Notes from Rational Support

               

As a support organization, we know how important it is to get you the right answers at the right time. Today we'd like to highlight one of our many tools in our bag of tricks to help you...

As a user of the IBM Support Assistant (ISA) V4 workbench you're already familiar with its suite of powerful problem determination tools for the desktop. The latest release, ISA V5, is now server based, so many of those tools have evolved for the cloud. In this post on IBM Electronic Support's blog, Russell Wright takes a look at the different types of problem determination tools we have for ISA V5. We highly recommend Russell's article and encourage you to try ISA V5 to see just what it can do for you.

　

Not familiar with ISA? Here's a quick explanation and link that should help clarify and lead you on the way to more effective and efficient problem solving!

What is IBM Support Assistant?

IBM Support Assistant (ISA) provides several, free software offerings that help you with a variety of problem determination needs. With focus on quickly finding key information, automating repetitive steps and arming you with a diverse collection of serviceability tools, you will be prepared for self-analysis and diagnosis of problems to resolve problems in less time.

via Ying Chen, Rational's ISA Deployment Engineer:

We are announcing today the release of IBM Support Assistant V4.1.1. This is a cumulative fix pack that can be applied to IBM Support Assistant V4.1. Don't have IBM Support Assistant V4.1.0?  Download the latest version of the IBM Support Assistant workbench from the web site, then upgrade to V4.1.1: IBM Support Assistant Download Page.

This fix pack release includes many fixes and makes it easier to understand and use various IBM Support Assistant features.  For a full list of the fixes included in this fix pack, refer to the IBM Support Assistant V4.1.1 ReadMe:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27016886

For V4.1 Users, the update will being at start-up automatically if you have your Updater Preferences set to find updates each time the IBM Support Assistant V4.1 Workbench is started.  Otherwise you can apply the fix pack by starting the IBM Support Assistant Workbench and then going to the Update Manager and clicking on “Check for Updates”.  When the list of updates is returned, select the “IBM Support Assistant Platform Feature”.  The entire fix pack will be installed and you will be prompted to restart IBM Support Assistant.  Once IBM Support Assistant is restarted, you will have all the fixes installed and will be running IBM Support Assistant V4.1.1.

The same support for 29 languages exist and includes: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Thai.

Features and Benefits of IBM Support Assistant.

As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback on the IBM Support Assistant. Please send your comments/feedback to IBMSA@us.ibm.com. You can also contact us using the IBM Support Assistant's "Submit Feedback" function available under the Help menu.

Simplify analysis on software problems and accelerate the time to resolution with IBM Support Assistant v4.1 ... with even more components and tools to find solutions faster. Some of these tools include Log Analyzer, IBM Dump Analyzer for Java and Visual Configuration Explorer.

And best of all, the IBM Support Assistant is more intuitive and easier to use than ever!

IBM Support Assistant is a complimentary software offering which provides clients with a workbench to help clients with problem determination. With focus on quickly finding key information, running automated data collection and a variety of serviceability tools, clients will be prepared for self-analysis and diagnosis on a wide variety of software problems.

The latest release includes new ways to augment problem determination and enhancements to existing features that you have come to rely on. These new capabilities will allow you to expand your level of analysis from the IBM Support Assistant workbench. Enhancements to this release include increased usability across many key areas of IBM Support Assistant and improved local and remote functions.

Some of the new and expanded features include:

• A comprehensive data collection viewer to review and analyze collected data
• Ability to specify the location of user data at time of install
• Improved proxy support to enhance compatibility with enterprise security
• Access to IBM’s Service Request and IBMLink/ServiceLink from within the IBM Support Assistant workbench
• RPM installer for the IBM Support Assistant Workbench on Linux
• Migration wizard to copy ISA 3.x/4.0.x product and tool add-ons and proxy settings to 4.1
• Intuitive navigation for various data collection options
• Secure file transfer (HTTPS) for data collection
• Simplified IBM Common Launchpad based installer for Agent and Agent Manager
• Improved automated data collectors for the IBM Support Assistant

Come get your free download of IBM Support Assistant at http://www.ibm.com/software/support/isa/. Once you download and install the workbench, you will be able to fully customize it with the IBM product and tool add-ons you use or support.

You can get more release information and technical details at the following resource: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rcss=rtlblog&rs=3455&uid=swg21386791