Speed Customer

Troubleshooting by Sharing

Your Resolution TechniquesDoug Drechsel

Technical Manager

BEA Systems

It’s a Support Pattern

Design Patterns for Software

+ Recurring Problems Types

+ Different Investigative Techniques

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Support Pattern

Support Pattern

Granular vs. Generic An algorithm comprised of investigation

techniques for a predefined problem type

Predefined Problem type (Support Database is a good start)

Ex: Diagnosing Server Core, Diagnosing SSL Configuration Issues

Example Pattern

Problem DescriptionAn application gets a binary core file produced when the WebLogic Server process terminates due to some invalid native core (machine specific code).  A server crash, JVM crash, machine crash, or HotSpot error may also be associated with this occurrence.  This pattern will describe what steps are needed to gather information from a core file on various platforms.

Example Pattern

Quick Links

Why does the problem occur?

Getting information from a Core file on: Solaris

Linux

HPUX

AIX

Windows

What if I don't have a Debugger?

Operating System Values that should be checked for core file generation

Stop the JVM to get Thread Dumps

On-line Debugger Manuals

http://support.bea.com/application_content/product_portlets/support_patterns/wls/wls_support_patterns.jsp

How It Started

Backline(BL) and Frontline(FL) organizational tiers

Easier to find trends at BL tier At first, target audience was FL tier

Case Deflection vs. Empowerment Why not the customers? Empower the

customer to resolve the issue.

Workflow

BL Engineer responsible for a specific problem type (Data Mined)

Review Period: Review by all BLers in Patterns Group (RFC)

Post to Internal WebSite w Security (Roles)

Blogs for each pattern, feedback mechanism

eSupport

Triggers emailing Knowledge Engineering when a new internal pattern has been created or updated

Pattern Portal on ESupport Internationalization

Patterns Workflow

PatternDevelopment

Update orNew

Peer Review

Post to Wiki

Prepare forpublication to

eSupport

eSupport

FeedbackUpdates

Subscriptions KE Trigger

Pattern List

Feedback Blog

Pattern Content

Internal Patterns Wiki

Support Staff

Patterns Workflow

new

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Cust News Portlet

Google

TopFAQ

AskBEA

New Education Offering

TroubleShooting Methodology Training Patterns are transcribed as an

educational offering with Labs Leverage content to train new

employees

(Internal and External (India) )

Actual Customer Comment

When Jeff's on-site he presents a couple Support Pattern seminars during the week.  I have found these to be among the most beneficial of aspects of having Jeff on-site.  Jeff's being here over a week allows him to flex the presentation into our schedules so most of my team can attend.  The seminars are short enough as to not adversely impact our workloads.  Having an individual on-site to present highly technical material makes a world of difference in my ability to understand, retain, and actually use it.  The fact that Jeff has actually worked with me on specific problems allows him to directly relate the material to the enterprise in his presentations.  The net result is a solid learning experience for me, which has resulted in actual problem resolutions for the company for issues that would have largely been unsolvable for us previously.  Core files, Too Many Open File Descriptors, and Performance Tuning are three Support Patterns that I immediately put to use after attending Jeff's presentation.  Today Jeff presented the Memory Leak Support Pattern material.  There are a number of applications deployed to WebLogic in the ORGANIZATION that suffer from a "memory leak".   I know the result of the presentation will be my being able to help resolve the problem that we've just been living with for years.

Summary

Quicker Resolution = Satisfied Customer

You can give the customer the knowledge and training for common recurring problem types that enables them to either resolve the issue themselves or be better prepared to work with your support organization.

http://support.bea.com/application_content/product_portlets/support_patterns/wls/wls_support_patterns.jsp