Troubleshooting Techniques - 1

Troubleshooting Techniques

2 Areas
Technical
Non-Technical

Technical

1. Lab Practice – Ensure you have tried the exact scenario as the customer’s requirement in your labs. You should avoid experimenting new features and configuration at the customer site.
2. 
   Planning – Date, approach to the implementation, prior planning of downtime, backup of the existing configuration, clear roll back plan and documentation of the existing network are the components of planning.
   
3. Software Check List – Operating Systems requirement, Versions, Service Packs, required patches, fixes for the specific installation (application) check list should be ready well in advance.
5. Hardware Check List – Similarly, hardware compatibility guide, required RAM, Disk Space, Network Interface Cards, drivers should be the components of Hardware Check List. Never start an installation with insufficient hardware resources.
   
6. Network Diagram – Network Diagram of the existing setup including IP Schema. Customer may not be keen to share it with you. However, those unrevealed components of his network may be the actual show stopper.
   
7. Network Design – Extend the present network diagram with your new network design and see how you can integrate the new components seamlessly with present setup. Network Design is a must, including new IP devices that may get added in the new setup.
   
8. Positioning – You need to thoroughly understand the ways your devices (routers, switches, firewalls, IPS, filtering appliances) or servers (OS, Domain Controllers, Mail, Database, Web, DNS, DHCP & Application) can be positioned in the network (in different ways). You need to understand the constraint and comforts of positioning devices in many ways and update the same to customer. Take his consent. Don’t position your devices unless you know the complete exit path in front and entry path from the LAN. Unknown devices along the path will create connectivity issues.
   
9. Basic Configuration – Always start with a minimum configuration required to set the device up and running. Don’t ever configure the whole configuration required to complete the installation. This way you can be clear which particular step creates a problem.
   
10. Incremental Configuration- Once the basic configuration is up and running, then start with incremental configuration required to complete the installation. Again each step you ensure that things are working fine before you proceed to the next. This will narrow down your problem to the specific step that gives the trouble.
    
11. Logs – After every installation look for logs (such as Event Viewer in Windows) for a successful installation or any alerts (errors).
    
12. Error Code – For every known error, there is an error code provided by the vendors. Instead of beating around the bush to troubleshoot, look up in the vendor’s support site and attempt the resolution recommended
    
13. Knowledgebase – Your first step before you attempt to resolve the problem is to look up to the KB articles on every vendor site. Shortest resolution time is a good indicator of your troubleshooting skills.
    
14. Escalation – Keeping the problems with you will never help the cause. Escalate the problem to your organization, to the vendor and throw the issues to the newsgroups & forums (ensure no customer name or exact IP addresses are shared). Often delay in escalation leads to more trouble, lost customer confidence and peer pressures.
    
15. Reconfiguration – Based on newer inputs, perform the reconfiguration.
    
16. Backup – Backup the new configuration. At each stage backing up the configuration with the details such as date, time and the level of technical success achieved is important to go back to various stages of installation.
    
17. Testing – Test the configuration by monitoring the new configuration till all the users access the new setup and report any problems.
    
18. Documentation – Complete the documentation. Give a copy to customer, retain a copy and update the vendors/newsgroups about the resolution.
    
19. Include in Future Lab Practice – Include this newer problem solving experience for the future lab practices for your colleagues.

Non-Technical

3 Areas
Customer
Organization
Self

Customer

1. Planning
2. Presentation – Right way of presenting yourself and the solution makes a lot of difference, avoids problems from the customer side, pressures from the customer and the organization.
   Limitations – Explain the limitations of your new design to your customer. Take his consent.
   Expectations – Set right expectations to your customer upon what he will get and what he will not, when the new setup is in place. Setting wrong expectations will force you to configure something which the box may not support.
   
3. Update – Update the customer on each stage of configuration, what has been done, and what is pending.
   
4. Follow-up – Once signed-off, ensure you call the customer for the next few cycles and take updates from him about the stability of the new setup which you had configured.
   
5. Feedback – Take feedback from the customer, your team heads, formally or informally about how the installation went.

Organization

1. Clear Communication/Clear Commitment – Give clear commitment about what you are going to do for a specific installation. Clear communication is an important factor and will alienate you from any undue pressures.
2. Skill Inputs – Often Engineers rate their skills higher than the actual. This may result in a higher expectation about your skills by your sales colleagues. This is not an interview where you have to hype about your skills. This is a real installation.
   
3. Right Team Composition – Clear Communication and providing right skill inputs will help your team leaders to put-up a right team composition capable of completing the installation without any surprises or need for additional resources.
   
4. Handling Pressures – Lack of planning, lack of communication and lack of methodological approach often results in pressures from your peers, from your organization and from your customers. It’s very important to keep your mind calm, work towards a technical solution to resolve the issue; at the same time adopting non-technical means to ensure more pressure do not get developed in the process.
   
5. Log – Log your visits, log your activities, and log your communications with the vendors, customers, sales team and your colleagues. Lack of clear log results in nobody knowing what is happening.
   
6. Updates – Update your team leader, division head about each stage of the process.
   
7. Next Actions – Update your sales team about what has been achieved and what are the pending issues or next planned action specific to the customer or specific to the installation.
   
   Self
8. Self Analysis
   
9. Lab Practice
   
10. Fear
    
11. Uncertainty
    
12. Doubt
    
13. Over Confidence
    
14. Wrong or Low Expectations
    
15. Organization Pressures
    
16. Customer Pressures
    
17. Peer Pressures
    
18. Time Management
    
19. Documentation for Self
    
20. Membership of Forums & Newsgroups
    
21. Regular Technical Update
    
22. Training (CBT, WBT, VBT, ILT)
    
23. Knowledge TransferNext Levels