Day-to-Day Troubleshooting in DevOps

Author : Umar Shahzad

Overview
As a DevOps engineer, troubleshooting is a critical skill that spans a variety of systems, tools,
and technologies. Whether it’s debugging CI/CD pipelines, investigating infrastructure issues, or
resolving application deployment problems, having a systematic approach to troubleshooting
can greatly enhance productivity and system reliability.

Key Areas of Focus in Troubleshooting

● CI/CD Pipelines: Ensuring smooth code integration, testing, and deployment.

● Infrastructure Issues: Resolving problems with cloud services, networking, and system
configurations.
● Application Issues: Addressing issues related to application performance, errors, and
deployment failures.
● Monitoring and Logging: Utilizing logs and monitoring tools to track down issues
efficiently.

Objectives
 ● Learn how to approach troubleshooting systematically.
● Discover essential tips and tricks to resolve issues quickly.
● Understand how to use various DevOps tools for effective problem-solving.

Page 2: Troubleshooting CI/CD Pipeline Failures

Common Issues in CI/CD Pipelines

1. Build Failures
○ Cause: Missing dependencies or incorrect configurations in the build pipeline.
○ Solution:
■ Check the build logs for missing dependencies or incorrect versions.
■ Ensure that the correct environment variables are configured in the
pipeline.
■ Run the build manually to isolate the problem.
2. Test Failures
○ Cause: Failed unit tests, integration tests, or mismatched environments.
○ Solution:
■ Review the test logs to identify the root cause.
■ Make sure that all required services are available for integration tests.
■ Ensure that the test environment mirrors production as closely as
possible.
3. Deployment Failures
○ Cause: Incorrect configurations, missing permissions, or network issues.
○ Solution:
■ Review deployment logs and error messages.
■ Check that all credentials and environment variables are set correctly.
■ Ensure that network access between the pipeline and target servers is
configured properly.

Tips and Tricks

● Use Retry Logic: Implement retry logic in the pipeline for transient issues (e.g., network
glitches).
● Isolate Changes: When a failure occurs, isolate the last change and test that part of the
pipeline.
● Use Version Control: Always commit incremental changes to avoid large,
hard-to-debug changes.

Page 3: Troubleshooting Infrastructure Issues

Common Infrastructure Issues

1. Cloud Service Failures (AWS, Azure, GCP)

○ Cause: Insufficient permissions, misconfigured instances, or quota limits.
○ Solution:
■ Review the cloud provider’s console for error messages or warnings.
■ Check IAM policies and ensure that permissions are granted to the
required resources.
■ Ensure that there are no quota or resource limits preventing the
deployment.
2. Network Issues (DNS, Firewalls, VPNs)
○ Cause: Misconfigured DNS, firewall rules, or VPN settings.
○ Solution:
■ Verify DNS records and check if the service is reachable from the
required networks.
■ Ensure that firewall rules allow the necessary inbound and outbound
traffic.
■ If using a VPN, check that the VPN tunnel is established and routing is
configured correctly.
3. Storage and Database Issues
○ Cause: Misconfigured disk space, permissions, or database connectivity.
○ Solution:
■ Check disk space usage and ensure that sufficient storage is available.
■ Verify database connection settings and ensure that credentials are
correct.
■ For cloud-based databases, check the status of the database service and
ensure proper connectivity.

Tips and Tricks

● Automate Infrastructure Health Checks: Use monitoring tools like Prometheus,

CloudWatch, or Azure Monitor to alert you to infrastructure issues.
● Check Resource Scaling: Ensure that the auto-scaling settings for cloud resources are
configured to handle peak loads.

Page 4: Troubleshooting Application Issues

Common Application Issues

1. Performance Degradation
○ Cause: Inefficient code, resource exhaustion, or network bottlenecks.
○ Solution:
 ■Use profiling tools (e.g., New Relic, AppDynamics) to identify
bottlenecks.
■ Analyze CPU, memory, and disk usage to identify resource hogs.
■ Review application logs for error messages related to performance.
2. Deployment Failures
○ Cause: Incorrect environment variables, broken configurations, or missing
dependencies.
○ Solution:
■ Check environment-specific configurations and ensure that all variables
are correctly set.
■ Verify that all necessary services (e.g., databases, caches) are up and
running.
■ Review the application deployment logs for errors.
3. Security Vulnerabilities
○ Cause: Outdated dependencies or configuration flaws.
○ Solution:
■ Regularly update dependencies and monitor for security patches.
■ Use security scanners (e.g., OWASP ZAP, Snyk) to detect vulnerabilities
in the application.
■ Implement strong access controls and use firewalls to restrict access to
sensitive resources.

Tips and Tricks

● Rolling Deployments: Use blue/green or canary deployments to minimize the impact of

issues during app updates.
● Leverage Containerization: Use Docker and Kubernetes to ensure consistent
environments across development, staging, and production.

Page 5: Monitoring, Logging, and Best Practices

Using Logs Effectively

Logs are one of the most valuable tools for troubleshooting. Here's how to maximize their
effectiveness:

1. Centralized Logging
○ Use centralized logging systems like ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash,
Kibana) or Splunk to aggregate logs from different systems.
○ Ensure that logs are structured and include context such as timestamps, error
codes, and request IDs.
2. Monitoring Tools
○ Prometheus/Grafana: Use these tools to track the performance of applications,
infrastructure, and networks.
 ○ Azure Monitor / AWS CloudWatch: These tools help monitor cloud services
and alert on potential issues.
3. Alerting
○ Set up alerts for critical errors or performance degradation (e.g., Slack,
PagerDuty, Opsgenie).
○ Ensure that alerts are actionable and include enough information to troubleshoot
the issue without needing to check logs.

Best Practices for Troubleshooting

● Stay Proactive: Set up automated health checks and monitoring to detect issues before
they escalate.
● Documentation: Maintain clear documentation of common troubleshooting steps and
solutions for future reference.
● Root Cause Analysis: After resolving an issue, conduct a post-mortem to understand
the root cause and prevent recurrence.
● Stay Organized: Use issue trackers like Jira to document and manage troubleshooting
tasks.

Conclusion
Troubleshooting is a vital skill for any DevOps engineer. By leveraging the right tools and
following systematic approaches, you can resolve issues efficiently and keep systems running
smoothly. Remember to continually improve your troubleshooting processes and stay proactive
in addressing potential issues.

Tips and Tricks Recap:

● Log Everything: Logs are invaluable when tracking down problems.

● Automate Health Checks: Ensure you know when things go wrong with monitoring
systems.
● Stay Calm and Systematic: A clear, methodical approach will help you resolve issues
faster.

For more troubleshooting tips and DevOps insights, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!