Troubleshooting SharePoint Tools and Tricks Eric VanRoy Portal System Engineer

MOST IMPORTANT TOOLS Knowledge Experience Understanding of the environment Baseline of environment

STEP 1 – ALWAYS DOCUMENT ISSUE What is it supposed to do What is it doing – Trust but verify Screen shot – entire window incl. address bar Quantify and validate with technology – What does “slow” mean?; Does it happen to everyone?; Does it happen all the time? When did it start?

STEP 2 – DOCUMENT CHANGES Farm Changes – SharePoint Documentation toolkit ( Environment Changes – ASK the networking group Security Changes – ASK security team Document all changes

STEP 3 – GATHER ADDITIONAL INFO Logging Database if possible (Custom SQL reports) – SharePoint diagnostic Logs (ULS viewer) – Window event logs (Native event viewer) – IIS Log files (NotePad) HTTP traffic trace (Fiddler, or IE Developer Dashboard) Rendering Data (SharePoint Developer Dashboard)

STEP 4 – HYPOTHESIZE Make an educated guess at the following items: – Is it Server based – Is it Service based – Is it User Interface based Make an educated guess on root cause – “If I wanted that outcome, how might I cause it” Don’t be afraid to be wrong, it is only a starting point

STEP 5 – TEST HYPOTHESIS Replicate issue in LAB. – Option 1 – migrate farm to LAB and see if issue exists – Option 2 – create a “clean” farm and attempt to cause issue Use Hypothesis from Step 4

STEP 6 – DETERMINE RESOLUTION Based on the cause, look at how to prevent that from happening. – Create a step by step plan for resolution

STEP 7 – TEST RESOLUTION In LAB environment – Implement plan from step 6 If plan does not work, – Revert plan back to state prior to this test (Important) – go back to Step 6 and develop a new plan

STEP 8 – IMPLEMENT RESOLUTION Implement plan that succeeded in the test on Step 7 Have note from all failed test available in case a clean up did not completely occur

TOOLS - TRADITIONAL KeePass ( SharePoint Documentation ToolKit ( ULSViewer ( IE developer Dashboard or Fiddler SharePoint developer dashboard

TOOLS – NON-TRADITIONAL OneNote GPResults PowerShell SQL profiler Process Monitor Network Monitor

SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE Internal Networking group Internal Security group Internet