Technical Tip: Download Debug Logs and 'execute tac report'

[fgallardo1]

Description

This article describes how the execute TAC report command can be used to collect diagnostic information about a FortiGate issue.

The FortiOS integrates a script that executes a series of diagnostic commands that take a snapshot of the current state of the device. 

The output can be saved to a log file and reviewed when troubleshooting.

It is important to run this command when the issue is present.

The TAC report will collect useful information such as:

• Serial number.
• Firmware version.
• FortiGuard updates state.
• Memory and CPU usage.
• Global Configuration.
• Hardware features.
• Interface errors.
• Traffic statistics.
• HA diagnostics.
• Process crash log.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

There are two steps to obtaining the debug logs and TAC report. Note that 'super_admin' permission is required to download Debug Logs and run 'execute tac report', and 'diagnose debug report' commands. 

1. From the GUI interface: Go to System -> Advanced  -> Debug  Logs, select 'Download Debug Logs' and save the file.
2. From the CLI management interface via SSH or console connection: Connect to the FortiGate (see related article).

It is preferred to collect the data from the command line instead of exporting from the web interface.

The export from the WebGUI will truncate the beginning of the file due to the interactive command diag sys top, which will result in some outputs being missing (like the command get sys status showing the firmware version, serial number, system time, etc, and the command: get sys perf status showing the system load, memory usage, uptime, etc).

On the command line run the following command and let the script to run until complete. This will take a few seconds depending on the amount of data.

There are 2 commands,  diagnose debug report and execute tac report, which will print the same output.

execute tac report

Or run:

diagnose debug report

To download the logs from the CLI after the logs collected for the above commands 'Select the download icon:  ' beside the circle. As highlighted in the below picture, by default all the logs would be saved in the download folder.

To save directly to the clipboard choose the copy symbol as shown in the below picture.

Note: It is recommended to collect logs through a Telnet/SSH Putty session as the GUI CLI widget has a limited buffer for log display.

Technical Tip: How to create a log file of a session using PuTTY

For v6.2.3, v6.4, v7.0 and v7.2 branch: 

Go to System -> Settings -> Debug Logs and select the 'Download' button.

For v7.4.x and v7.6.x :

Method 1: Go to System -> Settings -> FortiCare Debug Report and then select the 'Download' option. It is also possible to download it by selecting the question mark on the top right and selecting FortiCare Debug Report.

Method 2. On the Top Right corner Navigate to Help -> Additional Support -> FortiCare Debug Report.

Related articles:

Technical Note: How to create a log file of a session using PuTTY
Technical Tip: How to download Logs from FortiGate GUI. 

Related video: