How would you go about troubleshooting Lotus Notes transaction log problems?
Troubleshooting is a critical function of a Lotus Notes administrator's job. Interviewers are likely to ask you many questions about this because, in addition to configuring and supporting the system, they want to ensure you can quickly and accurately diagnose issues and resolve them. They are likely to give you specific situations that the organization may have already experienced to see if you can fix them. Some interviewers will prepare complex written cases which you need to solve using coding, diagnostic tools, or other methods much as you would if you are actually on the job.
When responding to this type of question, you may want to ask some clarifying questions. This will help you better focus your answer while demonstrating to the interviewer that you often seek out additional information before beginning to work on a problem. If you are presented with a case, your questions should center around the tools you can use, any alternative action the interview will accept, the time frame allowed to perform the task, and again any clarifying questions that will help you better answer the question or resolve the case.
"When faced with a Lotus notes transaction log problem, the steps I would take to resolve those, in order are to first check the log path. If the path is correct, I would restart the server to see if this resolves the issue. If the issue is not resolved, I would edit the TRANS LOG - PATH setting in notes.ini to point to a different log path and then restart the server again. If I see the error message "Transaction log damaged or corrupted "on the console prompt, I would then restart the server again. Finally, if the issue continues, I'd delete the transaction log file, restart the server, create a new log file, then load the fix-up. Finally, I'd perform a database backup to ensure the data was not corrupted or lost."
