Linux Administration Cookbook

Troubleshooting and Workplace Diplomacy

In this chapter, we will examine the following topics:

• What is troubleshooting?
• Isolating the real issue
• Giving estimates and deciding on next steps
• Using ss, iftop, tcpdump, and others for network issues
• Using curl, wget, and openssl for remote web issues
• Using itop, top, and vmstat for local resource issues
• Using ps, lsof, strace, and /proc for service issues
• Making a copy of problems for later debugging
• Temporary solutions and when to invoke them
• Handling irate developers
• Handling irate managers
• Handling irate business owners