Consulting Documentation for Internet Connectivity Issues

First thing on Monday morning, after a maintenance weekend, the help desk receives many calls that no one can access the Internet.

Which of the following types of documentation should the on-call network administrator consult FIRST?

A.

Firewall configuration documentation

B.

Change management documentation

C.

Network performance baseline

D.

Logical diagram.

B.

The correct answer is B: Change management documentation.

Explanation:

When facing a sudden outage, the first step for a network administrator is to identify the cause of the issue. In this scenario, the help desk has received many calls about users being unable to access the Internet. This indicates that the issue is widespread and affects multiple users.

One possible cause for this type of outage is a recent change that was implemented over the weekend. It is common for organizations to perform maintenance activities over the weekend when network usage is typically lower. Therefore, it is essential to consult the change management documentation first to identify if any changes were made.

Change management documentation is a record of all changes made to the network infrastructure, including the date, time, and details of the change. By reviewing this documentation, the network administrator can quickly identify if any changes were made that may have caused the outage.

Once the network administrator has identified the changes made, they can review the configuration and troubleshoot the issue accordingly. If the change management documentation does not provide any clues about the cause of the outage, the network administrator can then consult other types of documentation, such as firewall configuration documentation, network performance baseline, or logical diagram. However, in this scenario, the change management documentation should be the first point of reference.