Contacting IBM Support

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

Before you begin

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 Support portfolio topic in the Software Support Handbook.

For information about the types of available support, see the Support portfolio topic in the Software Support Handbook.

Procedure

To contact IBM Support about a problem:

  1. Define the problem, gather background information, and determine the severity of the problem.
    See the Contacting IBM® Support topic in the Software Support Handbook. For more information, see the Getting IBM support topic in the Software Support Handbook.
  2. Gather diagnostic information.
  3. Submit the problem to IBM Support in one of the following ways:
    • Using IBM Support Assistant (ISA):
      1. Download and install the ISA tool from the ISA website. See www.ibm.com/software/support/isa/.
      2. Open ISA.
      3. Click Collection and Send Data.
      4. Click the Service Requests tab.
      5. 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.

Results

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.