IBM® Support
provides access to a variety of IBM resources
for help with software questions.
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 must have an active IBM maintenance contract, and you
must be authorized to submit problems to IBM.
You should also have the following information at hand:
- Your customer identification number
- Your service request number, if it is an ongoing service request
- The phone number where you can be reached
- The version of the software you use
- The version of the operating environment you use
- A description of what you were doing when the problem occurred
- The exact wording of any error messages that display
- Any steps you took to attempt to solve the problem
For information about the types of available support, see the Support portfolio topic in the Software
Support Handbook (opens in new window).
Complete the following steps to contact IBM Support with a problem:
- Define the problem, gather background information, and
determine the severity of the problem. For more information, see the Getting IBM support (opens in new window) topic
in the Software Support Handbook.
- Gather diagnostic information.
- Submit the problem to IBM Support
in one of the following ways:
- Using IBM Support Assistant
(ISA): Use this feature to open, update, and view an Electronic Service
Request with IBM. Any data that
has been collected can be attached to the service request. This expedites
the analysis and reduces the time to resolution.
- Online through the IBM Support (opens in
new window): You can open, update, and view all your Service Requests from the Service Request
portlet on the Service Request page.
- By phone: For the phone number to call, see the Directory
of worldwide contacts (opens in new window) web page.
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 Web site daily,
so that other users who experience the same problem can benefit from
the same resolution.