[CLUE-Tech] 20 Troubleshooting Tips for Mac, what about Linux?

[Greg Knaddison]

Kevin Cullis wrote:

>While yes, Zonker, I can search Google for info, but I was wondering if
>there is a simple yet logical flow of troubleshooting computer systems? 
>While the link I posted was way over simplistic, I DO know that if you
>don't understand the concept level, you won't get the details, that's
>why they posted it as such.
>
>  
>
The best advice that I've gleaned (it wasn't told to me, I picked it up 
by watching) is to 1) turn up the logging level where applicable 2) 
isolate and 3)test.  If you are having problems connecting your PHP 
server to your MySQL server, isolate the components and test them.  This 
requires you to understand the systems involved and the way that PHP 
talks to MySQL so you may have to do some research first to be able to 
identify components, but most people can see:
A). Do they have network access to each other: from the PHP box <ping 
10.1.1.30>
B). Is the network lookup method they use reasonable (e.g. if PHP is 
using a hostname for the MySQL server, does that hostname resolve on the 
box PHP is running on): <ping mysqlserver>
C). Can you use the MySQL client utility to logon from the MySQL server 
to itself
D). Can you use the MySQL client utility to logon from the PHP server to 
the MySQL server
E). Are you using PEAR packages and if so, are they installed correctly 
and working correctly?
F). If you are using some other driver/package for MySQL is that working 
properly

If any of those steps fails then you can start breaking down that step 
further and try tweaking parameters to get it to work.  Most everything 
will have a log file or an error dump file somewhere - find it and read 
the last few lines.

It's pretty often that I run into problems in doing my work (not sure 
whether it's the nature of the work or me!) and I always find that if I 
just methodically map out each of the smallest testable components in 
the system and then test them and read the logs I eventually find the issue.

Of course, step 4 in my three step process is gather up the relevant 
details from the testing I've just done, grab an expert and show it all 
to them.  Sometimes that expert is down the hall, sometimes it's a 
mailing list.  Just be sure you say  provide lots of details and don't 
just say "PHP sucks - it's broken, what a bad piece of software."  Those 
posts just happen way to often and nobody gets helped.

Good luck,
Greg