IBM® Support
provides assistance with product defects, answers FAQs, and helps
users resolve problems with the product.
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 or organization must have an active IBM
maintenance contract name, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. For information about the types of available
support, see the IBM Support Guide.
To contact IBM Support
about a problem:
- Define the problem, gather background information, and
determine the severity of the problem.
- Gather diagnostic information.
- Submit the problem to IBM Support in one of the following ways:
- Using IBM Support Assistant
(ISA):
- Download and install the ISA tool from the ISA website. See www.ibm.com/software/support/isa/.
- Open ISA.
- Click Collection and Send Data.
- Click the Service Requests tab.
- Click Open a New Service Request.
Using ISA in this way can expedite the analysis and reduce the
time to resolution.
- Online through the IBM Support Portal:
You can open, update, and view all of your service requests from the Service
Request portlet on the Service Request page.
- By telephone for critical, system down, or severity 1 issues:
For the telephone number to call in your region, see the Directory
of worldwide contacts web page. You can also see the Contacts page in the Software Support
Handbook.
If the problem that 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. See Exchanging information with IBM.