Solving Problems and Troubleshooting in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 includes SharePoint Health Analyzer, a tool for diagnosing and resolving configuration, performance and usage problems. It runs predefined health rules against servers in the farm. The health rule runs a test and returns an alert specifying the test outcome. The SharePoint Central Administration website allows viewing of alerts and problem resolution.

Viewing and Resolving SharePoint Health Analyzer Alerts

To use the Central Administration website to view and resolve health alerts, follow these six steps:

  1. Verify that the user account is a member of the Farm Administrators group.
  2. From the Central Administration website on the home page, click Monitoring.
  3. On the Monitoring page in the Health Analyzer section, click Review problems and solutions.
  4. On the Review problems and solutions page, click the alert to be viewed and resolved.
  5. To resolve the problem, follow the guidance given in the Remedy section of the Review problems and solutions dialog. Keep the dialog open to allow resolution confirmation after performing step 6.

After following the guidance given in the Remedy section, in the Review problems and solutions dialog for the alert, click Reanalyze Now to confirm the resolution. If the problem is resolved, the alert status changes to 4-Success.

SharePoint Health Analyzer Alert Fields

The table below describes the fields in SharePoint Health Analyzer alerts.

Title
The name of the alert. By default, it is the name of the health rule that generated the alert.

Severity
Possible values include: 1 – Error, 2 – Warning, 3 – Information, 4 – Success and 0 – Rule Execution Failure.

Category
Pre-set values include: Configuration, Security, Performance and Availability. Users can type a value in the Specify your own value box.

Explanation
This field provides a detailed explanation of the cause of the alert. It might include exception or trace information.

Remedy
This field offers guidance on how to resolve the problem that caused the alert. It might include precise steps or a link to more information.

Failing Servers
This field identifies the server on which the failure occurred.

Failing Services
This field identifies the service where the failure occurred.

Rule Settings
This field provides a link to the health rule generating the alert. The rule information might assist in problem analysis, or suggest the need to change the schedule or disable the rule.

Version [Read-only]
This number is automatically incremented every time an alert is altered.

Created (time) [Read-only]
This field provides alert generation date and time and the domain or local security account under which the alert was generated.

Last changed (time) [Read-only]
This field provides the date and time that the alert was last changed and the domain or local security account under which the alert was changed. This information is useful in tracking changes to the alert, such as during resolution of the problem.