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8: Problem determination

8: Problem determination

This section provides information about resources and techniques to help you identify and respond to problems. You can perform problem determination at different levels within your system. Several resources are available for identifying problems:
  • Logs
  • Trace files
  • Messages
  • Tools
In order to identify a problem, it is important to understand both the topology of the system and how your application fits into this topology. See WebSphere Structure in this section. Consider the following questions:
  • Are all the components installed successfully?
  • What is your application attempting to do?
  • How is your application deployed?
  • What technology is used to connect to back-end systems?
  • Can you re-create the problem?
  • What resources best identify the problem?
Next, choose the diagnostic tasks that can help you identify the component within WebSphere Application Server or within your application that is causing the problem. Diagnostic tasks include:
  • Determining what tuning parameters to specify
  • Identifying error messages
  • Locating logs and trace files
  • Determining whether system and server classpath settings are set correctly
  • Identifying failing product components
  • Identifying appropriate tools for a problem
  • Understanding how to invoke and use available tools

WebSphere Structure topology

This sectioin describes the basic elements of WebSphere Application Server. Becoming familiar with this information is useful preparation for using the process, resources and diagnostics for problem determination.
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Go to previous article: Administrative overview of Version 3.5 Go to next article: Problem Determination vs. Tuning