When systems break, how do you troubleshoot? here are the 3 main styles. 🔧⚙️
1. Data Collector – Follows a systematic approach, collects detailed information, follow standard check list one by one, Reliable, but sometimes slower.
2. Educated Guesser – Relies on intuition and past experience to act quickly with limited data. Jump and check the most possible cause instead of following the checklist, Fast, but can miss details if over-relied upon.
3. The Adaptor – Switches between systematic and intuitive approaches depending on the situation. Balanced and flexible.
No single method is “the best.” The right approach depends on your personality, experience, and the problem at hand. Knowing your natural style , and borrowing from the others , makes you a stronger troubleshooter.
About me, I always start with my guess that make me "Educated Guesser" but If I spend too much time without progress, I fall back to the Systematic approach. :-( But ya this balance has worked well for me, there are always a few tricky scenarios where things get messy with hobbit of jump into with a guess but probability will increase based on our experience I think.
Credits: (Refer Book - Linux Troubleshooting Guide - Cane Benjamin) - I would suggest All DevOps engineers read this book, Its awesome.
#Devops #Linux #Interviews #systemadmins #SRE
Question for you: Which troubleshooting style do you usually follow