Troubleshooting Approach

• Define the actual problem from the information provided within the incident. Ensure you have a clear and concise problem statement that you can translate to a specific network issue.

• Identify the symptoms. This is where you must call on your hard-earned knowledge and experience. You may be able to iden-tify immediately why a neighbor relationship is failing. If you cannot, use the tools available to you in the form of show and debug commands. When you can clearly see the symptom, the solution should be apparent.

• If you have multiple solutions, work through them according to your strategy and use the full cycle of implement, verify, and investigate to find the correct solution.

• You may find you have strict guidelines related to an incident. These could be easy fixes that you should not apply; they might mask the issue and not actually address the root cause. Stick to the guidelines; otherwise, you risk not earning points for your solution.