Commtrace classes

The IBM^® Toolbox for Java™ commtrace classes enable your Java programs to work with communications trace data for a specified LAN (Ethernet or token ring) line description. The commtrace package includes a class that you can run as a standalone utility program to format communications trace data.

When you dump a communications trace for an iSeries™ server to a stream file, the information is saved in a binary format. The commtrace classes enable you to work with the various components of the stream file.

Note: Communications trace files may contain confidential information, for example, unencrypted passwords. When the communications trace file is on the iSeries server, only users who have *SERVICE special authority can access the trace data. If you move the file to a client, make sure that you protect the file in an appropriate manner. For more information about communications traces, see the links at the bottom of this page.

Use the commtrace classes to perform the following tasks:

Format the raw trace data.
Parse any of the data to extract the information you want. You can parse both raw and formatted data, provided that you used the commtrace classes to format the data.

For a visual representation that shows how the commtrace classes represent the structures in a communications trace file, see the following page:

Commtrace model

The commtrace package includes the following classes:

Format and FormatProperties classes: The Format class reads both raw data and formatted data from a communications trace. FormatProperties sets the properties for your Format object, such as start and end times, IP addresses, ports, and so on.

Note: You can also run the Format class as a standalone program.

Prolog class: Retrieves information from the initial 256-byte section of an iSeries server communications trace.

Frame class: Retrieves information about the frames of the communications trace.

LanHeader class: Retrieves information from the section of data that occurs once, near the beginning of a frame. This section typically contains hardware-specific information that includes general information about the frame, such as the frame number, data length, and so on.

IPPacket class: Retrieves information from the data in the packet. IPPacket is the abstract parent class for the different types of data packets that are supported by the commtrace package.

Header class: Retrieves information from the packet header and the associated data. Header is the abstract parent class for the different types of packet headers that are supported by the commtrace package.

Most of the remaining classes in the com.ibm.as400.commtrace package are specific to the type of trace data that you want to work with. For more information about communications traces and about all the commtrace classes, refer to following pages:

Communications trace