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2018-11-28 |
{:shortdesc: .shortdesc} {:codeblock: .codeblock} {:screen: .screen} {:tip: .tip} {:new_window: target="_blank"}
{: #getting-customer-support}
If you experience problems with {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix}}, you have several options to get help with determining the cause of the problem and finding a solution. If you're logged in, you can go directly to the Support page to review common FAQs, open a support case, or search community content. {:shortdesc}
{: #gs_supoverview}
All {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix}} customers are provided with free technical support through communities and blogs. The types of support that are available, and when they're available, depend on the support level of the account. {:shortdesc}
You can access the support options, such as the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} community or Stack Overflow for technical issues, from the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} console Support Center.
You can use the Support Center to access your support options. For more information, see Using the Support Center. The support plan that you selected for your account determines the level of support available and the severity you can assign to support cases. For more information, see Case severity and response time.
{: #survey}
IBM periodically sends surveys to {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} customers to get their feedback on recent experiences with customer support. The survey focuses on the support quality and the overall experience. IBM management reviews the survey results to improve the support experience.
{: #using-avatar}
To access the Support Center, log in to the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} console, and click Support from the menu bar.
You can use the Support Center search field to find answers to your questions from across the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} documentation and Stack Overflow forum. You can also manage support cases from the Support Center. You can find links to both the Stack Overflow forum for technical questions and the developerWorks (IBM Developer Answers) forum for all other questions under the Forums section of the Support Center.
If you have a basic, advanced, or premium support plan, you can find call-in numbers and a chat option to get help.
The Support Center is the preferred method for getting support, but if you can't log in to {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}}, you can use the Get Help{: new_window} page to submit a case.
{: #asking-a-question}
The Stack Overflow forum, for technical questions, and the IBM Developer Answers forum, for general questions, both provide a wide variety of searchable answers to your {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} questions. If you don't find an existing answer, ask a new question. You can access Stack Overflow and IBM Developer Answers from the Support Center, or use the following links:
- Go to Stack Overflow
{: new_window} to ask technical questions about developing apps with the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} platform and services. - Go to IBM Developer Answers {: new_window} to ask general questions about the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} offering and about getting started instructions.
{{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} development and support teams actively monitor Stack Overflow and IBM Developer Answers, and follow the questions that are tagged with ibm-cloud. When you create a question in either forum, add the ibm-cloud tag to your question to ensure that it's seen by the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} development and support teams.
If the problem isn't due to an outage, and if you can't find an answer for your specific problem, you can contact customer support by opening a support case.
Contacting support for {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_dedicated_notm}} or {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_local_notm}}
{: #contacting-bluemix-support-dedicated-local}
If your account is either {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_dedicated_notm}} or {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_local_notm}}, support is provided by the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} support team. However, if you don't have an {{site.data.keyword.ibmid}}, you have a few different options for getting support.
- Contact support by opening a new case by using the
{{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} Support {: new_window} help page. You can use an email address or your {{site.data.keyword.ibmid}} for this form. Select the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_dedicated_notm}} or {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_local_notm}} option for the Region field.
- If you have an {{site.data.keyword.ibmid}} and have access to the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} Public environment, click Support from the menu bar. Then, click Create new case on the Get support tab. Select the topic area for your issue and follow the prompts to submit your case.
- If you don't have an {{site.data.keyword.ibmid}}, you can contact someone in your organization who does have one, or work with your IBM representative.
At your request, a list of users in your org who can serve as contacts for support cases can be displayed on the Support page in the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} console in your Dedicated or Local environment. {:tip}
{: #eusupported}
European Union (EU) support is provided, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, by engineers who are located in Europe for customers who choose the EU supported option. Global teams provide support only at the discretion and under the direction of the EU support team. Global teams might be contacted, for example, when issues are not resolved by the Level 1 or Level 2 support team in the EU, and more expertise is needed.
You can specify that you want support for your account from the support team that is physically located in Europe if the following criteria are true:
- Your master user or account owner set the EU Supported option for your account
- Your resources are in the appropriate European data center
- You select the EU supported case level when you open the case
For {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} platform, only services that are hosted in the Germany region can be supported by a team that is physically located in Europe.
Setting the EU Supported option for your account applies to all future cases that you open for issues on any service or data center that is hosted in the EU region. Any cases that you opened before setting this option aren't affected. If you set this option and you add resources outside of an EU data center or the Germany region, issues for those resources are not necessarily handled by a support team in Europe.
You can set the EU Supported option for your account from the Billing window of the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} console. For more information, see Enabling the EU Supported settings.
{: #eusupportedservices}
After you set the EU Supported option, you can also take advantage of extra controls to support and operate {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} services from the European Union. You can filter your search for platform services with the supported plans in the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} catalog. To see the EU-supported plans for a platform service, complete the following steps:
- Open the {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} catalog {: new_window}.
- Click Filter.
- Select EU supported from the drop-down list. With the EU Supported filter set, you see only the services in the Infrastructure and Platform categories that have EU-supported plans.
- Select the service that you want. You can see some regions and plans for the service are EU-supported.
- To see the EU-supported plans for the service, select the correct region from the Choose a region/location to deploy in list. For example, to see the EU-supported plans for a platform service, select Germany as the region. Then, you can see the pricing plans for the services that are labeled EU Supported.
All plans, except lite plans, for the following categories of {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} infrastructure services are hosted in Europe and available as EU supported:
- Compute
- Storage
- Network
- Containers
{: #report-security-vulnerability}
If you see a potential {{site.data.keyword.Bluemix_notm}} security vulnerability, report it by opening a support case.
To report a potential security vulnerability, complete the following steps:
- Open a severity 1 case or a case of the highest severity level that your support allows. For information about how to open a case, see Creating support cases.
- Clearly describe in the case summary that the case is about a potential security vulnerability.
- Provide details of the potential security vulnerability by including one of the following items:
- A phone number at which you can be reached to discuss the issue.
- Details of the issue. You must encrypt the details as a block of text in the body of the case. You must also provide instructions on how IBM Support can securely contact you to get decryption instructions.