How to Access and Use SUSE Technical Support

Guidelines for how to use and get the most from the technical support you receive with your SUSE Subscription, Premium Support, Academic Program, Partner Program or Technology Partner Support.

• Leveraging Self-Help Resources
  • Search the Knowledgebase
  • Subscribe to Patch Notifications
  • Participate in Support Forums
• Using Customer Center to Access Technical Support
  • Create a Login and Activate Your Subscriptions
  • Add to or Update Authorized Contacts
  • Manage Products and Services
  • Open an Incident
  • After Hours
  • Information to Include in Your Incident
  • Checking the Status of Open or Resolved Incidents
  • Closing an Incident
• How to Escalate an Incident
• Resolving Multi-Vendor Issues
• How to Report a Software Defect, Request a Product Enhancement or Report a Security Vulnerability
  • Software Defects
  • Program Temporary Fixes and Test Packages
  • Product Enhancement Requests
  • Security Vulnerabilities
• Support Delivery Information
  • Product Support Lifecycle
  • Hours of Coverage and Target Response Times
  • Hours of Coverage and Response Time Targets for Premium Support Engineers
  • Severity Level Definitions
  • Number of Authorized Support Contacts
  • Support Level Definitions
  • Customer Data
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Additional Support Options Available
  • Premium Support
  • Long Term Service Pack Support
  • Technical Subscriptions
  • Consulting
  • Training
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support
• For More Information

Subscribe to Patch Notifications

Through RSS feeds and customized email notifications, you can receive the information you need to keep your systems optimized and secure. Keep your products current with the latest patches, service packs and product version updates. Many known issues can be avoided by effectively managing patch releases and ensuring your products are kept up-to-date. Be familiar with SUSE's Product Support Lifecycle to be aware of how long SUSE will patch and maintain your product. If a defect is found in an older service pack or patch, you may be asked to update to the current release as part of the troubleshooting process. If you need a longer timeframe on a specific service pack, consider Long Term Service Pack Support.

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Asia Pacific

Please call the number for your country listed below to submit an incident by phone:

• Australia: +1800 631 733
• China: +001 800 8008 0045
• India: +91 80 4002 2990
• Japan: +81 3 5797 8777
• All other Asia Pacific Countries: +65-65104288 or +1-801-861-4000

Europe, Middle East and Africa

Please call the number for your language listed below to submit an incident by phone:

• English: +31 10 286 4440
• Spanish: +31 10 286 4441
• German: +31 10 286 4442
• French: +31 10 286 4443
• Italian:+31 10 286 4445
• Polish: +48 22 537 50 97 (8 a.m.–6 p.m. CET)

After Hours

If you experience a Severity 1 (Critical) issue outside business hours and have access to 24-hour coverage, you must contact Technical Support via phone.

NOTE: Scheduled Standby is a chargeable service that can be pre-arranged in blocks of four hours during and outside business hours. This service gives you direct access to a SUSE engineer on a standby basis. When you have a scheduled product upgrade or network maintenance task for which you'd like some added insurance, you can have an experienced support engineer standing by. We require a minimum of three business days of notice to arrange for this service. Contact your local sales representative or partner for more information or to purchase Scheduled Standby.

Information to Include in Your Incident

WHAT is the problem?

• Which version of the SUSE product (or products) is having the problem?
• Which service pack level is loaded?
• What error messages (if any) are returned?
• What troubleshooting steps have already been performed?

WHERE does the problem occur?

• What is the environment?
• On which sites, servers, directories or clients does the problem occur?
• Where does the problem not occur?

WHEN does the problem occur?

• When did the problem first occur?
• Were changes made prior to the problem occurring? If so, what (installation of products, service packs, network changes, and so forth, for example)?

WHAT is the extent of the problem?

• Is a workaround available?
• What is the business impact of the problem?

SupportConfig Tool

Background information such as log files and configuration of your SUSE Linux system can be provided easily by running the supportconfig tool which is installed by default on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Run the command 'supportconfig' without options to create a local archive to review and eventually upload to us. If you have already opened an incident and received a number, you may run the command as 'supportconfig -ur ' to create and automatically upload the information. The archive will appear in your Incident after a few minutes. This process also enables us to do some automatic examination, so you will find an HTML report attached to the SR which will give you some indication of already known issues (including security vulnerabilities) and links to the SUSE knowledgebase.

More information on supportconfig can be found in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server manual as well as online. Learn more about required data.

Checking the Status of Open or Resolved Incidents

You can access the most current information on your incidents from the Customer Center on the Support tab. After you log in, a list of your incidents and the current status of each is made available. Select one to view its details, which can include current status and detailed descriptions of the actions taken by the support engineer. To display all incidents created under your account(s) (by yourself or other authorized contacts), click the All Tickets tab.

Get Help Creating and Managing Incidents in Customer Center

Closing an Incident

Unless otherwise agreed upon, incidents are closed as soon as you confirm the issue is resolved. Incidents with no customer response for two weeks may also be closed.

If further assistance is needed, on a different issue, additional Incidents can be opened.

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If you have logged an incident, but are not satisfied with the support or advice provided, you may request escalation assistance by contacting:

• Contacting your local support center via the support center telephone numbers.
• Your Service Account Manager (SAM), if your Premium Support agreement provides access to one.

Critical Situation Handling Procedure

In exceptional circumstances, where a mission-critical component is down, causing a major business impact, we can declare a critical situation. We define a critical situation as one or more support Incidents whose timely resolution will minimize or prevent a major financial loss to one of SUSE's customers. A critical situation is the highest level of escalation, raising the incident visibility to the executive levels within SUSE.

When you have an issue involving SUSE products that is creating a major, adverse impact to your business, we want to ensure that the proper resources are quickly involved so we can resolve the issue in a timely manner. We have internal escalation procedures that involve specialized and focused levels of technical and management personnel working together to speed resolution.

There are several things you can do during a critical situation that will enable SUSE to help you more effectively. Please follow these guidelines when reporting a critical situation:

• At the beginning of your initial call, indicate the critical nature of the situation. If the issue did not start out as critical but has since become such, notify SUSE with a phone call. Information on the level of impact the particular critical situation is having on your business operations is extremely helpful. Be ready to provide SUSE with all relevant information: contact ID, product versions, patch levels, configuration, troubleshooting steps performed, and so forth. (It may be helpful for you to call from the site where the critical situation is occurring.)
• If you have a SAM, notify him or her as soon as possible regarding the critical situation. This is a vital step in ensuring that the appropriate resources are ready to help you.

Should an incident become critical, authorized contacts should notify their support engineer (ASE, PSE, or DSE) and/or SAM to make them aware of the business impact. The support engineer will be able to coordinate all of the relevant technical resources needed to progress a problem to resolution. Where additional escalation assistance is required, the SAM can help facilitate this process. Following this communication process

After they are approved, critical situations are reviewed on a daily basis by the SUSE Technical Support team, which will initiate regular action plan updates from the assigned support engineer (or SAM) to all appropriate management contacts within your organization until the critical situation is resolved.

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We are a founding sponsor and remain an active member of the Technical Support Alliance Network (TSANet)—a global, vendor-neutral, not-for-profit industry support alliance. This organization creates an industry infrastructure, allowing members to collaborate and work on multi-vendor customer issues without "finger pointing." TSANet follows industry-standard support policies and obligates members to collaborate on issues to isolation or resolution (or both). This process gives the customer a seamless interface in solving complex multi-vendor problems among two or more vendors.

TSANet allows the assigned engineer to work directly with an engineer from another vendor to solve support issues. Think of it as a behind-the-scenes mechanism that expedites resolution, often without the customer even being aware it is being engaged. TSANet is a direct vendor-to-vendor contact; however, customers should have appropriate support entitlement with both vendors prior to the interaction. TSANet allows its members to work on your behalf and not waste time duplicating support incidents with multiple vendors. More information on TSANet, including a list of participating members, is available at: www.tsanet.org

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Program Temporary Fixes and Test Packages

A software defect may be resolved by delivering a software modification called a Program Temporary Fix (PTF). PTFs are prepared by the L3 Team for a specific customer and made available through a channel which is separate from regular maintenance updates. A PTF is fully supported by SUSE and intended for use in production environments. However, a PTF is not maintained. This means that once a PTF is delivered to a customer, it is never pro-actively updated by SUSE.

Defects fixed by a PTF are generally fixed by a subsequent regular update, which is not necessarily the next update. A PTF becomes obsolete when all fixes contained therein are released in a regular update. An obsolete PTF is no longer supported.

There may be rare occasions where a PTF is not suitable for inclusion in a maintenance update. In that case, the customer may be offered a one-off PTF which will not be added to future maintenance updates. On explicit request by the customer, the L3 Team will rebase such a one-off PTF onto the latest regular update.

The L3 Team may also ask a customer to install a TEST package that serves as a diagnostic tool. The software modification provided in a TEST package is intended to get additional data required for defect resolution. A TEST package is not a PTF. It should not be used in production environments, unless instructed by the support personnel, and is generally not intended to resolve a defect.

Product Enhancement Requests

SUSE is committed to creating highly functional, user-friendly software. Listening to our customers is an integral part of that commitment. Please help us improve our products by submitting your feedback and requests by opening an Incident.

Security Vulnerabilities

SUSE's presence in the software security field is continuously contributing to the high degree of trust and confidence that users value in Open Source Software. Do your part to contribute to the unprecedented reputation of our product by reporting any observed vulnerabilities. Learn more about SUSE Security.

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Product Support Lifecycle

SUSE provides technical support on products for the time period specified in the Product Support Lifecycle. The Product Support Lifecycle defines the duration and levels of support customers can expect to receive as products mature. If you need to extend your support and engineering coverage, consider Long Term Service Pack Support.

Hours of Coverage and Target Response Times*

When registering incidents, SUSE has defined targets for the maximum response time to respond when an incident is logged. A response is defined as the time between creation of the incident and the initial communication between the assigned engineer and your company. Response times vary according to the subscription level, Premium Support program or Partner program you have:

*If you have purchased a Premium Support Engineer, refer to the response times in the Premium Support programs table below.

**Local 12x5 Support Center hours are as follows: Americas 8 a.m.–8 p.m. ET, APAC 7 a.m.–7 p.m. from your local country, EMEA 8 a.m.–8 p.m. CET, LATAM 8 a.m.–5 p.m. UTC-3 (Argentina time zone)

***The target response time applies to the period when support is available. For example, a Standard subscription Severity 1 incident logged at 6 p.m. will have a target response time of before 10 a.m. the following business day. For follow-up communications, there are no SLA response times, but of course we endeavor to answer all queries in a reasonable time-frame.

Hours of Coverage and Response Time Targets for Premium Support Engineers

If you have a Premium Support Engineer (ASE, PSE, or DSE) or Advantage Incidents, you may contact the engineer by telephone for any level of severity, not just Severity 1 issues. You may also use the Customer Center to open an incident with your engineer via chat or email for any severity except Severity 1.

¹ Standard or Priority subscription or Partner program required before purchasing these services.

² The target response time applies to the period when support is available. For example, a Standard subscription Severity 1 incident logged at 6 p.m. will have a target response time of before 10 a.m. the following business day.

³ Although the Advantage team and Assigned Support Engineers (ASEs) are only available 12x5, customers with Priority subscriptions (24x7 coverage) may open incidents after hours, and partners without a Priority subscription may use one of the Advantage or ASE Incidents after hours. In both cases, the incident will be assigned to a Technical Support Engineer in the Support Center, but upon request may be transitioned to the ASE or Advantage team during normal business hours.

⁴ Customers with Standard subscriptions receive 12x5 hours of coverage for their PSE or DSE. Customers with Priority subscriptions receive 24x7 hours of coverage for their PSE or DSE. Partners receive 24x7 hours of coverage. You may contact your PSE or DSE after hours for Severity 1 issues or occasional special projects that are scheduled in advance. You may contact your PSE or DSE after hours for Severity 1 issues or occasional special projects that are scheduled in advance. PSEs and DSEs are GEO based resources and do not respond to global requests.

Additional policies when working with SUSE Technical Support

• The authorized contact should remain involved throughout the life of the Incident.
• SUSE Support is a break-fix model that excludes full installation/upgrade service or consulting.
• When contacting SUSE Customer Support for assistance it may be requested to update a system to the latest Service Pack, patches and/or Kernel.
• Ideally, SUSE recommends regularly patching/updating systems to make sure they are running with the latest security and bug fixes. In general the following needs to be noted:
  • SUSE recommends to always endeavor to run systems with the latest available patch level for a system to be fully supported*.
  • If any issues are encountered with a package or kernel version for which a newer version is available, updating to the new package version may be requested in order to be fully supported for these issues.

*In general, however, SUSE will still provide best-effort support in certain scenarios. For example, in a system-down scenario, we will still attempt to at least get the system back into a running state. Even then, however, depending on the root cause of the problem, it may be expected or required that a system has to be patched/updated.

Severity Level Definitions

The severity of an incident is defined when created and can be set by the customer when creating the incident in the SUSE Customer Center, or by a 1st Line representative over the telephone. SUSE has defined four severity levels:

Support Level Definitions

Customer Data

Customers and partners acknowledge that SUSE may need access to certain software, hardware, data, third party software or other information or material to adequately troubleshoot and test issues. Lack of access to this information may delay or prevent SUSE from reproducing and isolating an issue.

Customers and partners will take responsibility for all data provided to SUSE. SUSE assumes to have consent and permission to troubleshoot with data provided. Customers and partners will not provide data that is alleged to be confidential or proprietary.

Customers and partners acknowledge that data provided may be altered or damaged in the course of testing and troubleshooting, and will take all appropriate measures to back-up the applicable data prior to providing it to SUSE.

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At the closure of an incident, you may receive an invitation to complete a survey regarding your experience (unless your incidents are serviced by an ASE, PSE or DSE, in which case surveys may be conducted less frequently). The survey measures your satisfaction with the overall incident process, as well as in specific areas such as resolution effectiveness, SUSE product quality and support engineer performance. Surveys are delivered in one of eight languages, as specified during the service agreement setup. We encourage your participation in completing this survey to detail your experience on each opened incident. Rest assured, we take customer satisfaction and feedback seriously, and we use this information to determine where improvements can be made.

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Premium Support

When your IT environment is truly business-critical, you need to be sure you can get help, quickly, from people who understand your environment and business needs. You can get that extra assurance with Premium Support, available to help you get the most from your IT investment:

Long Term Service Pack Support

If you need to maintain your current SUSE operating system version beyond general product support timeframes, preserving the stability and security of your data center, you may want to consider the benefits of the Long Term Service Pack Support program.

Hours of coverage and response times are determined by your subscription level.

Training

Get the most from your product investment by training your staff to leverage features that will help you stay ahead of the competition, and by ensuring your environment is optimized and stable when managed by knowledgeable staff.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support

If you are running more than one type of Linux in your environment, choose the #1-rated Linux support for your mixed Linux deployment. We will support your SUSE and other qualified Linux environment with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support.

Patches and updates provided are binary compatible.

Training for migration to SUSE Linux Enterprise from other Linux platforms is available.

More detailed questions about Expanded Support are answered in the Frequently Asked Questions.

If you have an additional question about support, view the Frequently Asked Questions to see if we have an answer.

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