troubleshooting-guide

Troubleshooting Guide Generator Command

Generate troubleshooting documentation

Instructions

Follow this systematic approach to create troubleshooting guides: $ARGUMENTS

1. System Overview and Architecture

   • Document the system architecture and components
   • Map out dependencies and integrations
   • Identify critical paths and failure points
   • Create system topology diagrams
   • Document data flow and communication patterns

2. Common Issues Identification

   • Collect historical support tickets and issues
   • Interview team members about frequent problems
   • Analyze error logs and monitoring data
   • Review user feedback and complaints
   • Identify patterns in system failures

3. Troubleshooting Framework

   • Establish systematic diagnostic procedures
   • Create problem isolation methodologies
   • Document escalation paths and procedures
   • Set up logging and monitoring checkpoints
   • Define severity levels and response times

4. Diagnostic Tools and Commands

   ## Essential Diagnostic Commands
   
   ### System Health
   ```bash
   # Check system resources
   top                    # CPU and memory usage
   df -h                 # Disk space
   free -m               # Memory usage
   netstat -tuln         # Network connections
   
   # Application logs
   tail -f /var/log/app.log
   journalctl -u service-name -f
   
   # Database connectivity
   mysql -u user -p -e "SELECT 1"
   psql -h host -U user -d db -c "SELECT 1"
   

5. Issue Categories and Solutions

   Performance Issues:

   ### Slow Response Times
   
   **Symptoms:**
   - API responses > 5 seconds
   - User interface freezing
   - Database timeouts
   
   **Diagnostic Steps:**
   1. Check system resources (CPU, memory, disk)
   2. Review application logs for errors
   3. Analyze database query performance
   4. Check network connectivity and latency
   
   **Common Causes:**
   - Database connection pool exhaustion
   - Inefficient database queries
   - Memory leaks in application
   - Network bandwidth limitations
   
   **Solutions:**
   - Restart application services
   - Optimize database queries
   - Increase connection pool size
   - Scale infrastructure resources
   

6. Error Code Documentation

   ## Error Code Reference
   
   ### HTTP Status Codes
   - **500 Internal Server Error**
     - Check application logs for stack traces
     - Verify database connectivity
     - Check environment variables
   
   - **404 Not Found**
     - Verify URL routing configuration
     - Check if resources exist
     - Review API endpoint documentation
   
   - **503 Service Unavailable**
     - Check service health status
     - Verify load balancer configuration
     - Check for maintenance mode
   

7. Environment-Specific Issues

   • Document development environment problems
   • Address staging/testing environment issues
   • Cover production-specific troubleshooting
   • Include local development setup problems

8. Database Troubleshooting

   ### Database Connection Issues
   
   **Symptoms:**
   - "Connection refused" errors
   - "Too many connections" errors
   - Slow query performance
   
   **Diagnostic Commands:**
   ```sql
   -- Check active connections
   SHOW PROCESSLIST;
   
   -- Check database size
   SELECT table_schema, 
          ROUND(SUM(data_length + index_length) / 1024 / 1024, 1) AS 'DB Size in MB' 
   FROM information_schema.tables 
   GROUP BY table_schema;
   
   -- Check slow queries
   SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'slow_query_log';
   

9. Network and Connectivity Issues

   ### Network Troubleshooting
   
   **Basic Connectivity:**
   ```bash
   # Test basic connectivity
   ping example.com
   telnet host port
   curl -v https://api.example.com/health
   
   # DNS resolution
   nslookup example.com
   dig example.com
   
   # Network routing
   traceroute example.com
   

   SSL/TLS Issues:

   # Check SSL certificate
   openssl s_client -connect example.com:443
   curl -vI https://example.com
   

10. Application-Specific Troubleshooting

    Memory Issues:

    ### Out of Memory Errors
    
    **Java Applications:**
    ```bash
    # Check heap usage
    jstat -gc [PID]
    jmap -dump:format=b,file=heapdump.hprof [PID]
    
    # Analyze heap dump
    jhat heapdump.hprof
    

    Node.js Applications:

    # Monitor memory usage
    node --inspect app.js
    # Use Chrome DevTools for memory profiling
    

11. Security and Authentication Issues

    ### Authentication Failures
    
    **Symptoms:**
    - 401 Unauthorized responses
    - Token validation errors
    - Session timeout issues
    
    **Diagnostic Steps:**
    1. Verify credentials and tokens
    2. Check token expiration
    3. Validate authentication service
    4. Review CORS configuration
    
    **Common Solutions:**
    - Refresh authentication tokens
    - Clear browser cookies/cache
    - Verify CORS headers
    - Check API key permissions
    

12. Deployment and Configuration Issues

    ### Deployment Failures
    
    **Container Issues:**
    ```bash
    # Check container status
    docker ps -a
    docker logs container-name
    
    # Check resource limits
    docker stats
    
    # Debug container
    docker exec -it container-name /bin/bash
    

    Kubernetes Issues:

    # Check pod status
    kubectl get pods
    kubectl describe pod pod-name
    kubectl logs pod-name
    
    # Check service connectivity
    kubectl get svc
    kubectl port-forward pod-name 8080:8080
    

13. Monitoring and Alerting Setup

    • Configure health checks and monitoring
    • Set up log aggregation and analysis
    • Implement alerting for critical issues
    • Create dashboards for system metrics
    • Document monitoring thresholds

14. Escalation Procedures

    ## Escalation Matrix
    
    ### Severity Levels
    
    **Critical (P1):** System down, data loss
    - Immediate response required
    - Escalate to on-call engineer
    - Notify management within 30 minutes
    
    **High (P2):** Major functionality impaired
    - Response within 2 hours
    - Escalate to senior engineer
    - Provide hourly updates
    
    **Medium (P3):** Minor functionality issues
    - Response within 8 hours
    - Assign to appropriate team member
    - Provide daily updates
    

15. Recovery Procedures

    • Document system recovery steps
    • Create data backup and restore procedures
    • Establish rollback procedures for deployments
    • Document disaster recovery processes
    • Test recovery procedures regularly

16. Preventive Measures

    • Implement monitoring and alerting
    • Set up automated health checks
    • Create deployment validation procedures
    • Establish code review processes
    • Document maintenance procedures

17. Knowledge Base Integration

    • Link to relevant documentation
    • Reference API documentation
    • Include links to monitoring dashboards
    • Connect to team communication channels
    • Integrate with ticketing systems

18. Team Communication

    ## Communication Channels
    
    ### Immediate Response
    - Slack: #incidents channel
    - Phone: On-call rotation
    - Email: alerts@company.com
    
    ### Status Updates
    - Status page: status.company.com
    - Twitter: @company_status
    - Internal wiki: troubleshooting section
    

19. Documentation Maintenance

    • Regular review and updates
    • Version control for troubleshooting guides
    • Feedback collection from users
    • Integration with incident post-mortems
    • Continuous improvement processes

20. Self-Service Tools

    • Create diagnostic scripts and tools
    • Build automated recovery procedures
    • Implement self-healing systems
    • Provide user-friendly diagnostic interfaces
    • Create chatbot integration for common issues

Advanced Troubleshooting Techniques:

Log Analysis:

# Search for specific errors
grep -i "error" /var/log/app.log | tail -50

# Analyze log patterns
awk '{print $1}' access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr

# Monitor logs in real-time
tail -f /var/log/app.log | grep -i "exception"

Performance Profiling:

# System performance
iostat -x 1
sar -u 1 10
vmstat 1 10

# Application profiling
strace -p [PID]
perf record -p [PID]

Remember to:

• Keep troubleshooting guides up-to-date
• Test all documented procedures regularly
• Collect feedback from users and improve guides
• Include screenshots and visual aids where helpful
• Make guides searchable and well-organized

References

• @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/frameworks/sdlc-complete/README.md — SDLC framework context and documentation standards
• @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-utils/rules/research-before-decision.md — Research-first for root cause analysis
• @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-utils/rules/diagram-generation.md — System topology and architecture diagram standards
• @$AIWG_ROOT/docs/cli-reference.md — CLI reference