Using Decision Tree to Share Troubleshooting Knowledges

Decision Tree is a platform that allows network engineers to easily share their troubleshooting knowledges (for a specific network device) with other team members. Decision Tree makes it possible for network engineers to share their findings with other team members when they collaborate on network troubleshooting, thus tremendously speed up the process of root cause analysis.

The troubleshooting knowledges will be represented by various types of automations (such as Network Intent, Runbook, CLI command) and then be associated with a specific ‘symptom’ of the network issue represented by Flash Probe or Hypothesis.

Terminologies

The following table lists the terminologies that are related to Decision Tree:

Term

Definition

Flash Probe

A monitoring task that is periodically executed to check the key parameters and detect symptoms of potential network issues. If the value of any key parameter is considered abnormal, the flash alert will be generated.

Hypothesis

A line of text used to describe a potential network symptom.

Automation

A set of tools used to identify the root cause of network issues. Examples can include Network Intent, Runbook and CLI command.

Relationship

Relationship is created when a Flash Probe or a Hypothesis is associated with an automation.

Playbook

Similar as the static playbook, the playbook in a Decision Tree describes specific network issues. Each playbook has several relationships to help network engineer to find the root cause.