Collecting Information

For all troubleshooting exercises it is essential to gather as much information as possible about the state of the enterprise server when the problem occurred and about the events leading up to the problem.

When a problem occurs, you need to capture not only the current log files, dumps and traces, but also the contents of various files, directories and areas, and the output from a number of operating system tools. It is important to have data capture mechanisms in place in advance of a failure so that the data can easily be obtained when required.

In a production system, we recommend that you restore the enterprise server service to its clients before you start analyzing the data you have captured. We also recommend that you perform data capture on the enterprise server in a healthy state shortly after the supporting operating system has been rebooted and the enterprise server started. You should retain this healthy data capture to compare with the failure data capture.

You should also check whether the enterprise server is responding to client requests, and to requests from ESMAC. Lack of response points to problems with the communications process (MFCS).