the correct truncated value, but might still show incorrect original length values.

  • The “Analyzer Trigger” jammer action for 50GbE and 100GbE is invalid and does not do anything.

• SierraNet M648

  • For Ethernet host interface connectivity, all the following ports must be open

    • TCP ports: 3999 to 4003, 5000 to 5003, and 6000 to 6003

    • UDP ports 4033 to 4035

  • QSFP-DD ports do not support Auto Speed detection. If licensed to 50GbE PAM4, 25GbE NRZ can be captured by setting the recording speed to 25G. (NETPS-21620)

  • 200G BusEngine limitations:

    • Number of Analyzer Frame Detectors is reduced to 4 from 8

    • Number of RTS Frame Detectors is reduced to 4 from 8

    • Number of Jammer Frame Detectors is reduced to 4 from 6

    • Does not have IP-TCP-UDP checksum recalculation feature

    • Frame related protocol error detection is not supported

    • Supporting ISL frames: with fixed frame detection capability, ISL frames can be triggered and filtered, but if the user wants to trigger/filter higher encapsulated frames in both ISL and non-ISL frames with the same trigger/filter condition, it will not work

    • TRILL protocol is not supported; similar to ISL, it works only with fixed frame settings

    • DWORD and Frame capture and re-use in Jammer are not implemented

  • When using Avago optics, AJA Port Configuration is not supported, as these optics require special enumeration which is not available on APT ports.

  • On an AJ AJ daisy chain port configuration, FEC errors injected by the first Jammer will be automatically corrected by the second, cascaded Jammer. The errors will be visible on the second port’s analyzer (trace), but will not be sent to the downstream DUT by the second Jammer, as it recalculates the FEC and will send it out correctly (NETPS-22141)

  • Auto Calibration tracks the link bring-up stages, in order to assess the health of the link using the probe settings being attempted. When using DAC (copper cable assembly), please set the DUT to AN enabled in order to improve the effectivity of the Auto Calibration. (NETPS-22210)

  • Link Status View is not functional for NRZ project configurations. (NETPS-22183)

  • Jammer: the current jammer supports maximum frame sizes of 2048 bytes including Header. Attempting to jam frames larger than 2048 will not work (injecting CRC error is one exception; this is supported starting with release 5.10). (NETPS-22299)

  • Jamming Training Sequence: If too few Training packets are jammed, the Analyzer might not record them, although they are jammed. In order to capture the jammed Training packets, please jam several tens of packets.

  • Ethernet Exerciser: iSCSI frames, as well as ICMP (IPv6) and other L3 fames, do not automatically calculate the checksum. Sending these may result in Transport Errors. (NETPS-22697, NETPS-22736)

  • Ethernet Exerciser: 25G BASE-CR1 (Consortium mode) is not supported, and can’t bring the link up. (NETPS-22738)

  • Ethernet Exerciser: Sending MAC Control Frames with 0 payload length is getting unframed data in the generation. (NETPS-22766)

  • 64G FC optics require special enumeration that is only available on digital retimed ports P1/P2 and P5/P6.

•  SierraNet M1288 Limitations

  • Memory Segmentation is not supported.

  • ‘Before ports up’ filtering is not supported.

  • Real-time Statistics is not supported.

  • Alignment Marker content error detection is not supported.

  • Port filtering on unpacked Link Training is not supported.

  • 800GbE CR8 recording requires payload truncation to capture all frames. By default, this project configuration will truncate the entire frame payload. If capturing the entire frame including payload, there must be sufficient spacing between frames so that the load does not exceed 50%.

•  SierraNet M1288 Known Issues

  • The Lane Activity LEDs on the M1288 Probe are sometimes incorrect.

  • Jammer Connect/Disconnect action monitoring count always zero

    • Workaround: Add a separate Monitor/Count action to the event.

  • For the LinkExpert AN/LT tests, in some conditions the LinkExpert application may get stuck when tests transition from one link speed to another (for example, from 200G to 100G). We recommend you run tests from a single speed group at a time.

  • M1288 FC projects: When using an optical tap inline, we recommend setting the analyzer recording speed setting to a fixed speed. When not using an optical tap and the analyzer is inline, you must use a supported optical transceiver in the analyzer and set the analyzer recording speed to Auto.

  • M1288 FC projects: Projects created with v6.40 that utilize P5/P6 may no longer function properly with newer software versions. Those projects should be recreated with v6.50 or newer software to ensure ongoing compatibility.

Support

Online Download

Please enable automatic checking for software updates by using ‘Help’ 🡪 ‘Check for Updates’ from the software menu.

You can also check Teledyne LeCroy Protocol Solutions Group’s website for software updates and other support related to this product.

Software updates are available to those users with current Maintenance Agreements.

Contact Teledyne LeCroy

© 2013 Teledyne LeCroy, Inc

Teledyne LeCroy, LeCroy, LeCroy Protocol Solutions Group, Net Protocol Suite, FC Protocol Suite, SierraNet M1288, SierraNet M648, SierraNet M328Q, SierraNet M328, SierraNet T328, SierraNet M408, SierraNet M168, SierraFC M164, SierraFC M8-4 are trademarks of Teledyne LeCroy.

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Teledyne LeCroy reserves the right to revise these specifications without notice or penalty.