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Oracle® Application Server Forms Services Deployment Guide 10g Release 2 (10.1.2) B14032-03 |
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# A.7 Troubleshooting Tips

The following troubleshooting list will help you deal with complex issues, but it is not a definitive guide to problem solving or a guaranteed set of solutions to your Oracle Forms environment.

Be methodical

Don't immediately leap to the area you believe to be the cause based on a hunch, or a guess - make sure you eliminate the other possibilities first. An easy trap to fall into is that of spending long periods of time trying to find evidence to support your theory, rather than concentrating on what the evidence shows.Don't overlook the trivial or the obvious.

Divide the problem into sections

- Chop the problem into manageable sections - this helps eliminate whole areas from investigation. As you investigate an area and satisfy yourself that the problem does not lie there, you can proceed to the next section. An approach to diagnosing a problem that is often successful is to reduce it to its essential parts. This will be important if you need to discuss the problem with Oracle Support Services to obtain a solution.

- Define what happens, when it happens, how often it happens. Of equal importance is, understanding what does not happen, when it does not happen etc. For example, if a group of users in the same building all get the problem, and it always happens between 9 and 10am, it is just as important to know that it never reproduces in another building, or after 10pm. Perhaps the users only use a particular Form between 9 and 10, or the load on the system is highest between 9 and 10am.

Read the error messages.

It sounds obvious, but often the solution information is within the error text. This document will help you understand the error messages, and help identify what action to take.

Make sure you can reproduce the problem, if possible

If you can reproduce the problem yourself, you may notice some behavior that the end user never spotted - perhaps it had always happened, so they simply assumed it was meant to happen. If you can reproduce the problem then you have already started the first step to resolve it.

Make sure you understand the tools you are trying to use

If you decide to use a diagnostic tool, make sure you know how to use it, and how to interpret the data it produces. Time spent in investigating the usage of a tool before the problem happens is time well invested. Make time to learn the tool as well.