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Search for the error message!

Honestly, I can't tell you how many times searching on the text of an error message has led me to a solution.

I had a DBA call me who needed help with SQL Server replication.  Ummm.  Let's just say I'm not a SQL Server replication expert.

The DBA said he couldn't create a publication on a new server.

Asked the DBA to send me an e-mail detailing the issue. It contained the error message thrown.

I searched on the text of the error message.

It led me to a post on Pinal Dave's blog.

We took action based on this blog post.  Which led us to another error message.  Searched again, took action, made progress.

In the end, the issue was resolved after going through this loop a few times.

This works for me so much but I run into so many people who don't do it.

So, search on the text of the error message when a problem arises.

Most of the time you will find an answer and you will likely find a resource that you can use to resolve future problems.

Comments

  1. Wow, I'm surprised that you know of people who don't use this method.... Actually now that I think about it, I know a couple people who ask me questions before they ask Google.

    So! An important post then!

    Most people will also have learned (or will learn quickly) to omit the application specific stuff like searching for:
    "does not exist. Make sure that the name is entered correctly."
    Rather than
    "Database 'asdf' does not exist. Make sure that the name is entered correctly."

    ReplyDelete

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