Sometimes, the hardest part of troubleshooting is figuring out where to start, especially when MIM involves so many technologies. A single problem could be caused by one or more MIM server(s), an MIM component, the MIM configuration, a rules extension logic problem, the network, invalid or incorrect data entered at the source system(s), or other things such as the underlying infrastructure of domain controller(s), DNS, SQL Server, SharePoint, or IIS.
One way to start troubleshooting is to think of how the components are installed in your specific environment—that is, determining the systems or components involved in a particular problem.
Let's take the basic data problem in which an account has missing or wrong data and list a few possible causes. The source system could be down, source data could have been accidentally deleted or entered incorrectly, or the service account being used by MIM could have issues such as incorrect permissions, password reset, or the account being disabled...