This article lists useful information when opening a Support case on API Gateway and API Manager.

First.

• If at all possible, please provide the exact version, e.g. 7.7.20200730.
  • Also, if patches have been applied (directory .../apigateway/META-INF exists) please provide its contents, and a listing of .../apigateway/ext/lib

General information to consider including:

• Brief description of the issue or question.
• If applicable/available/known: provide error message, log fragment, or screen shot that shows the suspected cause.
• If the issue is complex, intermittent, or needs further explanation, provide a more complete narrative with more details on those points.
• Is this something that used to work and now does not? If so, is anything known to have changed in the environment?
• If replication steps are known, please provide.
• If applicable, what has already been done to work the issue, and with what results?

More granular categories:

If a 'how to' question:

• What is the goal?
• If applicable. What has been tried? What documentation has already been consulted?

If an enhancement request:

• What is the use case to be achieved? What is the expected benefit? What is the current impact?

Other artifacts or logs to include:

• If the issue is a failed transaction or API, find one via Traffic Monitor and provide: JSON file via download button at top right, and trace file via save link at bottom left, of the detail view.
• If some transactions with a similar flow are still working, or used to work prior to the problem; please find one of those successful ones and include the same Traffic Monitor info as above for comparison.
• If the issue's scope is larger than a single transaction, the actual instance trace files may be needed.
• If known, the API call and example payload that causes the issue.
• If applicable, the Fed file, or an export of the Policy Studio polices that are involved in the problem.

If reporting a freeze or crash:

• Freeze, see KB 177661
• Crash, see KB 177035, and KB 163470.
• Most recent trace file(s) before the issue.
• Any hs_err_[pid].log files.

If a deployment issue:

• Characterize the issue: intermittent, only one node fails, how long before it fails, one environment or all, any differences from before when deployments worked, etc.
• Policy Studio or deployment error seen.
• Admin node manager and node manager traces may be requested.

If API Manager is involved:

• For a problem with an API Manager operation, please include related Swagger or WSDL or FeAPI .dat files, steps for UI operation attempted, screen shots, REST calls made from automation, etc.)
• Please provide that instance's trace file including the time range in question. Plus other applicable details to identify the area of interest such as API name, time of error, etc.
• Information regarding your topology and Cassandra setup may be requested.
• As well, a Cassandra or kspadmin backup may be requested.

If installation issues:

• console output from the installation session
• description of the steps used
• trace file or error message seen
• [may be updated or broken out to separate KB]

If a system issue or performance issue is suspected:

• General system info: physical/virtual/container, CPU and memory size, OS version, etc.
• Run commands once, as same user as API Gateway runs under.
  • ulimit -a or ulimit -aH and ulimit -aS
• Run commands as base line after system startup, then run again several times with a 1-2 min delay between then during a period of interest.
  • netstat -an >>netstat-output.txt
  • top -c -n 1 -b >>top-output.txt
• [preliminary info, may be updated or broken out to separate KB]

Error with licenses:

• Licenses can be found in directory conf/licenses .
• It will include option such as : company, expires (date), host.name, name (contact), unrestricted, version (and also signature of the file)
• license is not linked to the minor version of the API product (3rd digit)
• API Manager has option apiportal=1, analytics has option analytics=1, deployment_type=(nondocker or docker)
• License is linked to a specific hostname (see also traces at startup: apigateway/trace for the nodemanager or apigateway/groups/group-x/instance-y/trace).
• The node manager can start without a license, the error will be found at the instance level

Errors linked to an identified instance:

• The traces of the instance can be found in apigateway/groups/group-x/instance-y/trace.
• If you don’t know the group number and the instance number, you can get it in the folder topologylink, with name present in the UI (apigateway/group/topologylink).

Errors linked communications between instances and node manager:

• The traces related to traffic between the instances and the node manager are traces of the node manager (apigateway/traces).
• It is also useful to have a tar of each node's directory apigateway/conf/fed. This one contains information about the node manager or admin node manager.