Understanding Interface Errors || CRC || Collisions || Input/Output rate || Giants || Runts || throttles || Discards troubleshooting

                         As a network engineer while troubleshooting the best practice to be used is  layered approach(layer 1 to 7). From what i have seen around and my experience most of them start looking at higher layer's and  ignore layer-1 which some times proves to be costly.


For example while troubleshooting a link flap or performance issue we look at all the parameters ignoring hard coding of speed/duplex which might resolve the issue. show interface Ethernet X/X on a Cisco IOS is a useful command which provides all the information related to the interface. In case of  packet drops/link flap etc the values of the interface counters provide a idea on what might be causing the issue.


RT1R#show interface FastEthernet6/1
    FastEthernet6/1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
   Hardware is C6k 100Mb 802.3, address is 0009.11f3.8848 (bia 0009.11f3.8848)
   MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
   reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
   Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
   Full-duplex, 100Mb/s
   input flow-control is off, output flow-control is off
   ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00   
   Last input 00:00:14, output 00:00:36, output hang never
   Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
   Input queue: 0/2000/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
   Queueing strategy: fifo
   Output queue :0/40 (size/max)
   5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
   5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
   1117058 packets input, 78283238 bytes, 0 no buffer
   Received 1117035 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
   79 input errors, 5 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
   0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input
   0 input packets with dribble condition detected
   285811 packets output, 27449284 bytes, 0 underruns
   6 output errors, 0 collisions, 2 interface resets
   0 babbles, 1 late collision, 0 deferred
   0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
   1 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Field	Description
FastEthernet6/1 is up, line protocol is up (connected)	The first "up" refers to the physical layer status of the interface. The "line protocol up" message shows the data link layer status of the interface and says that the interface can send and receive keepalives. If the status is administratively down then the interface has been disabled/admin down by administrator.
Hardware	Specifies the hardware type and address.
Internet address	Specifies the Internet address, followed by the subnet mask.
MTU	Maximum transmission unit of the interface. Default 1500 bytes
BW	Bandwidth of the interface in kilobits per second.
DLY	Delay of the interface in microseconds.
Reliability	Reliability of the interface as a fraction of 255 (255/255 is 100 percent reliability), calculated as an exponential average over 5 minutes.
Load	Load on the interface as a fraction of 255 (255/255 is completely saturated), calculated as an exponential average over 5 minutes.
Encapsulation	Encapsulation method assigned to interface.
ARP type	Type of Address Resolution Protocol assigned.
Loopback	Indicates whether loopback is set.
Keepalive	Indicates whether keepalives are set.
Last input	Gives the number of hours, minutes, and seconds since the last packet was successfully received by an interface. This is useful for knowing when a dead interface failed.
Last output	Gives the number of hours, minutes, and seconds since the last packet was successfully transmitted by an interface.
Output	Gives the number of hours, minutes, and seconds since the last packet was successfully transmitted by the interface. This is useful for knowing when a dead interface failed.
Output hang	Number of hours, minutes, and seconds (or never) since the interface was last reset because of a transmission that took too long. When the number of hours in any of the "last" fields exceeds 24 hours, the number of days and hours is printed. If that field overflows, asterisks are printed
Output queue, input queue, drops	Gives the number of packets in output and input queues. Each number is followed by a slash, the maximum size of the queue, and the number of packets dropped due to a full queue.
Five minute input rate, Five minute output rate	Gives the average number of bits and packets transmitted/received per second in the past 5 minutes.
Packets input	Gives the total number of error-free packets received by the system
Bytes input	Gives the total number of bytes, including data and MAC encapsulation, in the error-free packets received by the system.
No buffers	Number of input packets dropped because of no buffers. Compare with ignored.
Broadcasts/Multicasts	Number of broadcast or multicast packets received by the interface.
Runts	Frames received shorter than 64 bytes
Giants	Frames received that were greater than 1518 bytes
Throttles	Number of times the interface requested another interface within the router to slow down, possibly because of buffer or processor overload.
Input error	A total of no buffer, runts, giants, CRCs, frame, overrun, ignored, and aborts. This may not balance with the other counts.
CRC	Cyclic Redundancy Check failed on a input packet.
Frame	Number of frames received that did not end on a 8-bit byte boundary
Overrun	The number of times the receiver hardware was unable to hand received data to a hardware buffer because the input rate exceeded the receiver's ability to handle the data.
Ignored	Packets dropped because the interface hardware buffers ran low on internal buffers. These buffers are different from the system buffers mentioned previously.
Input packets with dribble condition detected	Gives the dribble bit error, which indicates that a frame is slightly too long. This frame error counter is incremented just for informational purposes; the router accepts the frame.
Packets output	Shows the total number of messages transmitted by the system.
Bytes	Shows the total number of bytes, including data and MAC encapsulation, transmitted by the system.
Under runs	The number of times the transmitter has been running faster than the router can handle. This may never be reported on some interfaces.
Dribble condition detected	Dribble bit error indicates that a frame is slightly too long. This frame error counter is incremented just for informational purposes; the router accepts the frame.
Output errors	A sum of all output errors. This may not tally with the output error
Collisions	The count of frames that were transmitted successfully after one collision. (Transmitted on the second attempt.)
Interface resets	the number of times the interface had a reset. Normally a result of missed keepalives.
Output buffer failures	The number of times a packet was not output from the output hold queue because of a shortage of MEMD shared memory.
Output buffers swapped out	The number of packets stored in main memory when the output queue is full; swapping buffers to main memory prevents packets from being dropped when output is congested. The number is high when traffic is busty.
Babbles	Count of frames transmitted greater than 1518 bytes
Deferred	The number of frames that have been transmitted successfully after they wait because the media was busy.
Late collision	A collision that occurs after the interface has started transmitting its frame
No carrier	The number of times the carrier was not present during the transmission.
Lost carrier	The number of times the carrier was lost in transmission.

Common causes for increments in any of the counters of the interface can be looked in the below mentioned  references

 Further Reading
Troubleshooting Switch Port and Interface Problems

 Understanding Discards