Manual Chapter : Network Status and Details

Applies To:

  • F5OS-A

    2.0.0

back-action F5 rSeries Systems: Administration and Configuration

Updated Date: 06/30/2026

Network Status and Details

F5 rSeries systems include a set number of front-panel interfaces (or ports). The number of available interfaces varies depending on hardware model.

Interface Statistics display performance metrics for each network interface on your device. This includes data transmission, connection health, and error tracking which help in monitoring network activity.

You can monitor the amount of data being transmitted across a network over a given period. These statistics are crucial for maintaining optical performance, preventing congestion, and ensuring fair usage.

The network diagnostics help in troubleshooting by providing a range of network utilities to detect and solve network-related problems.

To view the network utilization, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > Interface Statistics.

    You can now see the following network details.

    • Network Utilization: Displays the amount of data being transmitted across an interface currently by default. However, if multiple interfaces are available, you can select an interface, data type and change the time series to view the historical data and analyze the data transmission.
    • Interface Counters: To view data unformatted/formatted, use Data Format dropdown. To auto-refresh data at specific intervals, use the Auto Refresh dropdown. Selecting an interface and clicking on Reset will reset the counters and restart the current graph for that interface.

To diagnose various network utilities, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system using an account with admin access.

    When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

  2. Run the network diagnostic command.

    system diagnostics net-utils <*command*>

    Below are the list of possible diagnostic commands for the network functionalities:

    
    dig           Run dig
    ping          Run ping
    ping6         Run ping6
    shell         Run the diagnostic shell tool
    tcpdump       Start a packet capture
    tracepath     Run tracepath
    tracepath6    Run tracepath6
    traceroute    Run traceroute
    traceroute6   Run traceroute6

    When you run the network diagnostics for tcpdump, the following options are available to use with this command:

    Count

    Description

    Example

    count

    Specifies the number of tcpdump captures and send ping packets.Note: If you enter the value as ‘0’, the tcpdump will be stopped immediately without capturing any packets.

    This example shows the number of tcpdump captures to 5:system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump count 5

    -c

    Specifies the number of tcpdump captures and send ping packets.Note: If you enter the value as ‘0’, the tcpdump will be stopped immediately without capturing any packets. You cannot use both count and -c options together while executing the command.

    This example shows the number of tcpdump captures to 5:system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump -c 5

    outfile

    Specifies the pcap file to write the captured packets.Note: The file is saved under /var/F5/system/shared/tcpdump/.

    This example shows capturing the tcpdump information to sample.pcap file.system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump outfile sample.pcap

    -w

    Specifies the pcap file to write the captured packets.Note: The file is saved under /var/F5/system/shared/tcpdump/.

    This example shows capturing the tcpdump information to sample.pcap file.system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump outfile sample.pcap

    --print

    Specify to view the packet information in the standard output terminal.Note: This option is only valid when used with the outfile or -w option.

    This example shows capturing the tcpdump information to sample.pcap file and displaying the information in the standard output terminal.system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump outfile sample.pcap --print``system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump -w sample.pcap --print

    --timeout

    Specifies to stop the tcpdump capturing and exit automatically after the specified time in seconds.Note: The valid number within 1–3600 seconds. If you enter the value as ‘0’, the tcpdump will be stopped immediately without capturing any packets. If you use timeout and -c together in a command, the system will consider whichever option is used first. For example, if the timeout is set to 10 and the -c packet count is set to one respectively, the system will wait for the time out to occur before closing the session, even if there are more packets than the specified count and vice versa.

    This example shows to stop the tcpdump capturing and exit automatically after 10 seconds.system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump --timeout 10

    filter/bpf

    Specifies the Berkeley packet filter (BPF) expression for tcpdump. This option uses standard BPF syntax.Note: You cannot use both filter and bpf options together while executing the command.

    This example shows the tcpdump capturing with bpf expression/filter.system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump bpf icmp``system diagnostics net-utils tcpdump filter broadcast

    This example shows running the network diagnostics for ping:

    appliance-1# system diagnostics net-utils ping -

Possible completions:
  -C: Stop after sending count ECHO_REQUEST packets.
  -i: Wait interval seconds between sending each packet.
  -n: Numeric output only. No attempt will be made to lookup symbolic names for host addresses.
appliance-1# system diagnostics net-utils ping -c 4 www.google.com

PING www.google.com (142.250.217.681 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.1e100.net (142.250.217.68) : icmp_seq=1 tt1=54 time=73.4 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.1100.net (142.250.217.68) : icmp_seq=2 tt1=54 time=74.3 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.14100.net (142.250.217.68) : icmp_seq=3 tt1=54 time=72.1 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-£4.1100.net (142.250.217.68): icmp seq-4 tt1=54 time=72.6 ms


--- www.google.com ping statistics ---

4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3002ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 72.167/73.169/74.388/0.877 ms

The ‘shell’ option allows you to execute network diagnostics commands from the shell without going back to the original prompt. It provides an interactive interface to execute multiple commands.

  1. Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system using an account with admin access.

    When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

  2. Access shell to run the network diagnostic commands.

    system diagnostics net-utils shell

    This example shows accessing shell to run the network diagnostic commands:

    appliance-1# system diagnostics net-utils shell

  3. Enter command.

    Enter command: ping

    Below are the list of possible commands that can be executed from shell:

    
    dig           
    ping          
    ping6         
    tracepath     
    tracepath6    
    traceroute    
    traceroute6

    This example shows running a command from shell:

    appliance-1# system diagnostics net-utils shell

Please use any of listed commands : ['ping', 'ping6', 'traceroute', 'traceroute6', 'tracepath', 'tracepath6', 'dig'].

Enter exit to return to CLI.

For detailed help enter command -h. Example: ping -h

Enter command: ping -c 4 www.google.com

PING www.google.com 142.250.217.681 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.1e100.net (142.250.217.68): icmp_seq=1 tt1=54 time=72.6 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-£4.1100.net (142.250.217.68) : icmp_seq=2 tt1=54 time=72.7 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.1100.net (142.250.217.68) : icmp_seq=3 tt1=54 time=72.3 ms

64 bytes from sea09s29-in-f4.1e100.net (142.250.217.68): icmp_seq=4 tt1=54 time=72.1 ms



--- www.google.com ping statistics ---

4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3002ms

rtt min/ava/max/mdev = 72.116/72.467/72.733/0.361 ms

    Note: Enter ‘ctrl+c’ to exit the shell after executing the command in “system diagnostics net-utils shell”. This ensures you go back to the CLI instead of canceling the executing command.

You can view the LACP details on the webUI to troubleshoot. For example, you can determine why an interface member of an LACP LAG on the system is not working as expected.

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > LACP Details.

    The screen shows state information about whether LACP is Up, Down, or Defaulted for LACP interfaces. The lower portion of the screen shows details that can be used for troubleshooting LACP issues.

  3. Set the Auto Refresh interval for refreshing the data displayed or click the refresh icon to update the data immediately.

LLDP enables a network device to advertise information about itself to other devices on the network and enables network devices to receive information from neighboring devices. If using LLDP, you can display state information for the LLDP-enabled interfaces and LAGs on the system. When LLDP is enabled to receive data in a working network, any device information received from neighbors is included in a table.

You can view the state information of the LLDP-enabled interfaces and LAGs on the system from the webUI.

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > LLDP Details.

    The screen shows LLDP state information for interfaces in the system (similar to information shown at the CLI using show lldp).

  3. In the Neighbors table, examine the identification, configuration, and capabilities of neighboring devices.

    This information provides details useful for troubleshooting many configuration problems.

  4. Set the Auto Refresh interval for refreshing the data displayed or click the refresh icon to update the data immediately.

Port mappings show how the front-panel interfaces on F5 r5000/r10000 systems are configured for capacity bandwidth and allocated bandwidth using pipelines and pipeline groups.

Pipeline Corresponds to a traffic-processing pipeline. There are eight virtual ports per pipeline. Each pipeline has 100Gb of throughput.

Pipeline group Contains two pipelines and corresponds to FPGA sockets. The system FPGAs are configured in the bitstream to support the different ports. No bitstream supports all ports simultaneously.

You can view how port mappings are configured from the webUI.

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > Port Mappings.

    The current configuration for port mappings displays.

Spanning Tree Protocal (STP) is used to prevent loops when you have redundant paths in your network. You can view the details about the STP configuration on the system.

You can view the details about the STP configuration on the system from the webUI.

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > STP Details.

    The screen shows STP configuration and network information for interfaces in the system (similar to information shown at the CLI using show STP status).

  3. If using MSTP, review the MSTP Instance State Information details.

  4. To auto-refresh data at specific intervals, use the auto refresh dropdown or click the refresh icon to update all data now.

VLAN listeners are created and deleted by the system at runtime. They are used to program the destination for broadcast packets and L2 destination lookup failures (DLFs).

The system creates a listener when you configure a VLAN for a tenant.

VLAN Listener (listener) Created when a VLAN is used by a single tenant or when a VLAN is not shared among tenants. VLAN listeners that are created for tenant VLANs that do not include any members are indicated with the value 0.host for interface.

You can view VLAN listeners when you need to troubleshoot data path issues and check whether the correct VLANs are assigned to the tenants from the webUI.

  1. Log in to the webUI using an account with admin access.

  2. On the left, click Network Status & Details > VLAN Listeners.

    The screen shows VLAN listeners that are active on the system.

  3. Set the Auto Refresh interval for refreshing the data displayed or click the refresh icon to update the data immediately.

You can see the VLAN listeners that are associated with specific interfaces, VLANs, and other related information. If something does not look correct, review the configuration for that object.

Viewing the VLAN listeners is primarily used for troubleshooting data path issues. You can check whether the correct VLANs are assigned to the tenants from the CLI.

  1. Connect using SSH to the management IP address.

  2. Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system using an account with admin access.

    When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

  3. View configured VLAN listeners.

    show vlan-listeners

    A summary similar to this example displays:

    appliance-1# show vlan-listeners
  NDI                                                                      
  INTERFACE  VLAN  ENTRY TYPE       OWNER    ID    SVC  VTC  SEP  DMS  DID  CMDS  MIRRORING  SERVICE IDS              
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  0.host     100   RBCAST-LISTENER  rbcast   4095  5    32   15   -    -    -     disabled   [ 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ]  
  0.host     101   VLAN-LISTENER    t101100  4095  19   -    15   -    -    -     disabled   -

You can see the VLAN listeners that are associated with specific interfaces, VLANs, and other related information. If something does not look correct, review the configuration for that object.