Adobe Captivate Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Slide 1 – Troubleshooting Zscaler – Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
Welcome to this Zscaler training module on a process for troubleshooting.

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Slide 2 - Navigating the eLearning Module

Slide notes
Here is a quick guide to navigating this eLearning module. There are various controls for playback including Play/Pause,
Previous and Next Slide, and Fast Forward. You can also mute the Audio or enable Closed Captioning which will cause a
transcript of the module to be displayed on the screen. Finally, you can click the “X” button if you wish to exit.

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Slide 3 - Module Agenda

Slide notes
In this module, we look at a process for troubleshooting connectivity through Zscaler, and at the information that is
required in order to open a support ticket.

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Slide 4 - Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
In the first section, we will discuss an approach to troubleshooting end user connectivity through Zscaler.

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Slide 5 - Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
The first step in troubleshooting any connectivity issue, is to identify as far as possible precisely where the connection is
failing, and who the failure impacts. With an Internet Access connection through Zscaler, an issue can occur in one of a
number of places: On the end user’s device; on the local network; between the end user’s location Firewall and Zscaler;
between the end user and Zscaler (if they are connecting directly); between the end user and the Identity Provider (IdP);
between the IdP and Zscaler; between Zscaler and The Internet; or with the destination service. Your goal here is to
home in as quickly as possible to the ‘failure domain’, to allow you to focus your troubleshooting efforts on the actual
problem area.
Many standard networking tools, and some specialized Zscaler tools are available to assist in this process, such as: a
simple ‘ping’ to the destination service; a ‘traceroute’ to the destination service; the Zscaler Proxy Test Website; or even
the Zscaler Analysis Tool.

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Slide 6 - Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
Having localized the problem, the next stage is to isolate precisely what logical process is failing, to allow you to identify
a solution to the problem: Are there network connectivity problems in general? Is there a connection issue between
specific infrastructure entities? Is there some form of misconfiguration, either of the network connections, or of a
Zscaler Policy?

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Slide 7 - Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
Having localized and isolated the problem, you then need to come up with a solution to it, which is best done using a
troubleshooting cycle such as the one shown here.
1. To start the cycle, you must leverage your knowledge and experience as a network or support engineer to form a
theory as to what problem might cause the symptom(s) that you are seeing.
2. Having come up with a theory, you then need to figure out the best way to test your theory, …what can you
change or re-configure which (according to your theory) should fix the issue.
3. Then you can go ahead and test your theory, at which point there could be two possible outcomes:
4. First, your theory proved to be correct, and connectivity has been restored for the end user. This means that you
have fixed the problem, or at least a problem, and you can step out of the troubleshooting cycle (for now).
5. Alternatively, your theory is proved to be incorrect, at which point you need to reverse any configuration
changes that you made during your tests, and come up with a new theory.

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Slide 8 - Troubleshooting Process

Slide notes
There are only so many theories that any engineer can come up with, and if you run out of theories you will need to
consult more experienced colleagues, who may well have seen the problem before, or can at least bring a fresh set of
eyes to the problem.

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Slide 9 - L1 Suggested Troubleshooting Flow

Slide notes
Here is a suggested flow diagram for Level 1 support engineers troubleshooting connectivity issues through Zscaler.
1. The very first thing to check, is whether or not the end user is actually going through Zscaler. This can be done
using the Zscaler Proxy Test Website.
2. If not, then you may need to troubleshoot some local, or intermediate network connectivity issues.
3. If the Zscaler App is required for connectivity…
4. …you may need to verify that it is installed correctly on the end users client device.

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Slide 10 - L1 Suggested Troubleshooting Flow

Slide notes
5. If the Proxy Test shows that the end user is connecting through Zscaler, the next process to troubleshoot is end
user authentication, if it is required.
6. Check to see whether the end user can actually authenticate, …
7. …and if not check the end user’s account to make sure it is still valid. Bear in mind that there may be other
problems that prevent a successful authentication, such as the end user not being able to reach the IdP.

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Slide 11 - L1 Suggested Troubleshooting Flow

Slide notes
8. If the end user can actually authenticate, or if authentication is not required at all and the user still has problems
accessing a site or the Internet in general, check to see whether some Zscaler policy is blocking the user. This
may be a legitimate block, if the requested site has been deemed dangerous or inappropriate, or it may be a
‘false positive’ that requires management and re-configuration.

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Slide 12 - L1 Suggested Troubleshooting Flow

Slide notes
9. Having identified and corrected any problems during this process, re-test connectivity to see whether the end
user can now connect to the site, or to The Internet. If so, then the problem may have been solved 😊

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Slide 13 - L1 Suggested Troubleshooting Flow

Slide notes
10. If at any point in this flow you run out of ideas, or things to test, you probably need to escalate the issue to a
support engineer at the next Level.

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Slide 14 - Information Required to Open a Ticket

Slide notes
In the final section, we will have a look at the information that you require in order to raise a support case to Zscaler.

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Slide 15 - Information Required for a Zscaler Support Ticket

Slide notes
There is a certain minimum of information that is required in order to open a support ticket with Zscaler, so it is a good
idea to start collecting this data early in the troubleshooting process. Many of the required items will anyway assist you
with identifying key aspects of the end user's connectivity.
We will of course, need to know who the customer is that is raising the ticket, and the details of the contact at the
customer or partner responsible for managing the ticket.
‘Ticket Overview’ information that will be required, includes:
• Issue Subject: A summary of the problem with main symptom and scope. This is a free text field, and should be
as concise as possible, but at the same time give a complete indication of the nature of the problem.
• Description: A detailed description of the problem. This is a free text field that allows you to fully explain the
nature of the problem, the symptoms, where and when the problem occurs, what process you suspect is at fault,
and what steps you have taken to identify the problem, or corrective actions that you have taken with no
success.
• Ticket Type: Select from the available types; 'Question', 'Task', 'Problem', or 'Incident'. See the Support
Overview module for what each of these types denote.

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• Ticket Priority: Select from the available priorities; 'Urgent', 'High', 'Normal', or 'Low'. See the Support Overview
module for what each of these priorities denote.
• Ticket Area: Select from the available list of areas (note that the list depends on the Ticket Type selection).
• Ticket Sub-Area: Select from the available list of sub-areas (note that the list depends on the Ticket Area
selected).

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Slide 16 - Information Required for a Zscaler Support Ticket

Slide notes
We will normally always need to know the traffic forwarding method in use for the end user, whether traffic forwarding
is transparent to them (using some form of tunnel), or whether there is some form of explicit configuration (a PAC file
applied, or the Zscaler App). We will need to know which of the Zscaler Clouds the customer is provisioned on, and the
data centers used by them. This information can be found from the host names of the Proxy nodes (ZENs) that the end
users connect through, from the data provided at the Proxy Test Website page. We also need to know when the problem
started, whether it is an on-going issue, or if it has stopped, when did it stop.

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Slide 17 - Information Required for a Zscaler Support Ticket

Slide notes
We need to understand the scope of the issue, whether it is permanent or intermittent, whether it applies to all sites,
users, data centers, destinations, or apps. Useful information would include what you think to be the trigger criteria for
the issue, whether there has been recent a change in conditions or configurations that might have a bearing. We need to
know if there is a work-around in place, and if so, what that is.
Finally, you have the ability to upload any data that may help us to troubleshoot the problem, such as: screenshots of
the Zscaler Proxy Test Website data; the output from the Zscaler Cloud Performance Test, or Analyzer; Log files from any
related systems, for example – Firewall systems, routers, or servers.

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Slide 18 - Thank you & Quiz

Slide notes
Thank you for following this Zscaler training module, we hope this module has been useful to you and thank you for
your time.
What follows is a short quiz to test your knowledge of the material presented during this module. You may retake the
quiz as many times as necessary in order to pass.

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