Contacting IBM Support

IBM Support provides assistance with product defects.

Before you begin

Before contacting IBM Support, your company must have an active IBM software maintenance contract, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. For information about the types of maintenance contracts available, see IBM Support Offerings.

IBM applies the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policy globally to all customers for diagnostic data that is uploaded for your support cases. To comply with data protection requirements, all diagnostic data must be uploaded to IBM using approved methods to our GDPR-compliant Enhanced Customer Data Repository or to the IBM Blue Diamond Repository. The IBM Blue Diamond Repository provides customers with a secure location for uploading private and confidential data received from Health Care Providers. The article, GDPR-related Changes to ECuRep and Testcase FTP File Uploads, lists changes that were made to our systems and process.

For more information on IBM's privacy policy, refer to the IBM Privacy Statement.

Attention: The upload for this most sensitive confidential information is only for customers that have registered for this service and who have a login for the Blue Diamond repository. The diagnostic data can be securely uploaded to the Blue Diamond repository through the Blue Diamond Registration Portal.

Procedure

Complete the following steps to contact IBM Support with a problem:

Define the problem, gather background information, and determine the severity of the problem. For help, see Get support for your products in the IBM Support Guide.
Gather diagnostic information.
Submit your problem to IBM Support in one of the following ways:
- Online: Click Open a case link on the IBM Support site.
- By phone: For the phone number to call in your country/region, go to the Directory of worldwide contacts page of the IBM Support Guide.
Note: If you require support for any IBM product that is packaged as part of the Db2® pureScale® software stack, then open a case for the IBM® Db2 pureScale Feature. Opening a case for the Db2 pureScale Feature helps resolve problems more efficiently.

What to do next

If the problem you submit is for a software defect or 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.