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TIBCO Rendezvous® 8.8.0

# Limitations

## Range Limitations

`rvtrace` cannot examine packets unless they traverse the immediate network segment in which `rvtrace` is running. For example, point-to-point conversations within or between other network segments are invisible to `rvtrace`. Most saliently, retransmission requests and retransmission rejections are point-to-point packets, so they are visible to `rvtrace` only when they either originate or terminate in the local network segment. Consequently, in some situations `rvtrace` can detect retransmission broadcasts, even though it cannot detect the point-to-point packets that request retransmissions.

Switched network environments (such as switched Ethernet, or ATM) further limit the usefulness of `rvtrace` as a diagnostic tool. Since switching hardware forwards every point-to-point packet directly to its destination host, `rvtrace` detects point-to-point packets only when they either originate or terminate in the computer running `rvtrace`. In some switched networks, you can ameliorate this situation by disabling switching behavior—for example, by setting one port to diagnostic mode, or by using a diagnostic utility. This tactic can yield the full stream of point-to-point packets in a limited portion of the network; run `rvtrace` in that portion.

In addition, some network switching hardware can route multicast packets to a network segment only when a host in the segment is actually listening to the corresponding multicast group. Such high specificity further limits the range of `rvtrace`.

## Interface Limitation

`rvtrace` supports only Ethernet interfaces.

`rvtrace` does not support these (or any other) non-Ethernet interfaces: Token Ring, FDDI, ATM.

## Platform Support and Limitations

`rvtrace` operates on all platforms that Rendezvous supports—except z/OS.

TIBCO supports `rvtrace` on Microsoft Windows platforms, but requires that you first obtain and install `WinPcap` (see Obtaining pcap).

Warning | However, we do not support `rvtrace` on Windows SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) platforms at this time. `WinPcap` does not support SMP platforms, and might not operate correctly in multiprocessor environments. For more information, see www.winpcap.org/misc/faq.htm.
Note | On Windows platforms, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to the most recent version of `WinPcap`.

Note | UnixWare places security restrictions on programs that open interfaces in promiscuous mode (such as `pcap`). To run `rvtrace` on UnixWare platforms, you must dedicate a separate physical interface for that purpose.

Note | Mac OS X does not support `rvtrace`.

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TIBCO Rendezvous®

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