Contacting IBM Support

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IBM® Support provides assistance with product defects, answers FAQs, and helps users resolve problems with the product.

For PowerVC release lifecycle support, see Software lifecycle portal. You can contact the support team for new fixes until the announcement of EOS.

For PowerVC release dates and end of service pack support (EoSPS) dates, see the PowerVC Lifecycle Information web page.

Post the announcement of EOS, you can contact the support team for How-to questions for existing fixes. Support for new fixes is not provided.

To obtain benefits of complete support from our technical team, we recommend you upgrade to the latest version.

After you try to find your answer or solution by using other self-help options such as technotes, you can contact IBM Support. Before you contact IBM Support, your company or organization must have an active IBM software maintenance agreement (SWMA), and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. For information about the types of available support, see the Support portfolio topic in the Software Support Handbook.

To contact IBM Support about a problem:

  1. Define the problem, gather background information, and determine the severity of the problem.
    For more information, see the Getting IBM support for your products.
  2. Gather diagnostic information.
    For more information about collecting and compressing diagnostic data, see Exchanging information with IBM.
  3. Submit the problem to IBM Support in one of the following ways:
    • Online through the IBM Support Portal: http://www.ibm.com/software/support/: You can open, update, and view all of your service requests from the Service Request portlet on the Service Request web page.
    • By phone: For the phone number to call in your region, see the Directory of worldwide contacts web page: http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/.
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.
Be prepared to work with the IBM technical-support representative by using IBM Assist On-site, which is a remote-assistance plug-in that you can download to your computer. The IBM technical-support representative can use IBM Assist On-site to view your desktop and share control of your mouse and keyboard. This tool can shorten the time that it takes to identify the problem, collect the necessary data, and solve the problem. For more information, see IBM Assist On-site: http://www.ibm.com/support/assistonsite/.