Rational Developer for System z, Version 7.6

Appendix I. Support resources and problem solving information

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.

Searching IBM support Web sites for a solution

You can search the available knowledge bases to determine whether your problem was already encountered and is already documented.

Searching the information center

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.

Searching product support documents

Use the System z Enterprise Development Tools & Compilers information center or the product support page to search the Internet for the latest, most complete information that might help you resolve your problem.

Specific IBM Software Support sites for the System z Enterprise Development Tools and Compilers products include:

To search multiple Internet resources for your product using the information center, click Troubleshooting and support in the left navigation pane and select Searching IBM support Web sites for a solution. You can select one or more products, specify keywords, and search a variety of resources, including the following:

There is also a search facility provided on the product support page. The search facility provided on the product support page allows you to narrow the search scope and search only product support documents for that product.

IBM Support Assistant

The IBM Support Assistant (also referred to as ISA) is a free local software serviceability workbench that helps you resolve questions and problems with IBM software products. It provides quick access to support-related information. You can use the IBM Support Assistant to help you in the following ways:

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.

Obtaining fixes

A product fix might be available to resolve your problem. To determine what fixes and other updates are available, the following information is available on the respective product support site:

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.

For more information about the types of fixes that are available, see the IBM Software Support Handbook at http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/handbook.html.

Receiving support updates through e-mail notification

To receive e-mail notifications about fixes and other software support news, follow the steps below. Additional information is provided at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=615&uid;=swg21172598.

  1. Go to the IBM Software Support Web site at http://www.ibm.com/software/support.
  2. Click My notifications in the upper right corner of the page.
  3. If you have already registered for My notifications, sign in and skip to the next step. If you have not registered, click register now. Complete the registration form using your e-mail address as your IBM ID and click Submit.
  4. In the My notifications tool, click the Subscribe tab to specify products for which you want to receive e-mail updates.
  5. To specify Problem Determination Tools products, click Other software and then select the products for which you want to receive e-mail updates, for example, Debug Tool for z/OS and File Manager for z/OS.
  6. To specify a COBOL or PL/I compiler, click Rational and then select the products for which you want to receive e-mail updates, for example, Enterprise COBOL for z/OS .
  7. After selecting all products that are of interest to you, scroll to the bottom of the list and click Continue.
  8. Determine how you want to save your subscription. You can use the default subscription name or create your own by entering a new name in the Name field. It is recommended that you create your own unique subscription name using a something easily recognized by you. You can create a new folder by entering a folder name in the New field or select an existing folder from the pulldown list. A folder is a container for multiple subscriptions.
  9. Specify the types of documents you want and the e-mail notification frequency.
  10. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Submit.

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.

Receiving support updates through RSS feeds

To receive RSS feeds about fixes and other software support news, go to one of the following web sites:

If you need to contact IBM Software Support

IBM Software Support provides assistance with product defects.

Before contacting IBM Software Support, your company must have an active IBM software maintenance contract, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. The type of software maintenance contract that you need depends on the type of product you have:

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://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html and click the name of your geographic region for phone numbers of people who provide support for your location.

To contact IBM Software support, follow these steps:

  1. Determining the business impact
  2. Describing problems and gathering information
  3. Submitting problems

Determining the business impact

When you report a problem to IBM, you are asked 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:

Severity 1
The problem has a critical business impact. You are unable to use the program, resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution.
Severity 2
The problem has a significant business impact. The program is usable, but it is severely limited.
Severity 3
The problem has some business impact. The program is usable, but less significant features (not critical to operations) are unavailable.
Severity 4
The problem has minimal business impact. The problem causes little impact on operations, or a reasonable circumvention to the problem was implemented.

Describing problems and gathering information

When describing a problem to IBM, be as specific as possible. Include all relevant background information so that IBM Software Support specialists can help you solve the problem efficiently.

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:

Submitting problems

You can submit your problem to IBM Software Support in one of two ways:

Online
Click Open service request on the IBM Software Support site at http://www.ibm.com/software/support/probsub.html. In the Other support tools section, select IBMLink to open an Electronic Technical Response (ETR). Enter your information into the appropriate problem submission form.
By phone
Call 1-800-IBMSERV (1-800-426-7378) in the United States or, from other countries, go to the contacts page of the IBM Software Support Handbook at http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html and click the name of your geographic region.

If the problem you submit is for a software defect or for missing or inaccurate documentation, IBM Software Support creates an Authorized Program Analysis Report (APAR). The APAR describes the problem in detail. Whenever possible, IBM Software Support provides a workaround that you can implement until the APAR is resolved and a fix is delivered. IBM publishes resolved APARs on the Software Support Web site 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.


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