SunSpectrum - Before Calling Sun Technical Support

Many Sun customers are able to resolve their technical issues by referencing Sun's knowledge database. Prior to calling technical support, please search Sun's knowledgebase for a resolution to your question.

If, after searching the knowledgebase, you find that you still want to speak to Sun's technical support, please gather the following information about your support contract and the technical issue you are experiencing. Having this information readily available when discussing your situation with the Sun Technical Support Engineer will help expedite resolution.

1. Know your SunSpectrum Support Contract information:

• Contract Number (Software or Hardware)
• And/Or a Serial Number (required for Hardware)
• Know the Service Level you are entitled to receive
  • Reference Service Level descriptions
• Preferred method of communication (email, phone, etc.) of the Customer's Contact person
  • If by email : email address
  • If by phone : complete number including country and area code
• You may also be asked to supply your company name and the entire address of where the system is located (example: street, city, zip code, state, any additional information such as what floor of a building).

2. Gather information about your technical environment:

Help the support engineer envision your technical environment by providing as much background information as possible.

• Product Name(s)
• HW platform(s)
• OS version(s)
• Part description and number(s), if applicable
• Changes that may have been made to the system(s) or environment that might have triggered this event
  • Have you applied any patches or updates?
  • Have you added new hardware or software to your environment?

3. Gather Diagnostic Information:

It is important to provide as much diagnostic information as possible to help our support engineers resolve your issue as quickly as possible. Diagnostic information can include:

• Sun Explorer Files
• Core dumps
• Traces
• System logs
• System messages
• Error messages

4. Describe the problem:

Being able to describe in detail the problem you are experiencing will help the support engineer solve your issue more quickly. Follow these guidelines as closely as possible:

• Be as specific as possible when you explain the problem
• Explain what you were doing when you experienced the problem
• Describe the steps you were taking when the problem occurred
  • Have you been able to recreate the problem using the same steps?
• Describe the severity level of the problem:

Priority 1- System Down. Covered System or Covered Software are not operational. May include, but are not limited to:

• System hang (unable to save work in progress);
• System functionality failure causes data loss or renders system unusable;
• Functionality failure renders system ineffective;
• System malfunction causes mission-critical applications to restart, hang, or suspend; and
• A security breach vulnerability is identified.

Priority 2 - System Impaired. Covered System or Covered Software is not operating with full capability but is still operational. Some examples of Priority 2 calls may include but are not limited to:

• Impaired or broken functionality with significant impact to applications;
• Frequent application failure, but no data loss;
• Serious but predictable management system failure; and
• Significant system performance degradation.

Priority 3 - System Operation Normal. Covered System or Covered Software is up and running with limited or no significant impact. Some examples of Priority 3 calls may include but are not limited to:

• Bugs which cause limited or no direct impact to performance and functionality;
• Request to replace a bug work-around;
• Limited impact defective functionality; and
• System performance support questions.