Four Troubleshooting Tactics to Solve Real-World Problems on
the Content Management Platform
For enterprises using the open source Drupal platform, it can often be difficult to determine the source of a problem with a corporate or internal website. There are many potential causes for website issues, and in many cases, the problem has nothing to do with the source code. Errors could be brought on by problems with application configuration, system caching, a faulty custom module, or any number of other possibilities.
When something goes wrong with a website, it’s important to avoid the temptation to rush into action. To start, enterprises should undergo an intensive process to determine what the problem is and create a custom solution to restore the site’s functionality as quickly as possible. This white paper will discuss the steps involved in resolving site problems on the Drupal content management platform.
Ask the Right Questions to Determine
The Problem’s Source
When a problem occurs with a business website, there are several types of questions that technology officers can ask to deduce the source of the error.
1. Open-ended questions are broad questions, such as, “What is the problem?” The idea behind this questioning tactic is to get the employee, client, or end user who identified the problem to share details about what type of error appeared and what happened when he tried to continue his online session.
2. Closed questions are more specific questions, which can often provide great value in determining the source of a website error. For instance, a company’s head of technology might ask an employee, “Have you made any changes to the code in the last 24 hours?” If the employee replies in the affirmative, this will help the technology lead track down the exact root cause of the problem if it is connected with recent changes.
Other types of closed questions include:
What are the symptoms of the problem? In order to determine a
solution, it’s necessary to uncover all potential associated issues. Specific questions — such as, “Under what conditions does the error occur?” — can reveal more information.
In what environment does the problem occur in? Does it occur in the iOS platform, Apache, Windows, or another platform?
Did you take any diagnostic steps before reporting the issue? Whether dealing with an employee or a client, it’s important to determine whether the other party has made any modifications to the system before reporting the issue to a technology director. This will identify additional variables, including whether a particular module should be turned on or off. Were any changes made to the site configuration recently? Find out
whether any changes that affect the database were made immediately before the problem occurred.
Can the problem be duplicated on another platform? If at all possible, enterprise organizations should use a “sandbox” tool to replicate the problem on a staging site and work to resolve it there first. This strategy reduces the risk of causing larger errors with the primary website.
Define a Troubleshooting Process
“The more you can define and control your processes, the more success you’ll have in troubleshooting,” said Kenny Silanskas, a client advisory team member for the Drupal solutions provider Acquia.
In order to simplify the troubleshooting process, it is valuable to create a detailed log of all changes made to the website. This might include:
■ modifications to the code; ■ recently added modules;
Often, changes to the code will be recorded automatically, but modifications that are not recorded within the database should be noted in an Excel spreadsheet or other note-taking tool.
Additionally, enterprise technology officers should maintain calendars of scheduled system releases and development cycles related to sites that they maintain. Keeping track of planned upgrades can enable a company to determine whether a software upgrade may be responsible for a website problem.
Find Out the Layer in Which the
Problem Starts
Drupal-based websites consist of multiple layers, and a problem can occur in any of them. To determine where the complication stems from, use the process of elimination by asking the following questions:
■ Does the problem occur both when you’re logged in and logged out? If the problem occurs in both situations, you can determine that the issue is not related to system caching.
■ Does the problem occur within both a custom theme and a default Drupal theme? You can determine if an error stems from a problem in your custom code if the error is resolved when switching back to a default Drupal theme.
■ Does switching off a custom or newly added module eliminate the problem? If so, you’ve determined that the problem lies within the module level.
■ If you believe the problem is within a module, does the module work on another platform? If you install the module on another site and it works correctly, the issue may be due to the way that the module is interacting with the content on a particular site. Make sure that you are using the latest version of the module to see if that resolves the issue.
Troubleshooting Tools
1. Follow The Basic Steps
Sites based on the Drupal platform are subject to the same basic
troubleshooting steps as any other websites. Some common strategies include: ■ Check your Apache and PHP Error Logs
■ Confirm the performance settings at /admin/settings/performance ■ Clear all of the Drupal caches, not just the page cache
■ Download the latest releases of all the modules that you use ■ Check your permissions settings
2. Ask For Assistance
Many support forums and commercial solutions providers can provide assistance with resolving website problems. These include:
■ The Drupal issue queue (http://drupal.org/project/issues) ■ A custom Google search related to your problem
■ Acquia’s commercial Drupal support service
Custom PHP code for debugging coding errors, Cron, and search index failures can be found by searching for the relevant terms in Acquia’s premium content library (https://library.acquia.com/).
3. Use Professional Tools
When attempting to debug an enterprise-class website, professional-quality tools can assist with the troubleshooting process. They include:
■ An integrated development environment (IDE)
This specialized software is used for code development and debugging. Eclipse is a free option, while commercial solutions include Komodo IDE, Netbeans, and Coda.
■ XDebug
This PHP extension utilizes the DGBp debugging protocol and offers features including debugging and profiling capabilities, memory allocation, and full parameter display for user-defined functions.
© Copyright 2012, Acquia, Inc. Acquia, Inc.
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About Acquia
Acquia empowers enterprises with the open-source social publishing system Drupal. Co-founded by Drupal’s creator in 2007, Acquia helps customers manage their growth and scale their online properties with confidence. Acquia’s products, cloud infrastructure, and support enable companies to realize the full power of Drupal while minimizing risk, as it’s done for nearly 2,000 enterprise customers including Twitter, Warner Music Group, Turner Sports, Intuit, World Economic Forum, Stanford University, Mercedes-Benz and NPR. See who’s using Drupal at
www.drupalshowcase.com, and for more information please visit www.acquia.com or call 888-9-ACQUIA. 4. Maintain A Professional Attitude
Maintaining a calm, professional attitude in the face of a website error — whether it’s a company-owned or client site — is essential.
Take care to manage the situation and create a troubleshooting work plan for your staff before rushing to find a solution. If you’ve followed the best practices discussed, such as maintaining a calendar of scheduled releases and taking detailed notations on code changes, you’ll be well prepared to deal with the situation and may be able to pinpoint the root cause of the problem quickly.
