Evaluating the scope

When a problem occurs within your servers or network, your systems will exhibit one or more symptoms. Perhaps an application is much slower than normal, maybe users are unable to access the network, or a server suffers from total failure. There are many problems that can come up at any time, and it can be challenging to keep up.

Once you’ve identified the symptoms of the problem, the next goal is to identify the overall scope. Essentially, this means determining (as best you can) where the problem is most likely to reside, and how many systems and services are affected. Sometimes the root cause is obvious. For example, if none of your computers are receiving an IP address from your DHCP server, then you’ll know straight away to start investigating the logs on that particular server concerning its ability (or inability) to do the job designated for it. In other cases, the cause may not be so obvious. Perhaps you have an application that exhibits...