How to Ask for Help

Introduction

When filing a problem report it is never harmful to provide more information than needed, but is almost always harmful to not provide enough information.

If your problem report does not provide enough information many people will not bother to even respond as they consider it a waste of time to ask for information which should have been provided in the original problem report.

Help others to help you!

Try to provide as much information as possible when filing problem reports!

Details

Be precise and informative about your problem.

The specific version's config files and logs are always helpful.

Your complete configuration files.

Your complete log files.

Your complete error msg.

Screen shots.

Which host operating system platform are you using? (Windows? Linux? Mac?) Which version is it? Windows 7? CentOS 6.8? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

What docker versions, docker config (swarm vs standalone) and release level are you running? Please don't say the latest. Give exact version numbers.

Is the problem consistent and repeatable? What procedure can others use to try and re-create your problem? (Now you know why you post your config)

Is there anything else you can think of that might be related to your problem?

Do you have any unusual or related software installed on your host?

Have you made any recent configuration changes to your host?

Did you change something in the configuration? - Post **that change again ** with the logs and any new error messages you might receive along with new screen shots.

Closing Remarks

If you provide a quality problem report with the information others need to help you, you will stand a much better chance of actually obtaining the quality help you seek.

Remember: The people you are asking are not psychic! They don't know the details of your problem. Only you know that.

If you provide them with the details they need to help you, they might actually be willing and able to help you.

Otherwise you're just wasting their time.