Chapter 12. Troubleshooting SANs

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

—Henry Ford

Troubleshooting is a series of steps that focuses on and eliminates possibilities within a larger, unknown problem. I could write a whole book on troubleshooting, but in this chapter, I try to cover everything you need to know about how to locate and resolve common problems in your storage area network (SAN) environment. Read this chapter for every kind of problem, from the initial "Now why doesn't this work?" to the sudden "Whoa, what the heck just happened?" to my personal favorite: "Hey, do you smell smoke?"