System Message Overview

This publication lists and describes system messages for Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. The system software sends these messages to the console during operation. Not all system messages indicate problems with your system. Some messages are purely informational, while others might help to diagnose problems with communications lines, internal hardware, or the system software.

This chapter contains the following sections:

System Message Structure

System messages are structured as follows:

%FACILITY-SEVERITY-MNEMONIC: Message-text

  • FACILITY code

The facility code consists of two or more uppercase letters that indicate the facility to which the message refers. The facility code is preceded by a % sign.

A facility can be a device, a protocol, or a module of the system software. Examples of facility codes are %BCAST (messages that are related to broadcasting) and %LWAPP (messages that are related to the Lightweight Access Point Protocol).

  • SEVERITY level

The severity level is a single-digit code from 0 to 7 that reflects the severity of the condition. A lower number indicates a more serious situation.

 

Table 1-1 Message Severity Levels

Severity Level
Description

0 – emergency

System is unusable

1 – alert

Immediate action required

2 – critical

Critical condition

3 – error

Error condition

4 – warning

Warning condition

5 – notification

Normal but significant condition

6 – informational

Informational message only

7 – debugging

Message that appears during debugging only
  • MNEMONIC code

The MNEMONIC code uniquely identifies the message.

  • Message text

The message text is a text string that describes the condition. The text string sometimes contains detailed information about the event, including terminal port numbers, network addresses, or addresses that correspond to locations in the system memory address space. Because variable fields change from message to message, they are represented by short strings enclosed in square brackets ([ ]). A decimal number, for example, is represented as [dec].

 

Table 1-2 Representation of Variable Fields in Messages
Representation
Type of Information

[chars] or [char] or %s

Character string

[dec] or %d

Decimal

[hex]

Hexadecimal integer

[int] or %u

Integer

[num]

Number

System Message Example

The following is an example of a system message:

%BCAST-3-UNSUPPORTED_MSG_TYPE: Received unsupported message (type = [dec])

  • %BCAST is the facility code.
  • 3 is the severity level.
  • UNSUPPORTED_MSG_TYPE is the mnemonic code.
  • The system has received unsupported message (type = [dec]) is the message text.

Searching for System Messages in Online Documentation

To search for a message in the online documentation, copy and paste the message that appears on the console or in the system log into the search function of your browser. Copy and paste these portions of the message:

%FACILITY-SEVERITY-MNEMONIC