Unix® System Management Primer Plus

Root Cause Analysis

All problems, no matter how complex, have a root cause. A root cause is where a problem originated—the spark that caused the fire. Sometimes finding the root cause of a problem is easy. In the example of a problem discussed in the activity log text listed in the preceding section, the root cause of the slow response time on goat was a failing gigabit card. Sometimes it's not so easy; often the problem must be traced back further through many steps to find out what action truly caused the problem.

For example, a user might call into your help desk saying that she isn't receiving any of the email her friends are sending to her. Upon further investigation, you find out that the file system housing her mailbox is full. You reclaim ...