Every operating system portrays itself as powerful, able to leap tall buildings and applications in single strides, able to weather the storms of prolonged heavy usage, resilient to weathering, and so much more!
One of the necessary evils, albeit less often spoken of, in case we jinx something, is the topic of troubleshooting. What could possibly go wrong? Doesn't everyone believe in fair play, honorable intentions, and being openly honest and straightforward in all things virtual?
Where does one start when the operating system does not start, the application does not load or run correctly, the network hangs or a network service does not listen or perform? A common practice is to reload the machine, either from the installation media and then patch it, or from some standardized image. Either way, the problem has only been gotten around, not solved.
What if you want to solve the problem itself? What if you need to solve the problem to move ahead? Linux is noted for being rock solid, stable, and easy to manage but not as user friendly.
There is an 'art' form known as troubleshooting. The idea of troubleshooting problems when they occur, whether with the system bootup or setup, networking or network services, or applications in memory, is a daunting task for anyone. The clues are probably there somewhere, depending on experience. Finding the clues and working backwards from them is the intriguing part to the sleuth in anyone interested!
Enterprise Linux Research Library
