Exercise 3.7: Troubleshooting

Overview

In this exercise, you will learn about resources and techniques to troubleshoot IBM SmartCloud Notes (SmartCloud Notes) in a service-only environment.

Objectives

In this exercise, you will:

• Contact IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Support (Support)
• Test connectivity from the Lotus Notes client and Web browser to a SmartCloud Notes mail server
• Use a delivery failure report to troubleshoot mail routing problems
  
  

Glossary

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Support	IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Support is the Support provided by IBM® for company administrators.
Delivery Failure Report	E-mail generated by the Lotus Domino® server informing the sender that the message could not be delivered.

Parent topic: Lesson 3: Supporting End Users
Previous topic: Exercise 3.6: Accessing product documentation and help for IBM SmartCloud Notes and Notes client

Procedure A. Contacting Support

1. In your Web browser, navigate to the IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Technical Support page.
2. Refer to the Support Contact Information section to determine your best course of action for contacting Support.
   

Procedure B. Testing connectivity with the Notes client

When SmartCloud Notes users are not able to connect to their mail file when using a Lotus Notes client, a built-in trace utility can be used to troubleshoot the problem. Use the Trace Connections tool to test connectivity and gather trace failure output. The trace information can be sent to Support if you need further assistance with troubleshooting the problem.

1. In the Notes client, click File -> Preferences -> Notes Ports. Note the Trace button in the dialog box.
   
   
2. Click the Trace button. The Trace Connections dialog box appears:
   
   
3. In the Destination field, type the name of the user's mail server. For Trace options, choose Full trace information. For Notes log options, select Full trace information.
   
   
   
Note: The mail server can be determined on the SmartCloud Notes Administration page by reviewing the user's account.





4. Click Trace and the client will attempt to trace the route to the destination server. Here is an example of a successful trace. Note the "Connected to server" output.
   
   
5. By typing in an incorrect destination server address we can simulate a trace failure. When the trace fails, click Copy to copy the output to the clipboard. Then, copy the output into an e-mail using a functioning client, and send it to Support when you engage Support. By choosing Full trace information for Notes Log options, this output is also written to the user's local Notes log file (...notes\data\log.nsf). Here is an example of a trace failure. Note the 'x' added to force the connection failure.
   
   
   

Procedure C. Testing connectivity with a browser

Testing connectivity with a browser to the SmartCloud for Social Business service is achieved by standard troubleshooting techniques. Try these techniques when troubleshooting browser connectivity problems.

1. See if a user who is not experiencing login problems can login log in from the machine where the user is experiencing a problem.
2. Have the user experiencing login issues try to login on another user's machine who is not experiencing login problems.
3. Have the user try a different supported Web browser.
4. Have the customer administrator reset the user's password.
   

Procedure D. Use a delivery failure report to troubleshoot mail routing problems

When a user receives a delivery failure report, the information it supplies can be used in troubleshooting the issue.

1. To see what a delivery failure report looks like, send an e-mail message to a non-existent user. For example: To: nosuchuser@nosuchcompany.com
2. A delivery failure report is sent back to the sender. The information in the report can be used to troubleshoot the issue. The "because" field will give you a basic reason for the failure. In this case, if the user is a person who should be in the directory, check for spelling errors, typos, etc.
   
   
3. The "What should you do?" portion of the message gives some suggestions for what to do next. If the message is resent and the sender does not receive another failure report, the problem is fixed. If another failure report is received by the sender, the problem has not been resolved.
   
   
4. Finally, if an end user cannot resolve the problem on his/her own, the end user should use the Forward button to forward the issue to the company administrator.