Requests for root cause analysis from SolarWinds Technical Support

This article provides information about Root Cause Analysis (RCA), as the possibility of identifying a cause of an issue within the SolarWinds product.

There are a few important aspects to note regarding these requests when the user of the SolarWinds product requests Root Cause Analysis (RCA) from Technical Support. First and foremost, RCA requests are the best effort only from Technical Support. There are several reasons why this is so:

1. Logging: The logging for services and modules in the SolarWinds products only contains what that particular piece is doing at that moment in time. The logs will only have what information the logging level for that portion is set to (Verbose, Debug, Error, etc.), and are only retained for a certain amount of time. The amount of time is based on the logs' size and the records' quantity. Once that threshold has been exceeded, then old logs are purged from the server.
2. Environment: Logging and diagnostics only contain information about the application and what it did and is doing. Depending on the product, information might also be available for other facets, such as IIS, the Windows Registry, and some server event categories, but these are related to the SolarWinds product only. Communication issues, network congestion, database performance issues, etc., cannot be captured through logging or diagnostics.
   
   
3. Time: Time is crucial for conducting an RCA. If the diagnostics and logs are too old or too far out from when the issue occurred, then all the information for that time is very likely gone.

If you wish to have a Root Cause Analysis conducted, please be aware that this is not a standard facet of Technical Support.