Your first contact with the Support Center is the call receipt operator, who takes initial details and routes your call to the correct support group.
The Support Center needs to know as much as possible about your problem, and you should have the information ready before making your first call. It is a good idea to put the information down on a problem reporting sheet, such as this one:
Problem Reporting sheet | |||||
Date | Severity | Problem no. | |||
Incident no. | |||||
Problem/Enquiry | |||||
Abend/Prog CK | Incorrout | MVS™ Rel | |||
Wait | Module | MVS Lvl | |||
Loop | Message | CICS® Rel | |||
Performance | Other | CICS Lvl | |||
Documentation available | |||||
Abend | System dump | Program output | |||
Message | Transaction dump | Other | |||
Trace | Translator output | Symptom string | |||
Compiler output | |||||
Actions | |||||
Date | Name |
Activity |
|||
Resolution | |||||
PTF | APAR |
Other |
There are two advantages of using a problem reporting sheet:
When you contact the Support Center, you need to give the operator the name of your organization and your access code. Your access code is a unique code authorizing you to use IBM Software Services, and you provide it every time you contact the Center. Using this information, the operator accesses your customer profile, which contains details of your address, relevant contact names, telephone numbers, and details of the IBM products at your installation.
The Support Center operator asks you if this is a new problem, or a further call on an existing one. If it is new, you are assigned a unique incident number. A problem management record (PMR) is opened on the RETAIN® system, where all activity associated with your problem is recorded. The problem remains "open" until it is solved.
Make a note of the incident number on your own problem reporting sheet. The Center expects you to quote the incident number in all future calls connected with this problem.
If the problem is new to you, the operator asks you for the source of the problem within your system software--that is, the program that seems to be the cause of the problem. As you are reading this book, it is likely that you have already identified CICS as the problem source. You also need to give the version and release number, for example Version 4 Release 1.
You need to give a severity level for the problem. Severity levels can be 1, 2, or 3. They have the following meanings:
When deciding the severity of the problem, take care neither to understate it nor to overstate it. The Support Center procedures depend on the severity level so that the most appropriate use can be made of the Center’s skills and resources. Your problem is normally dealt with immediately if it is severity level 1.
Finally, the call receipt operator offers you a selection of specific component areas within CICS (for example, terminal control, file control) and asks you to choose the area where your problem appears to lie. Based on this selection, the operator can route your call to a specialist in the chosen area.
The keywords are subsequently used as search arguments on the RETAIN database, to see if your problem is a known one that has already been the subject of an authorized program analysis report (APAR).
You are not asked for any more information at this stage. However, you need to keep all the information relevant to the problem, and any available documentation such as dumps, traces, and translator, compiler, and program output.
How your problem is subsequently progressed depends on its nature. The representative who handles the problem gives you guidance about what is required from you. The possibilities are described in the next section.
Details of your call are passed using the RETAIN problem management system to the appropriate support group. Your problem, assuming it is one associated with CICS, is put on the CICS queue. The problems are dealt with in order of severity level.
At first, a support center representative uses the keywords that you have provided to search the RETAIN database. If your problem is found to be one already known to IBM, and a fix has been devised for it, a Program Temporary Fix (PTF) can quickly be dispatched to you.
Let the representative know if any of the following events occurred before the problem appeared:
You might be asked to give values from a formatted dump or trace table. You might also be asked to carry out some special activity, for example to set a trap, or to use trace with a certain type of selectivity, and then to report on the results.
It might be necessary to have several follow-up telephone calls, depending on the complexity of the symptoms and your system environment. In every case, the actions taken by you and the Support Center are entered in the PMR. The representative can then be acquainted with the full history of the problem before any follow-up call.
The result of the investigations determines whether your problem is a new one, or one that is already known. If it is already known, and a fix has been developed, the fix is sent to you.
If the problem is new, an APAR may be submitted. This is dealt with by the CICS change team. See APARs, fixes, and PTFs.