Troubleshoot synchronization report errors

A single error in a field or row can trigger a cascade of error and warning messages in the synchronization report. When an object fails to be created, other objects that refer to it also fail to be created, generating more errors. This process can cause a large number of errors to be generated from a single failure. This section contains some tips for identifying cascading error messages and finding the original source of the error.

Consider the case where you make a typo in a site name. The site is then created in xMatters with the incorrect name. The users for this site cannot be created because they refer to the correct site name, which does not exist. This causes error messages to be generated for each user at the site. The objects that refer to these users (supervisors, groups, devices, teams, and so on) also fail to be created, because the corresponding users do not exist. This generates even more error messages. In short, the single typo in the site name triggered a cascade of error messages for many different objects, including users, devices, supervisors, groups, teams, and more.

To clarify the source of a cascading error, apply the following tips:

  • Begin by examining the tables that were processed first. Try to fix errors that occur at the beginning of the data synchronization process first, because they are most likely to contain the root cause of an error. Errors that occur later in the synchronization process are more likely to be cascading errors. Start with the sites table, and then inspect users, devices, custom fields, and so on.
  • Start investigating errors at the bottom of the detailed synchronization report, and work your way up. The real errors tend to be located at the bottom of the detailed synchronization report, and the cascading errors are detected later and appear closer to the top of the report.
  • Look at field warnings and errors before row warnings and errors. If a field fails, it will generate an error in the row as well. The field-level error message contains more detailed information about the error than the row-level error message.
  • Ignore errors that do not have error messages. The errors that do not have error messages are likely to be repeated or secondary errors. Focus on the errors that have error messages.
  • Look for a common factor when there are a lot of similar errors. If there are a lot of similar errors, it is likely that they are cascading errors that were triggered by an error somewhere else. When you find a large number of similar-looking errors, see what they have in common and look for errors with their common element. For example, if there are hundreds of users that fail to load because they refer to a missing site, it is more likely that there is an error with the site than with each of the users.