Alcatel-Lucent 5620 - Categorize the Problem; Identify the Root Cause of the Problem

1 — Troubleshooting process
Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager, Release 1-3
3HE 05723 TQZZA Edition 01 Troubleshooting Guide
Categorize the problem
When you categorize a problem, you must differentiate between total failures and
problems that result in a degradation in performance. For example, the failure of an
access switch results in a total failure for a customer who has one DS3 link into a
network. A core router that operates at over 80% average utilization can start to
discard packets, which results in a degradation of performance for some applications
that use the device. Performance degradations exhibit different symptoms from total
failures and may not generate alarms or significant network events.
Multiple problems can simultaneously occur and create related or unique symptoms.
Detailed information about the symptoms that are associated with the problem helps
the NOC or engineering operational staff diagnose and fix the problem. The
following information can help you assess the scope of the problem:
Use the following guidelines to help you categorize the problem:
• Is the problem intermittent or static?
• Is there a pattern associated with intermittent problems?
• Is there an alarm or network event that is associated with the problem?
• Is there congestion in the routers or network links?
• Has there been a change in the network since proper function?
Identify the root cause of the problem
A symptom for a problem can be the result of more than one network issue. You can
resolve multiple, related problems by resolving the root cause of the problem. Use
the following guidelines to help you implement a systematic approach to resolve the
root cause of the problem:
• Identify common symptoms across different areas of the network.
• Focus on the resolution of a specific problem.
• Divide the problem based on network segments and try to isolate the problem to
one of the segments. Examples of network segments are:
• LAN switching (edge access)
• LAN routing (distribution, core)
• metropolitan area
• WAN (national backbone)
• partner services (extranet)
• remote access services
• Determine the network state before the problem appeared.
• Extrapolate from network alarms and network events the cause of the symptoms.
Try to reproduce the problem.
• alarm files
• error logs
• network statistics
• network analyzer traces
• output of CLI show commands
• accounting logs
• customer problem reports
Aug 2010
AAAD
8.0 R4