Contacting IBM Support

IBM® Support provides assistance with product defects, answering FAQs, and performing rediscovery.

Before you begin

You can use Fix Central to find the fixes that are recommended by IBM Support for various products. With Fix Central, you can search, select, order, and download fixes for your system with a choice of delivery options.
  • To download fix pack or interim fix for the IBM Product Master, browse to Fix Central.

About this task

After trying to find your answer or solution by using other self-help options, you can contact IBM Support. Your company must have an active IBM software subscription and support contract, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. The type of software subscription and support contract that you need depends on the type of product you have. For information about the types of available support, see Support details for IBM Product Master.

Procedure

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

  1. Define the problem, gather background information, and determine the severity of the problem. To determine the severity level, you need to understand and assess the business impact of the problem you are reporting. Use the following criteria:
    Table 1. Severity Descriptions
    Severity Detailed description Example
    1
    System or Service Down
    Business-critical software component is inoperable or critical interface has failed. This usually applies to a production environment and indicates you are unable to use the program resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution.
    Note: We will work with you 7x24 to resolve critical problems providing you have a technical resource available to work those hours.
    • Company website is down affecting all users.
    • A production server is down.
    2
    Significant business impact
    A software component is severely restricted in its use or you are in jeopardy of missing business deadlines because of problems with a new application roll-out.
    		 All users of an application receive an error when attempting to access a service.
    3
    Some business impact
    Indicates that the program is usable with less significant features (not critical to operations) unavailable.
    		 A client cannot connect to a server.
    4
    Minimal business impact
    A non-critical software component is malfunctioning, causing minimal impact, or a non-technical request is made.
    • Documentation is incorrect.
    • Additional documentation requested
  2. Gather diagnostic information. For example,
    • What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
    • Do you have logs, traces, and messages that are related to the problem symptoms? IBM Support is likely to ask for this information.
    • Can the problem be re-created? If so, what steps led to the failure?
    • Have any changes been made to the system (for example, hardware, operating system, networking software, and so on)?
    • Are you currently using a workaround for this problem? If so, please be prepared to explain it when you report the problem.
  3. Submit the problem to IBM Support.
    IBM Support Assistant (ISA)
    Browse to IBM Support Assistant.
    Online
    Browse to Service requests and support cases to open, update, and view all your Service Requests.
    Phone
    For the phone number to call in your country, see the IBM Directory of worldwide contacts.

Results

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. You can subscribe to the APAR from the IBM Support to receive content updates and delivery notices of the APAR.

What to do next

To stay informed of important information about the IBM products that you use, you can subscribe to updates. You can subscribe to updates by using one of two approaches:
RSS feeds and social media subscriptions
Download and install an RSS reader and use your reader to subscribe to the IBM Product Master feed.
My Notifications
With My Notifications, you can subscribe to support updates for IBM Product Master and customize the delivery methods that best suit your needs.