Workshop: Troubleshooting with Premier
Resolve or even prevent
incidents faster by
optimizing your
troubleshooting skills, and
by learning how to interact
more effectively with
Premier Support.
Benefits:
 Reduced number of
incidents
 Reduced number of cases
with Microsoft, including
CritSits
 Reduced time per case
Overview
Do you recognize this picture? You are involved in a serious production
incident, but cannot find the root cause by inspection. You really need
to use tooling like Network Monitor or the Windows Debugger, but
unfortunately you are not familiar with them. On top of that, the
Microsoft Support Engineer asks you to make a memory dump quickly,
but you don’t really know how to do that.
You need to get to the next level and this training is designed to get
you there. The trainer will enable you to get started with the most
important troubleshooting tools, both offline and online. At the same
time, you will learn how to create and manage Premier Support cases
effectively and increase your understanding of Premier structures and
processes.
You will learn:
 how Microsoft Support processes work in respect to; Hotfixes,
Security Updates, DCR’s and our Support Lifecycle.
 how to detect and describe issues in your environment.
 how to gather specific data related to a detected issue.
 how to analyze and interpret gathered data.
 how to use Microsoft Premier Online to gather and analyze data
and start interacting with Microsoft Support Engineers.
Workshop Highlights
After attending this workshop, students will be able to:
 Troubleshoot effectively using standard tools and
processes.
 Resolve ‘basic’ Windows and Performance issues.
 Gather appropriate data to resolve issues more efficiently.
 Learn how to use the same tools Microsoft Support
Engineers use like: Netmon, WinDbg, Process Explorer,
WPA, XPerf, etc., but also automated diagnostics.
Target Audience
To ensure the high-quality knowledge-transfer expected by
attendees of this workshop, class size is limited to a maximum
of 16 students who meet the following criteria:
 Two (or more) years of experience as a Windows
Administrator/Engineer.
 Have basic understanding of Windows Internals.
 Experience in managing Microsoft Premier Support cases
is an advantage.
Hardware/Software Requirements
To participate in the course, when delivered at the customer
site, each student needs to have access to a workstation that
meets or exceeds the minimum requirements below. This
workstation is used to run the different tools.
Requirements:
- Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 PC (32 bit or 64 bit). 4
GB RAM is required. If the machine cannot run
Hyper-V, local Administrator privileges on the
machine are needed to be able to install various
tools.
- Internet Connectivity.
Note: For workshops delivered at a Microsoft facility
Windows 8 workstations will be provided.
This data sheet is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
IN THIS SUMMARY.
Syllabus
This workshop runs for two days. Students should anticipate
consistent start and end times for each day. Early departure
on any day is not recommended.
Lesson 1: The Org. Learn what Microsoft organizations are
involved in working with you and your cases.
Lesson 2: The Problem. Learn to distinguish several common
problem scenarios, get guidance on detection, description,
and (proactively) resolving/preventing problems on your own,
as well as guidance on escalation to Microsoft Premier
Support. This Lesson also touches upon possibilities of System
Center Advisor and Windows Intune.
Lesson 3: The Solution. Learn what types of solutions there
are, the differences between them, and processes involved, for
example, the Hotfix Request process. Also, learn about GDR,
LDR and SP servicing branches and the Product Lifecycle.
Lesson 4: The Data. Know what data to obtain based on the
problem scenario and what tools to use to capture this data,
as well as what tools to use to analyze and interpret the data.
This Lesson is split across Day 1 and 2.
Lesson 5: The Basics. Here, you take the first steps to root-
cause analysis through various labs, using for instance
Windbg to look at a memory dump, Netmon to capture and
filter traces, WPR/WPA (Xperf v5) to capture and analyze
traces, etc. A discussion of basic Windows Architecure
concepts starts this lesson.
Optionally there is a three-day version of this workshop
available which is structured the same way, but goes much
more in depth for The Data and The Basics lessons. As this
variant is only available in closed (onsite) form, students are
encouraged to bring along their own cases, memory dumps,
Xperf/WPR traces, Perfmon logs, etc.
Technical Level
Day 1: 100-200
Day 2: 200-300