In one embodiment, a network device, including packet processing circuitry, which includes at least one interface configured to receive packets, and packet forwarding circuitry configured to make respective forwarding decisions for respective ones of the packets, wherein the packet processing circuitry is configured to assign sequence numbers to the packets in at least one stage of packet processing, find missing packets in at least one corresponding later stage of the packet processing responsively to checking for missing sequence numbers among the assigned sequence numbers, and report the missing packets.