Exchanging information with IBM

To diagnose or identify a problem, you might need to provide IBM Support with data and information from your system. In other cases, IBM Support might provide you with tools or utilities to use for problem determination.

Sending information to IBM Support

To reduce the time that is required to resolve your problem, you can send trace and diagnostic information to IBM Support.

Procedure

To submit diagnostic information to IBM Support:

  1. Open a support case in IBM Support portal.
  2. Collect the diagnostic data that you need by running the script setup_directory/support/collector.bat on Windows or setup_directory/support/collector.sh on Linux® or UNIX.
    Diagnostic data helps reduce the time that it takes to resolve your PMR.
    Optional: To customize the storage path of diagnostic data collection results, modify the collector script to specify the storage path of the customized collection results as shown below:
    • On Windows platform, modify the value of the variable newPath4Collect on line 20 of the collector.bat script. For example:
      newPath4Collect=/usr/custom_path/support
    • On non-Windows platforms, modify the value of the variable newPath4Collect on line 20 of the collector.sh script. For example: 
      SET newPath4Collect=C:\Users\custom_path\support
  3. If needed, compress the files by using the .zip or .tar file format.
  4. Transfer the files to IBM.
    You can use one of the following methods to transfer the files to IBM:
    • Standard data upload methods: FTP, HTTP
    • Secure data upload methods: FTPS, SFTP, HTTPS
    • Email

    All of these data exchange methods are explained on the IBM Support website.

Receiving information from IBM Support

Occasionally an IBM technical-support representative might ask you to download diagnostic tools or other files. You can use FTP to download these files.

Before you begin

Ensure that your IBM technical-support representative provided you with the preferred server to use for downloading the files and the exact directory and file names to access.

Procedure

To download files from IBM Support:

  1. Use FTP to connect to the site that your IBM technical-support representative provided and log in as anonymous. Use your email address as the password.
  2. Change to the appropriate directory:
    1. Change to the /fromibm directory. 
      cd fromibm
    2. Change to the directory that your IBM technical-support representative provided. 
      cd nameofdirectory
  3. Enable binary mode for your session. 
    binary
  4. Use the get command to download the file that your IBM technical-support representative specified. 
    get filename.extension
  5. End your FTP session. 
    quit