In each column, The Support Authority discusses resources, tools, and other elements of IBM® Technical Support that are available for WebSphere® products, plus techniques and new ideas that can further enhance your IBM support experience.
As always, we begin with some new items of interest for the WebSphere community at large:
- Registration is now open for IMPACT 2009, the Smart SOA Conference to be held in Las Vegas from May 3 - 8, 2009! You’ll find comprehensive SOA and WebSphere education to help you overcome pressing business and IT challenges.
- IBM Support Assistant is looking for your feedback! If you use IBM Support Assistant, you can communicate directly to the development team using the Submit Feedback entry in the Help menu. To activate the Submit Feedback entry, please use the Find Updates selection in the Update menu to update your ISA V4 workbench to the 4.0.2.02 level. In addition, you can always reach the ISA team at ibmsa@us.ibm.com.
- Have you ever had difficulty starting and stopping WebSphere application servers? If so, then check out the new WebSphere Technical Exchange presentation on debugging WebSphere Application Server start/stop issues in V6.0.x/V6.1.0.x.
- Do you ever have a WebSphere Application Server question, but you don’t know who to ask for an answer? If so, then the WebSphere Application Server community forum on developerWorks might be just what you’re looking for! You’ll find a large community of WebSphere Application Server users posting questions and answers as well as discussion threads on many interesting topics.
- Experts continue to share their vast knowledge about all things SOA and Web 2.0! Check out these exciting new publications from IBM Redbooks:
Continue to monitor the various support-related Web sites, as well as this column, for news about other tools as we encounter them.
And now, on to our main topic...
In the June 2008 Support Authority column you learned about a systematic approach to problem solving. Then, in July 2008, we introduced you to a suite of recommended diagnostic tools and how to choose the right one when troubleshooting various types of problems using WebSphere products. Both of these articles made reference to a loosely defined knowledge base, which represents the collection of information about specific symptoms, specific problems, and techniques for diagnosing various types of problems that you need to effectively work as a troubleshooter.
Actually, the knowledge base is not a single monolithic, rigidly organized library. Rather, it is a loosely organized collection of various resources that are available through the Internet, along with several tools that facilitate finding and accessing this information. New resources and new information are constantly being added, so you can never claim to have seen and categorized all of it.
In this article, we will explore in a bit more detail where to find that information using:
As with many large and rapidly-evolving collections of information on the Web, there are two main approaches to finding the information that you need: through search, and through the use of carefully-prepared indexes that arrange content according to various criteria. In addition, various education resources are available to help you learn useful information in a more systematic and deliberate way. Unlike search and indexes, which aim to find a specific piece of information at the exact moment when it is needed, education resources provide information in a broader context that can be assimilated and used later.
The main resources for searching include:
- Google and other search engines
These days, most people begin their search using the Google search engine. Google’s goal is to deliver any document that might be relevant for your search criteria. IBM makes a deliberate effort to make all content accessible from Google and other search engines.
- ibm.com
The upper-right corner of every IBM Web page includes a search box for searching all IBM content. This “masthead search” (see the red box in Figure 1) is optimized to provide information about IBM products, rather than for finding solutions to problems. Note also that, in general, this type of search returns matches from the entirety of all the information available from every IBM product, not just the particular product that you are working on, such as WebSphere Application Server. Therefore, you might get many more results than you expect.
Figure 1. Masthead search (red) and WebSphere Application Server support search (blue)
- IBM Software Support sites
The primary IBM Software Support Web site search lets you search for support-related information on all IBM software products. In addition, each IBM software product listed has a corresponding IBM Software Support Web site that contains information specific to that product. You can find support sites scoped at various levels from all of IBM, to a specific IBM software brand, down to a specific IBM product.
- Search all of IBM: http://ibm.com/support
- Search IBM software products: http://ibm.com/software/support
- Search WebSphere brand: http://ibm.com/software/support/websphere
The IBM search engine accesses appropriate subsets of the large collection of IBM support-related documents including Technotes, Downloads, APARs, and so on. It also searches product Information Centers and other IBM publications, such as Redbooks (Figure 1). As of the recent upgrades to the IBM Software Support Web sites announced in this column a few months ago, the search results are now organized in three tabs corresponding to different types of documents. Don’t forget to check all three tabs (see bottom of Figure 2).
Figure 2. Limit search results to technical support documents, information centers, or other publications
You can also limit the search scope by task, such as Plan, Install, Use, Troubleshoot, and Download. When you select one of these views from the navigator menu your search is limited to documents that are specific to that task.
For example, Figure 3 shows the Troubleshoot view on the WebSphere Application Server Support page. The results from any searches you perform on this page will be limited to troubleshooting material for WebSphere Application Server.
Figure 3. Limit search to troubleshooting material
- IBM Support Assistant federated search
You can also search for information using the IBM Support Assistant Find Information activity (Figure 4). The Find Information activity has a tab labeled Search Information that lets you perform a federated search (Figure 4). This function offers an extensible search aggregator that can search multiple sources of information in parallel, such as the IBM Software Web sites, IBM developerWorks, and external search engines such as Google. You can fine tune your search to find information related to specific IBM products or even specific product versions, specific types of documents, and so on.
Note that the information content available through your IBM Support Assistant workbench is limited to the set of product add-ons that you have installed. Each product add-on contributes additional sources of information specifically chosen by the IBM Support team responsible for the product.
Figure 4. Search Information
You can also learn more about the IBM Support Assistant from some recent Support Authority columns:
- IBM Software Support Toolbar
The IBM Software Support Toolbar (Figure 5) is another tool that makes it easy to search just the information repositories right from a toolbar in your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser. Representatives from each IBM software brand have compiled the most sought after brand-specific pages that are available from buttons in the toolbar. Even though there are common links between these buttons, custom entries from each brand truly make this toolbar valuable for your support toolbox.
Figure 5. IBM Software Support Toolbar
The IBM Software Support Toolbar also makes it easy for you to find and directly access other support services like the IBM Education Assistant, the IBM Support Assistant, developerWorks, and brand-specific forums and communities.
Regardless of which search engine you choose to use, some keywords that you might search for on these engines in the course of a troubleshooting session might include:
- Generic terms that describe a type of problem, for example “hang on Linux,” “HTTP server no response,” and so on. These searches will often bring back specific documents with instructions on how to troubleshoot a particular problem.
- Very specific keywords taken from specific symptoms that you observed, such as an error message or error number, or the name of a class or method found in a stack trace, and so on. These searches will often bring back documents describing known problems associated with this particular symptom.
- APAR numbers (if you already know of a likely APAR).
- Generic keywords or names of particular problem determination tools, for example “Dump Analyzer.”
Navigation using organized information indexes
There are many organized information indexes to help you find what you need to troubleshoot problems. Here are a few that you might want to try out:
- IBM Software Support Web sites
Each IBM software product has a support site that organizes a collection of pages into the most frequently-needed information for troubleshooting that product. The main support page for each product contains a navigator that makes it easy to jump to just the information you need at the moment. There are choices such as Overview, Download, Troubleshoot, Plan, and Use that take you directly to a page applicable to the category. For example, Figure 6 shows the navigator on the WebSphere Portal Support page.
Figure 6. Support page navigator
The specific page for each section contains links to many important documents. For example:
- Downloads: Recommended fixes, latest fix packs, feature packs by version.
- Plan: Detailed system requirements, product support lifecycle, migration planning.
- Use: Information roadmap, training, trials and beta.
- Troubleshoot: This page is the front end for a collection of documents intended to help you diagnose and resolve problems associated with each product.
In addition to documents that are general to all problems and troubleshooting techniques for the product, many documents are classified according to a list of specific components or problem areas related to each product. For example, as of this writing there are 47 different component areas for WebSphere Application Server, such as administrative console, crash, EJB container, out-of-memory issues, and so on. You can view the entire list, or view similar pages for each product.
Within each component or category, you might find four different types of documents:
- The Collecting Data or MustGather document contains detailed instructions about the kind of information to collect from the system (logs, traces, and so on) to help diagnose problems related to this particular component. Very often, when contacting IBM Support for help about a problem, you will be asked to follow the instructions in a specific MustGather document and to send the results to IBM Support. The IBM Support Assistant also provides a Collect Data function that automates the steps prescribed by many MustGather documents.
- The Analyzing Data document contains instructions about how to interpret the information obtained after following the MustGather document, should you choose to attempt some analysis yourself prior to or instead of sending the diagnostic information to IBM Support for analysis.
- The Troubleshooting document contains information about common problems related to each component and steps you can take to attempt a quick resolution to these common problems. These are steps you can take before going through the effort of collecting and analyzing a full set of diagnostic information as prescribed in the MustGather and “Analyzing Data” documents.
- Finally, the Learning More document contains pointers to background information about each component.
In practice, not every type of document may be provided for each component. Historically, the IBM Support organization focuses first on providing a good MustGather document for each component. We are now working hard to create companion documents for as many components as possible. When a full set of documents are provided for one component, they might be shown as multiple tabs on a single main page for the component, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Multiple tabs for one problem component
In addition to this collection of documents organized by problem components, the Web site also contains a large collection of individual Technotes, APARs, Flashes, and others, each of which pertains to one very problem or known issue.
Finally, many products also provide a Troubleshooting Guide. This page can serve as a starting point to locate all the other types of documents above, an alternative to using the search functions. For example, see the Troubleshooting Guide for WebSphere Application Server.
You can learn more about how to use the IBM Support pages on the IBM software support site tour page.
- IBM Support Assistant product information
The Production Information function in IBM Support Assistant, which is part of the Find Information activity, provides a single screen for each installed product that lists the most important links to Web resources related to that product. For example, there might be links to IBM Software Support sites, the product documentation, publicly-available diagnostic guides, and any key documents that the IBM Support Assistant team responsible for this product deems useful.
- Information Centers
Often one step in troubleshooting is learning more about how the product works. Product Information Centers answer many questions, then lead you into using the tools included in the product for resolving problems.
The documentation for each WebSphere product, or product Information Center, is also a useful source of troubleshooting information. Many information centers contain a section specifically focused on troubleshooting issues related to this particular product. In general, the information in this section tends to be less dynamic than the information provided in other parts of the knowledge base, mainly because information centers tend to be more formally organized and cannot grow and be updated as quickly as other resources on the Web. Nonetheless, over time, each product tries to incorporate the most useful new troubleshooting information that is originally generated on the Web, into the next version of the product’s information center. So this information is well worth consulting and considering in any troubleshooting activity.
In addition to the organized sections on troubleshooting, information centers can also be searched for relevant information, just like any other segment of the global knowledge base:
- Each information center includes its own search feature, which searches only through the information included within that particular information center or collection of information centers.
- The main search engines on the ibm.com/support Web pages and IBM Support Assistant also include a wide collection of information centers in their search targets. These can be used to search through many independent information centers at once, just as they can also search through the vast collection of non-information center-based information.
Each product information center is distributed with the product itself when that product is purchased and installed. Most information centers for WebSphere products are also available on the Web, free of charge, even for those who have not purchased or installed that product. You can find them from the main support Web page for each product, or globally from the main software library. The information centers available on the Web are often updated between product releases, and thus might contain newer information.
- JDK Diagnostic Guide
All of the descriptions and pointers provided in this article are generally applicable to all the products in the WebSphere family, where each product has its own dedicated page on the IBM Support Web site and its own set of add-ons in IBM Support Assistant.
However, since so many products in the WebSphere family are based on Java™ technology, it might be useful to make a special mention of the IBM JDK Diagnostic Guide. This guide provides extensive documentation about how to diagnose problems associated with the use of the IBM Developer Kit for Java. Find it online or through the Product Information section of IBM Support Assistant when the add-on for IBM Developer Kit for Java is installed.
- IBM Guided Activity Assistant
The IBM Guided Activity Assistant is an interactive tool that asks you questions about your problem symptoms and guides you step-by-step through the various actions and resources recommended to identify the problem cause and to implement a solution. The information is organized as a collection of guides, or guided activities, and more guided activities are being added regularly. See the Support Authority column Introducing the IBM Guided Activity Assistant for an introduction.
The IBM Guided Activity Assistant is available on the Guided Troubleshooter tab of the IBM Support Assistant Analyze Problem activity (Figure 8), as well as online.
Figure 8. Guided troubleshooter
As there are several places to seach for specific information to help you solve problems, there are also a variety of ways for you to get educated on troubleshooting:
- IBM Education Assistant
The IBM Education Assistant hosts a large collection of education modules on a wide variety of topics for each product. Each module might include recorded lectures, presentations, and demos. Some modules specifically cover troubleshooting techniques and guidelines for various areas of each product. See Figure 9 for a snapshot of the table of contents for modules about WebSphere products.
Some of the topics you might want to check out include:
- WebSphere Support Technical Exchange
The WebSphere Support Technical Exchange Web site hosts a collection of recorded presentations on many topics presented by IBM Support engineers for various products. These presentations are less comprehensive and less formal than modules on the IBM Education Assistant.
- IBM Redbooks
IBM Redbooks are developed and published by the IBM International Technical Support Organization (ITSO), which develops and delivers skills, technical know-how, and materials to IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, users, and the industry in general.
Redbooks typically provide positioning and value guidance, installation, and implementation experiences, typical solution scenarios, and step-by-step "how-to" guidelines. They often include sample code and other support materials and are available as hardcopy books, in IBM Redbooks CD-ROM collections, and on the IBM Redbooks site.
- WebSphere Training
For more formal education, you can take one or more of over 250 courses that IBM offers across the WebSphere Software portfolio. Course offerings are flexible and let you choose from traditional classroom settings, online courses, private training for your company, and self-study. See the IBM WebSphere Training site for more information. You can also train for your IBM certification in WebSphere products.
If there is more information you would like to see, or to report a problem, there are many ways that you can give your feedback to IBM about Information Centers, the IBM Support Assistant, the Software Support sites, and many of the other resources described in this article. You can use:
- The Support feedback section of all IBM Support Sites.
- The Help => Send Feedback link on the IBM Support Assistant workbench.
- Open a Service Request on Information Centers.
- Submit a question through the IBM developerWorks community.
This concludes the discussion about the many ways you can go about finding information to help you troubleshoot your use of WebSphere products. Using searching, information indexes, and education there is a wealth of information available that supplements other problem determination resources such as diagnostic tools.
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Daniel Julin has 20 years of experience developing and troubleshooting complex online systems. As technical area lead for the WebSphere Serviceability Team, he currently focuses on helping the team define and implement a collection of tools and techniques to assist in problem determination for WebSphere Application Server and to maximize the efficiency of IBM support. He also occasionally assists directly in various critical customer support situations.
Russell Wright has several years of experience developing and supporting data communications and middleware software including WebSphere Application Server. He currently manages the deployment of troubleshooting tools for the IBM Support Assistant and is a developer for the IBM Guided Activity Assistant.
Lee R. Perlov has over 20 years experience developing solutions and helping clients resolve problems with deployed solutions. As technical lead for the IBM-wide Client Self-Assist Content projects, Lee is focused on helping brands and product teams publish the most relevant support content to the Web. Past assignments include leading delivery of support content for WebSphere Application Server and supporting WebSphere Application Server.
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