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| Chapter 32. Site Response | ||
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Part II. Troubleshooting Guide | 
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Table of Contents
This document provides a quick overview of the most common site response issues and a set of basic troubleshooting steps, most of which can performed by anyone who wants to analyze a problem they've encountered and find the fastest path to resolution. It includes instructions for general users that may be accessed directly through the Kavi Community website or copied and pasted into email messages in response to support requests. There are also instructions for the Kavi Professional Services Group and other administrators that include additional tests and suggestions for the most appropriate course of action based on the test results.
Back to topHere are descriptions of the four main issues that affect site availability, from most to least common.
The usual suspects:
- DNS
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The DNS, or domain name system, is an Internet-wide system that maps IP addresses to domain names. DNS problems are most likely to occur when a new site is created or an existing site changes its domain name or IP address.
Two types of DNS errors
The DNS isn't configured or is configured incorrectly (e.g. it points to the wrong server).
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The DNS has changed but the change hasn't completely propagated yet.
The DNS is a distributed system, so it takes awhile for a change to be propagated from the newly configured server to all the other DNS servers. Propagation takes an average of 72 hours to complete (but can take longer in some cases).
- Routing
When you enter the address of a website into your browser, your browser sends a request for information from that site. This information is bundled into packets and routed through the Internet from router to router until it reaches its destination. Packets can be routed through any number of routers, so the routing process tends to be complex, and there are any number of places something can go wrong—but in the end, the packets either reach their destination or they don't.
- Browsers
A surprising number of apparent website issues turn out to be a localized problem with a browser. When this happens, the culprit is usually old pages in the cache.
- Servers
Although this is often the first thing that comes to mind when someone encounters a problem reaching a website, it is rare for a server to be down. A server will be temporarily unavailable if an upgrade is in progress. If anything does go wrong with a server on a Kavi-hosted site, the automatic monitoring process will notify system administration.
Here are the two general types of site response issues and steps you can take to determine the scope of the issue and whether it needs to be referred to Kavi support or the user's ISP. With the exception of the Web Response Times graph, which is only available to logged-in admins, the utilities mentioned in this document are usually available on your computer at the command line or online through websites that offer GUI versions of the command.
Someone at a company or organization who has a Kavi-hosted website is unable to pull up the website through their browser.
Instructions for general users:
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Try to pull up a non-Kavi website, such as http://www.apple.com/ or http://www.cnn.com/.
If you cannot access any websites, there is a problem in your Internet connection and you should contact your company's technical support or, if this is your home computer, your internet provider.
If you are able to pull up a non-Kavi site, try pulling up a different Kavi-hosted site. Visit the Clients page on the Kavi website. Links to Kavi-hosted sites are displayed in a box on the right-hand side of the page.
Next, perform a 'traceroute' to the organization's domain name to reveal the source of the connection issue. This is something that must be done from your computer to get the most complete information, and it is actually quite easy. Just follow the traceroute instructions, paste a copy of the results into an email and send it off to support.
Instructions for Kavians and other administrators:
If you are the individual who encountered this issue, perform the instructions for general users, then return to this set of instructions.
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Collect the following information from the user:
Problem reported by the user
User's name, email address and company
Any other facts that might be of use to support, such as whether there is a history of problems with the user's ISP or they have a new ISP.
Can the user access non-Kavi websites?
Can the user access other Kavi websites?
A copy of the traceroute results
Please try to relay just the facts and refrain from passing along any interpretations. Many people include their best guess as to the cause of an issue in an attempt to grease the wheels of problem resolution, but this often acts more as a spoke in the wheel, as the troubleshooter is influenced by the suggestion and the facts speak less clearly for themselves. You may need to restate the user's description of the problem. For instance, you would include the information that the user wasn't able to view the site and omit the helpful suggestion that this must mean the server is down.
Duplicate the first two steps in the user instructions to see if you can reproduce the user's results. If you are the individual who encountered this issue, perform these tests on another computer.
If the user did not perform a traceroute, you will have to perform one from your computer. It won't trace the same exact route, but it will help determine whether there is something wrong at the target domain.
Check for DNS problems on the site by performing a 'whois' on the domain. See the whois instructions.
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If the issue isn't resolved, determine who to contact, then provide them with the data you've collected.
Where should you refer this issue?
- The user can't access any sites:
The problem appears to be local to the user's computer or Internet connection, so Kavi can't be of any more help at this time. Provide the user with all the collected data and refer them to their company or ISP for support.
- The user can't access any Kavi sites, but they can access other sites:
Report this issue to Kavi support along with all the data you've collected.
- The user can access both Kavi and non-Kavi sites, but not a specific Kavi site:
Report this issue to Kavi support along with all the data you've collected.
System administrators can perform tests that aren't available to other users, such as attempting to reach the user's computer from the main office and data center to determine if there is a break in the Internet connection. Be aware that even though you refer a matter to Kavi support or to external support at this point in the process, further testing may reveal that the issue can only be resolved by system administrators belonging to some other entity. The Internet is vast and there are many potential failure points.
Provide this information to support:
Problem reported by the user
User's name, email address and company
Any other facts that might be of use to support, such as whether there is a history of problems with the user's ISP or they have a new ISP.
Can the user access non-Kavi websites?
Can the user access other Kavi web sites?
Your results from Step 3, where you tried to reproduce the user's results.
A copy of the traceroute results
A copy of the whois results
A site can be slow because of a high load on the server (e.g., when a number of large files are being downloaded) or a bandwidth limitation somewhere on the network between you and the server (e.g., a VPN connection).
Perform the following tasks in order:
If you are a Kavian, view the Web Response Times graph on the Site Usage Reports and Tools page. A spike or intermittent high load level on the graph indicates the server is performing properly but is simply busy. If the graph doesn't indicate a high load, or if it shows a sustained high load level, please refer the issue to Kavi support.
Perform a traceroute. See the traceroute instructions.
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These two tests provide some indication of whether there is really a problem with server performance or site accessibility or if the system is temporarily operating under an unusually high load level. If the graph shows a sustained high load, an average load level, or the traceroute fails, refer the matter to Kavi support.
Provide this information to support:
Problem reported by the user
User's name, email address and company
Any comments or questions you have on the Web Response Times graph.
A copy of the traceroute results
Use traceroute (i.e., the 'tracert' command) from your system's command prompt to trace the route from your computer to the website. If this doesn't work for you, you can use the online version of "tracert" available through Ring of Saturn Internetworking or traceroute.org, but the trace will originate at their web server rather than your computer.
A traceroute shows the hops taken by a packet sent over the Internet. You may not be able to trace the whole route to the destination IP because most firewalls block ICMP requests such as those used by the traceroute and ping utilities.
Traceroute information includes the time each hop takes on the round-trip between delivery and confirmation. This gives you some sense of whether the delivery times are reasonable or whether there may be a problem. Besides the times of the hops, look for repeated hops to the same IP address, which may indicate a loop in the route.
How to perform a traceroute from the command prompt:
- Linux/Unix
Login to establish an Internet connection, if you have not already done so.
Launch a console.
Type 'traceroute hostname', where 'domain' is the website's URL (e.g., www.Kavi.com) or IP address.
Press Enter.
Select the results, copy and paste into an email.
- Mac OS X
Login to establish an Internet connection, if you have not already done so.
Select Hard Drive | Applications | Utilities | Network Utility | Traceroute
Type 'domain' into the search field, where 'domain' is the website's URL (e.g., www.Kavi.com) or IP address.
Press Enter.
Select the results, copy and paste into an email.
- Windows 2000, XP
Login to establish an Internet connection, if you have not already done so.
Select Start | Run
when the Run interface loads, type 'cmd'.
Press OK.
This opens a command window (a black terminal). Type 'tracert domain', where 'domain' is the website's URL (e.g., www.kavi.com) or IP address.
Press OK.
To select the results, click the 'C:|' icnon in the upper left corner of the title bar. Choose Edit | Select All.
Click the 'C:\' icon again, and choose Edit | Copy.
Paste the selection into an email.
To close the terminal, type 'exit'.
Press Enter.
The easiest way to perform a 'whois' is to use the online version of this utility, available through Network Solutions or whois.net. Paste or type the domain into the 'whois' search field, where 'domain' is the website's URL (e.g., www.Kavi.com) or IP address. Copy the results and paste them into an email.
This utility is used to find who owns the domain, who the contacts are, who hosts the primary DNS and what domain servers are authoritative for that domain. When troubleshooting, pay special attention to when the domain was registered and when it expires, because you can only see a site if the domain is current. If the domain registration hasn't gone into effect or has expired, the website won't be viewable.
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| Chapter 31. Bounces and Automated Bounce Handling |  |
Chapter 33. How to Use the Email Troubleshooting Flowcharts |