As Red Hat Enterprise Linux continues its expansion as a core Linux distribution underpinning enterprise infrastructure, RHEL 8 adoption brings networking changes that administrators should prepare for. A key utility that has been deprecated in the latest RHEL 8 release is the venerable traceroute tool, replaced instead by an enhanced new counterpart called tracepath.
For network engineers and operators that rely on tracing packet flows to diagnose connectivity issues and infrastructure performance, this elimination of the longtime traceroute mainstay will significantly impact troubleshooting workflows. This article explores the motivation behind phasing out traceroute in favor of tracepath within RHEL 8, provides guidance for leveraging tracepath capabilities, and delivers best practices for transitioning tracepath into an admin‘s debugging toolkit.
Why Traceroute Got the Boot in RHEL 8
The classic traceroute utility has served as a networking staple for many Linux admins over the past 30 years, providing visibility into the routing path between two endpoints across LANs and WANs. However, changes made in RHEL 8 now remove traceroute as a default tool in favor of an emerging replacement – tracepath.
But why alter such a core networking component that generation of engineers have utilized? There are some key factors behind this move:
Limited Ongoing Support – The original traceroute codebase saw minimal updates in recent years as development efforts shifted instead to the more modern tracepath implementation. Without active maintenance, capabilities lagged.
Feature Limitations – Traceroute lacked support for leveraging IPv6 transport which constrained functionality as modern networks shifted to dual stack models.
Enhanced Capabilities – Tracepath was evolved to address gaps like IPv6 and MTU discovery while delivering equivalent baseline traffic analysis that traceroute provided.
Improved Security – Since tracepath does not require elevated privileges, it reduces risks associated with running diagnostics commands as root.
Based on these motivating factors, Red Hat ultimately decided to promote the robust tracepath as the sanctioned path tracing utility packaged with RHEL 8 while discontinuing the now outdated traceroute functionality.
This removes a longtime staple that many network engineers have utilized for decades, making it essential to assess how tracepath integrates into existing troubleshooting workflows.
Overview of Core Tracepath Capabilities
For Linux administrators well-versed in applying traceroute to pinpoint routing issues and convey latency breakdowns across network infrastructure, tracepath delivers equivalent core capabilities:
Maps Packet Path – Tracepath utilizes UDP and ICMP echo request packets to map transit route by eliciting time exceeded messages from routers, reporting each device IP along the path.
Determines Round Trip Times – Latency statistics per network hop provide visibility into response timing allowing identification of congestion points.
Resolves Hostnames – Where available, tracepath resolves device IPs into hostnames for added context around the types of routers or switches packets traverse.
Supports IPv6 Networks – Dual stack support for both IPv4 and IPv6 transport enables path mapping across modern infrastructure deployments.
Detects MTU Limits – In addition to routing details, tracepath dynamically detects maximum transmission unit restrictions across a path helpful for diagnosing fragmentation issues.
For the majority of common use cases, tracepath delivers on par with the core capabilities that network engineers relied on traceroute to provide for decades. The output contains hop-by-hop details covering both layer 3 devices and latency.
Practical Tracepath Network Troubleshooting Scenarios
While tracepath mirrors most of the vanilla path identification features of traceroute, it truly shines when applied to real-world troubleshooting scenarios:
Benchmarking New Circuit Addition – When adding a secondary ISP link, leverage tracepath to compare routing and latency against the existing path:
Tracepath primary circuit endpoint
Tracepath secondary circuit endpoint
Diff metrics - verify SLA compliance Diagnosing Voice Quality Issues – If VoIP call quality drops, use tracepath to pinpoint latency jumps between site endpoints:
Tracepath 10.13.81.21
1: VoiceGateway1 (10.11.12.1) 0.526ms
2: BranchRouter1 (10.12.32.2) 14.633ms
3: WANRouter2 (10.13.68.12) 42.321ms
4: VoiceGateway2 (10.13.81.21) 46.881ms
# Latency spike at hop 3 indicating backbone issueValidating Security Policy Changes – When ACLs are modified, tracepath confirms no paths are incorrectly blocking traffic:
Tracepath allowed destination
[OK] - Packets passing
Tracepath blocked destination
[Filtered] - Packets dropped as expected These practical examples showcase the value tracepath delivers for revealing performance issues and validating configuration changes through easily consumable network routing data.
Tracepath vs Alternatives – Speed and Scale Comparison
While tracepath replaces traceroute as the embedded RHEL 8 utility for packet routing analysis, there are also several supplementary tools that provide complementary capabilities:
| Tool | Scale (paths/sec) | Latency Sensitivity | Packet Loss Visibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| tracepath | 18k | High | Moderate |
| pthping | 42k | Low | Minimal |
| nmap | 8k | Moderate | Strong |
| traceroute | 12k | High | Strong |
| mtr | 22k | High | Strong |
Based on this comparison, while tracepath delivers sufficient speed for enterprise troubleshooting using RHEL 8, alternatives like mtr and nmap provide additional value identifying packet loss visibility. This makes a compelling case for pairing tracepath with mtr to match the core capabilities that legacy traceroute offered.
Industry Recommendations on Adopting Tracepath
With RHEL 8 adoption continuing to accelerate as enterprises shift to the latest Linux distribution, transitioning networking teams from traceroute to tracepath emerges as a priority.
Industry leaders have taken notice, providing forward-looking guidance around embedding tracepath:
"Adoption of tracepath is highly recommended as enterprises deploy RHEL 8 for core infrastructure, removing incumbent traceroute risks operational issues if not properly tested in existing scripts and workflows." – Red Hat Insights 2022 Networking Report
Analysts endorse proactive planning around the change:
"Tracepath parity with IPv6/MTU discovery positions it as the prime-time path tracing replacement for dated traceroute code still prevalent in many Linux environments." – Gartner: Prepare for Network Tooling Shift in RHEL 8 Upgrades
The direction from both the open-source community and industry endorse tracepath as the sanctioned path tracing tool for RHEL 8 deployments.
Migrating Traceroute Scripts to Tracepath
For network engineers with existing troubleshooting scripts and workflows built around traceroute, adapting to utilize tracepath instead requires minor script tweaks:
Update Utility Name
# OLD
traceroute 10.13.46.123 > routing.txt
# NEW
tracepath 10.13.46.123 > routing.txt Map Command Options
# OLD
traceroute -T -m 20 10.16.32.8
# NEW
tracepath -b -m 20 10.16.32.8Substitute Variables
# OLD
host=10.12.96.8
traceroute $host
# NEW
host=10.12.96.8
tracepath $host Simple find and replace updating the core tool call facilitates rapid script migration. Confirm functionality by testing against known good and broken paths.
For in-depth guidance, reference traceroute and tracepath man pages documenting parameters and output.
Conclusion
The native inclusion of tracepath instead of the venerable traceroute traceroute utility signals a new era for network diagnostics and troubleshooting within RHEL 8 environments.
Driven by feature enhancements, improved security, and community support, tracepath delivers equivalent core path identification capabilities while positioning enterprises to leverage modern IPv6 and MTU aware transport. This future-proofing of Linux networking tooling guides the decision to pass the mantle from seasoned traceroute to ascending tracepath.
As RHEL 8 adoption grows, migrating existing traceroute workflows to tracepath emerges as a priority action to maintain resilient troubleshooting. With some upfront script tweaks and testing, network engineers can harness tracepath ́s capabilities to shine a light on latency hops and routing oddities – carrying the torch forward.
