IT professionals are often called on to perform the ta= sk of troubleshooting a problem. One thing I’ve discovered though as I have mentored beginn= ing IT people, newbies if you will, is that most really don’t know where = to start when it comes to troubleshooting a problem. Since this is such an important real world skill as well as one of the focuses of the A+ exams, troubleshooting makes a good topic for this installment of the “when = the real world and exam world unite.”
So, what is troubleshooting about anyway? It is really= about logical thought processes, eliminating variables, and narrowing down the sc= ope of the problem until you arrive at the conclusion. I find many newbies get = lost in trying to fix a problem for a couple of reasons. The first is the most obvious, a lack of expertise with the product or technology they are working with. The second reason is that they fail to follow logical steps to narrow= the problem to something more manageable.
Let’s consider an example to illustrate our poin= t. A user calls you on the helpdesk complaining that they can’t get into t= heir email (Microsoft Outlook), they have already rebooted twice, and it just isn’t working. Where would you start in trying to troubleshoot this problem? Well, the first thing you would want to do is to find out the exact error message, which should give you insight into the actual problem. Howev= er, I have seen many techs in a similar situation go straight to reinstalling t= he software without narrowing the scope of the problem first. A generic problem like this could be narrowed by asking the following questions:
To put that in IT terms:
So how does one develop a troubleshooting methodology anyway? Essentially the idea is to start simple and work your way up to the more complex. For Windows problems, the first thing any seasoned IT pro recommends for most problems is to reboot the computer and see if the probl= em clears up. More often than not that does the trick. That’s a simple solution, requiring much less time and effort than immediately going to rei= nstalling software or the operating system. To use our example of the problem accessi= ng email, while error messages can often be cryptic they can also be useful. Microsoft Outlook, for example, tends to give the generic “network problems are preventing access to the Exchange Server” for a number of network related problems. It could be that the server is down (unlikely sin= ce only one user called and not a bunch of users), it could be that the user w= as in their profile and messed up their configuration, it could be their netwo= rk card or the network cable failed, or the patch cable in the wiring closet g= ot pulled, or a bad port on a hub or switch along the way. In other words, you have a lot of possibilities. Therefore, if you don’t have a solid met= hod of troubleshooting, you will have trouble resolving the problem in a timely manner.
Once you’ve rebooted in this situation you’= ;ll be able to start narrowing the focus of the problem very quickly. When you get= to the login prompt and have to supply your username and password, whether you= can login to the domain or not will tell you a lot about the situation. If you can’t, you know that not being able to get into email is a symptom= of the problem and not the problem itself. In that case you would start troubleshooting by testing connectivity. Start with opening a command prompt and using the command line utilities ipconfig and ping, verify your configuration and what you can and can’t connect to. If you can ping = your own IP address for example, you know that your network adapter is binding TCP/IP and is functioning internally correctly. That also tells you that it isn’t a software driver issue. As you can see, each troubleshooting s= tep is taken with the purpose of eliminating variables and narrowing the scope = of the problem. We haven’t actually attempted to “fix” anyth= ing at this point. You would then proceed to see if you could ping beyond your computer to other devices on your network. If you couldn’t you would start troubleshooting the hardware by ensuring the physical connections were all still in place and that links were established between the PC and the hub/switch it connects to. Following this methodology, you will quickly arr= ive at the cause of the problem, and can fix it. This is much more effic= ient than trying multiple fixes that are potentially only addressing symptoms of= the bigger problem.
Conceptually, it helps to think of troubleshooting in = terms of a flowchart. You even see troubleshooting flowcharts in the real world to help technicians work rapidly through problems with a particular product. G= oing through the flowchart you ask some basic questions to direct the problem through various possibilities, and only as you reach the end of the chart do you actually get a fix for the problem.
Troubleshooting is a required skill for an IT professi= onal, but if you have never really learned how to properly do it you can find this line of work very frustrating. When faced with a problem that needs resolvi= ng, the most important thing is to keep a cool head and not panic. Instead of jumping in and trying to guess at a fix, work the problem through asking questions and eliminating as many non-relevant pieces of the equation as you can. If you able to do this, you’ll become a great troubleshooter and will be the “go-to-guy/gal” so to speak that people turn to when= a critical problem arises. Your troubleshooting skills will help lay your sol= id foundation towards a successful IT career, so don’t fail to develop t= hem!
Comments or questions? Will can be reached at WWillis@Transcender.com