Contacting IBM Support

IBM® Support provides assistance with product defects, answering FAQs, and performing rediscovery.

Before you begin

After trying to find your answer or solution by using other self-help options such as technotes, you can contact IBM Support. Before contacting IBM Support, your company must have an active IBM software subscription and support contract, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. For information about the types of available support, see Support Portfolio.

Procedure

Define the problem, gather background information, and determine the severity of the problem. For more information, see Getting IBM support.
Gather diagnostic information about the problem and the environment at the time the problem occurred.
Submit the problem to IBM Support in one of the following ways:
- Online through Getting IBM support: You can open, update, and view all of your service requests from the Service Request page.
- By phone: For the phone number to call in your region, see the Directory of worldwide contacts web page.

Results

If the problem that you submit is for a software defect or, in some cases, for missing or inaccurate documentation, IBM Support creates an Authorized Program Analysis Report (APAR). The APAR describes the problem in detail. Whenever possible, IBM Support provides a workaround that you can implement until the APAR is resolved and a fix is delivered. IBM publishes resolved APARs on the IBM Support website daily, so that other users who experience the same problem can benefit from the same resolution.

What to do next

In some situations when you report a problem, you might be asked to use IBM® Assist On-Site, which is a remote-assistance plug-in that you can download to your computer. With this tool, the IBM technical-support representative can view your desktop and share control of your mouse and keyboard. Use of this tool can shorten the time that it takes to identify the problem, collect the necessary data, and solve the problem. For more information, see IBM Assist On-Site.