Troubleshooting guide

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Cisco Broadband Local Integrated Services Solution Troubleshooting Guide
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Chapter 2 Troubleshooting Overview
Troubleshooting Strategy
Taking Preventive Action
Monitoring the general health of the network helps avoid problems, and makes troubleshooting easier
when they do occur. You have to have normal baseline data to identify when problems occur.
Before you do anything that could cause additional problems, take the appropriate precautions. In the
Cisco BLISS for Cable solution the prime precaution is to ensure that you have current backups of all
component configurations and provisioning data.
In no case should maintenance be attempted before taking the proper precautions.
Here are some guidelines:
• Establish benchmarks when the network is running smoothly. In other words, know what the usual
range of values is for the variables you may later examine when investigating a problem.
• When troubleshooting a call processing problem, you will need a normal working call flow for
comparison. Generate and save successful call flows for each Call Agent call scenario, such as:
– On-net to on-net call
– On-net to off-net call
– Off-net to on-net call
– On-net to off-net to on-net call (forwarded call)
– Off-net to on-net to off-net call (forwarded call)
– Originating party terminates
– Terminating party terminates
– Terminating party busy
– Terminating announcement (intraswitch)
– Terminating announcement (interswitch)
– Incoming call with COT
– Custom calling features: call forwarding, call waiting, and so on
Note Make sure you have a recent version of call flows prior to making any changes in the network, in case
the change creates problems. Always make new copies of call flows after successful changes so you
always have the most current view of the network.
• Trap successful call flows on the SS7 links for later reference.
• Generate reports from different devices to view trends. The reports can be run from either your own
scripts or the standard ones.
• Set and review the appropriate alarms and polling mechanisms via the trunking gateway element
management system.
Scope of Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting usually consists of determining the nature of a problem and then isolating the problem
to a particular device or component. When a problem has been isolated and identified, maintenance
consists of fixing the problem, usually by replacing the device or some component of the device. The
goal of this troubleshooting guide is to provide you with a general troubleshooting strategy, as well as
information about the tools available for isolating and resolving connectivity and performance problems.