I do a lot of troubleshooting. Not just a little bit here and there. I troubleshoot problems every day for different clients in different environments and for different reasons. Some problems are simple, while others are very involved and complex. I consider myself to be very good at troubleshooting, and can sometimes have a solution in a few seconds or minutes. It's not that I'm smarter or have more training than anybody else, and I'm not trying to be arrogant. But efficiently troubleshooting a network can be an art form that can take several years to develop. And it never hurts to pick up a trick or two along the way. The goal of this article is to explain how to better troubleshoot your network by focusing on the source of the problem and using a methodical approach that will lead to the solution.
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 Marvin L Huffaker
Novell Master CNE
"Focusing on the source of the problem is the key to resolving it." |
Troubleshooting is a lot like other things in life. Focusing on specific items helps you obtain your goal faster. Let me throw out an example. If you want to buy a Ford F150 truck, you will probably go to a Ford Dealer or look through the papers and specifically look for F150's. Your search will be much quicker because you have a good idea what you are looking for. What if you just opened the paper and went and test drove every single vehicle that was listed? Or what if you started at a Chevy dealer? It would be rediculous because you'd waste a lot of time looking at trucks that were not even close to what you wanted.
Troubleshooting isn't any different. But I can't even count how many times I have heard things like "My hard drive failed and now my server isn't working. I ran DSREPAIR and it still doesn't work." Or "Nobody can login this morning.. I checked all the client settings and they look okay but it's still not working." The key to troubleshooting is to FOCUS on the things that might be causing the problem. Instead of running in circles looking at non-related things, try to think about what might be causing the problem. Work backwards until you find the source and then correct it. It always helps to understand the architecture, because you will better recognize what components could be involved in a failure.
With almost any serious NetWare problem, you can focus your attention on a few key areas and quickly zero in on the source. Suppose you have 3 possible causes in mind. Check the first one. You'll either find the problem or discover that you need to work either forward or backwards to the next logical step. For example, Server was rebooted and now people can't login. Three possible options might be: 1) Hard drive failed; 2) Server hung while starting; 3) SYS Volume didn't mount. So check the hard drive. Is it good? Does it at least start to boot? If so, then it probably hasn't failed. Go to option 2. Does the server load fully? no? Why not? Where did it hang? Troubleshoot it. If it did appear to load fully, do you get a server prompt? If not, then SYS probably didn't mount and you need to troubleshoot it. If it did mount, does it look like all the services loaded? Did the NIC load and bind correctly? Can you PING other devices from the server? Is utilization normal? Did you forget to load something in the AUTOEXEC.NCF file? Can workstations PING the server?
As you can see, when you focus on suspect events or items, it is easy to quickly go up or down the order of events to quickly troubleshoot and identify the problem. These same principles can be applied to virtually any other component of a network. By focusing on the source, and using a methodical approach to narrow in on the problem, you will inevitably learn to troubleshoot much faster and smarter.
About Marvin Huffaker Consulting
Marvin Huffaker Consulting is
located in Phoenix, Arizona and specializes in High Level Enterprise Novell Solutions. We FOCUS on NetWare, GroupWise, ZENworks, and Identity Management technologies. We can plan, design, and implement these solutions for you. Our contact information can be found here.
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