This section shows you how to quickly locate information to help answer your questions and solve your problems. If you have to call IBM® support, this section provides information that you need to provide to the IBM service representative to help diagnose and resolve the problem.
For a comprehensive multimedia overview of IBM software support resources, see the IBM Education Assistant presentation "IBM Software Support Resources for System z® Enterprise Development Tools and Compilers products" at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/stgv1r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.iea.debugt/debugt/6.1z/TrainingEducation/SupportInfoADTools/player.html.
You can search the available knowledge bases to determine whether your problem was already encountered and is already documented.
You can find this publication and documentation for many other products in the IBM System z Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers information center at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pdthelp/v1r1/index.jsp. Using the information center, you can search product documentation in a variety of ways. You can search across the documentation for multiple products, search across a subset of the product documentation that you specify, or search a specific set of topics that you specify within a document. Search terms can include exact words or phrases, wild cards, and Boolean operators.
To learn more about how to use the search facility provided in the IBM System z Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers information center, you can view the multimedia presentation at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pdthelp/v1r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.help.doc/InfoCenterTour800600.htm.
If you need to look beyond the information center to answer your question or resolve your problem, you can use one or more of the following approaches:
The IBM Support Portal is a unified, centralized view of all technical support tools and information for all IBM systems, software, and services. The IBM Support Portal lets you access the IBM electronic support portfolio from one place. You can tailor the pages to focus on the information and resources that you need for problem prevention and faster problem resolution.
Familiarize yourself with the IBM Support Portal by viewing the demo videos at https://www.ibm.com/blogs/SPNA/entry/the_ibm_support_portal_videos?lang=en_us about this tool. These videos introduce you to the IBM Support Portal, explore troubleshooting and other resources, and demonstrate how you can tailor the page by moving, adding, and deleting portlets.
Access a specific IBM Software Support site:
In addition, you can use the built in Updater facility in IBM Support Assistant to obtain IBM Support Assistant upgrades and new features to add support for additional software products and capabilities as they become available.
For more information, and to download and start using the IBM Support Assistant for IBM System z Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers products, please visit http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2300&context=SSFMHB&dc=D600&uid=swg21242707&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en.
General information about the IBM Support Assistant can be found on the IBM Support Assistant home page at http://www.ibm.com/software/support/isa.
A product fix might be available to resolve your problem. To determine what fixes and other updates are available, select a link from the following list:
When you find a fix that you are interested in, click the name of the fix to read its description and to optionally download the fix.
Subscribe to receive e-mail notifications about fixes and other IBM Support information as described in Subscribing to Support updates..
To stay informed of important information about the IBM products that you use, you can subscribe to updates. By subscribing to receive updates, you can receive important technical information and updates for specific Support tools and resources. You can subscribe to updates by using the following:
For general information about RSS, including steps for getting started and a list of RSS-enabled IBM web pages, visit the IBM Software Support RSS feeds site at http://www.ibm.com/software/support/rss/other/index.html. For information about the RSS feed for the IBM System z Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers information center, refer to the Subscribe to information center updates topic in the information center at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pdthelp/v1r1/topic/com.ibm.help.doc/subscribe_info.html.
With My Notifications, you can subscribe to Support updates for any IBM product. You can specify that you want to receive daily or weekly email announcements. You can specify what type of information you want to receive (such as publications, hints and tips, product flashes (also known as alerts), downloads, and drivers). My Notifications enables you to customize and categorize the products about which you want to be informed and the delivery methods that best suit your needs.
To subscribe to Support updates, follow the steps below. Additional information is provided at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=615&uid=swg21172598.
To view your current subscriptions and subscription folders, click My subscriptions.
If you experience problems with the My notifications feature, click the Feedback link in the left navigation panel and follow the instructions provided.
IBM Support provides assistance with product defects, answering FAQs, and performing rediscovery.
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. For information about the types of available support, see the information below or refer to the Support portfolio topic in the Software Support Handbook at http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/handbook/offerings.html.
If you are not sure what type of software maintenance contract you need, call 1-800-IBMSERV (1-800-426-7378) in the United States. From other countries, go to the Contacts page of the IBM Software Support Handbook on the Web at http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/handbook/contacts.html and click the name of your geographic region for phone numbers of people who provide support for your location.
Complete the following steps to contact IBM Support with a problem:
To contact IBM Software support, follow these steps:
Define the problem and determine severity of the problem When describing a problem to IBM, be as specific as possible. Include all relevant background information so that IBM Support can help you solve the problem efficiently.
IBM Support needs you to supply a severity level. Therefore, you need to understand and assess the business impact of the problem that you are reporting. Use the following criteria:
For more information, see the Getting IBM support topic in the Software Support Handbook at http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/handbook/getsupport.html.
To save time, if there is a Mustgather document available for the product, refer to the Mustgather document and gather the information specified. Mustgather documents contain specific instructions for submitting your problem to IBM and gathering information needed by the IBM support team to resolve your problem. To determine if there is a Mustgather document for this product, go to the product support page and search on the term Mustgather. At the time of this publication, the following Mustgather documents are available:
If the product does not have a Mustgather document, please provide answers to the following questions:
You can submit your problem to IBM Support in one of three ways:
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.
After a Problem Management Record (PMR) is open, you can submit diagnostic MustGather data to IBM using one of the following methods:
Always update your PMR to indicate that data has been sent. You can update your PMR online or by phone as described above.