Troubleshooting

If you cannot find a solution to your problem in the product documentation, contact IBM Support.

If you are a SaaS user, gather the following information:

  • A direct link in the Instana UI where you observe an issue or want to make some changes.
  • A screenshot of the exact area of the issue in the Instana UI, if applicable.
  • Agent logs if the agent is turned off due to a huge impact on your system. For more information about how to collect agent logs, see Collecting agent logs.

If you are a self-hosted user, gather the following information:

  • Relevant agent or backend logs. For more information about how to collect agent or backend logs, see Collecting agent logs or Collecting backend logs.
  • A screenshot of the issue in the Instana UI.
  • Versions of software and technologies that are in use, which are relevant for the reported issue.
  • Any recent changes that impacted the system performances.

Collecting agent logs

If you have an issue on the agent side, you must follow some steps to collect the agent logs. For more information about how to collect agent logs for the following platforms, see:

To adjust log level and obtain agent debug logs, see:

Collecting backend logs

If you have an issue on the Instana backend side, you can check the backend logs. For more information about how to collect backend logs, see How to collect Instana doc for Self-hosted Instana backend environments on Kubernetes/OpenShift

Check the Instana version support policy

For more information about the Instana version support policy, see Version support policy.

Check the release notes

Review the release notes to check whether your issue is already reported and a workaround or solution exists in the docs.

What happens after you open a case?

The standard support procedure acknowledges your case and checks if the relevant must-gathers are in place for further investigation. You can expect to receive a reply with the request for some specific additional information or logs, which help in the investigation of the case. If all is in place, you will be notified with approximate date of the next response.

Keep in mind that we prioritize your case based on the IBM enterprise support severity definitions.

In case you need the resolution in a quicker manner, you can use the following options:

  • Increase the case severity in the Case Support Portal (CSP). For example, from Severity 3 to Severity 2. Use this as a first option to get better resolution time.
  • Escalate the case by clicking the Escalate button in the CSP. Use this option only in an emergency, and only after you increase the case severity as a first option to get more attention to the case.

When you use any of the two available options, update the case with the context of the action that you took (increased severity or escalation). This helps us to understand the nature of the problem and engage additional resources to resolve it if necessary.

Once the case is resolved, complete the survey about the support process to tell us how satisfied you are with the case handling.

Further references