NS3000/iX Operations and Maintenance Reference Manual (36922-90042)

60 Chapter4

Troubleshooting Process

Identifying Problems

The usual method of identifying problems is to characterize the

situation in which the problem occurs and then investigate which of the

possible causes are actually responsible for the problem. Finding the

cause is often sufﬁcient to suggest the resolution of the problem. For

example, assume that the problem is characterized as “the user is

unable to open a line with the DSLINE command.” A possible cause is

that the user entered a command using incorrect syntax. You would

resolve the problem by correcting the command and reissuing it.

However, if the syntax was correct, you would have to look for another

possible cause, such as an inactive link or a failure of the remote node.

Thus, in most cases you start with the characterization of the problem

and investigate the possible causes. The difﬁcult part of troubleshooting

is to identify the actual cause of the problem. Once you know the actual

cause, you can take the appropriate action to resolve the problem.

Characterize the Problem

It is important to ask questions when you are trying to characterize a

problem. Start with global questions and gradually get more speciﬁc.

Depending on the response, you ask another series of question, until

you have enough information to understand exactly what happened.

Key questions to ask are as follows:

1. Was an error message generated? Use the NS 3000/iX Error

Messages Reference Manual to look up the cause of the error and

take the action suggested. If this does not resolve the problem,

continue with the next question.

2. Is the problem isolated to one user or program? If so, continue to the

next question. If more than one user is involved, proceed to

question 6.

3. Did the user perform the operation correctly? Was syntax correct?

Does the user have the correct logon and authority to use the

command or service? Correct any problems found. If the operation

was correct, continue with the next question.

4. Did the problem occur while the user was running a program? Were

there program errors? If so, investigate and correct the program

errors. Otherwise, continue with the next question.

5. Did the problem occur while attempting to open a line or transmit

data? If so, investigate the connection between this system and the

remote system.