Bobby-Notes: Difference between revisions

No edit summary
(how to communicate)
Line 22: Line 22:
#Create a new case via the [https://support.zimbra.com/supportlogin.php Support Portal]
#Create a new case via the [https://support.zimbra.com/supportlogin.php Support Portal]
#*In the lower section of the navigation menu on the left, choose Case Menu > Submit A New Case
#*In the lower section of the navigation menu on the left, choose Case Menu > Submit A New Case
#*When you need urgent help '''Please open a case through the Support Portal instead of sending email to support@zimbra.com'''. Cases submitted through email will not be assigned the appropriate urgency for an outage or otherwise urgent situation, and they will appear lower in priority in our incoming case queue. When submitting a case through the [https://support.zimbra.com/supportlogin.php Support Portal] you may assign the appropriate urgency level according to scope, impact, and urgency of issue.
#*When you need urgent help, '''please open a case through the Support Portal instead of sending email to support@zimbra.com'''. Cases submitted through email will not be assigned the appropriate urgency for an outage or otherwise urgent situation, and they will appear lower in priority in our incoming case queue. When submitting a case through the [https://support.zimbra.com/supportlogin.php Support Portal] you may assign the appropriate urgency level according to scope, impact, and urgency of issue.
#*Please include as much detail as possible to allow us to effectively prepare prior to calling you. Having details of the situation allows us to reach out to any resources (people) we may feel are needed prior to calling you back.
#*Please include as much detail as possible to allow us to effectively prepare prior to calling you. Having details of the situation allows us to reach out to any resources (people) we may feel are needed prior to calling you back.
#*Include contact information in the new case record. Desk phone, cell phone, alternate email address, and YahooIM handle are all useful. This allows us to contact you for clarification as needed.
#*Include contact information in the new case record. Desk phone, cell phone, alternate email address, and YahooIM handle are all useful. This allows us to contact you for clarification as needed.
Line 28: Line 28:
#Call the [http://www.zimbra.com/about/contact_us.html Support Phone Line]
#Call the [http://www.zimbra.com/about/contact_us.html Support Phone Line]
#*If you get the voice mail - don't panic or hang up without leaving a voice mail.
#*If you get the voice mail - don't panic or hang up without leaving a voice mail.
#*Leaving Voice Mail
#**Give your name and company first
#**Give your name and company first
#**Provide the number of the case that you created in the Support Portal
#**Provide the number of the case that you created in the Support Portal
Line 41: Line 40:


==How To Communicate Support Need Clearly==
==How To Communicate Support Need Clearly==
Over the years, open source luminary Eric Raymond has assembled a guide to getting help with technical issues online. Bear in mind that the guide is written with those seeking free help in mind, so the overall guide taken at face value is most applicable for posting to the Zimbra Forums. There is, however, plenty of useful guidance for those submitting support cases. The complete guide is available online as [http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html How To Ask Questions The Smart Way;] here are a few examples:
* Use meaningful, specific subject headers
* Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language
* Be precise and informative about your problem
* Describe your problem's symptoms in chronological order


This is well worth everyone one skimming over once:
Simon Tatham, author of the PuTTY software, wrote a similar guide for [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html How to Report Bugs Effectively]
* [http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html How To Ask Questions The Smart Way - by Eric S. Raymond]
 


=Support Tools=
=Support Tools=

Revision as of 17:23, 6 May 2009


Information For New Support Customers

Details On Response Times and What's Supported

Please review the Support Overview and Support Plan, specifically the "Exclusions" and "Reasonable Use Policy" sections. You can also find a link to the Support Plan document when you log in to your Zimbra Support Portal account (Network Edition Customers). As of 12 August 2008, it includes the following statement:

Requests that are excluded from support include but are not limited to: performing initial installs of customer systems, performing migrations, performing upgrades of customer systems, performing configuration changes to add or remove servers or services, and testing a customer’s system. Zimbra Professional Services may be available to assist with these projects.

New Network Edition Customers

Your sales contact should already have made a support record for your company and added one or more user accounts for our primary support tool, the Support Portal. Please Contact Sales if you are unsure whether you and/or your company have been set up for access to the Support Portal. Additional user accounts can be associated with your support record if necessary by submitting a case to support with the following information:

  • Full name of new contact
  • Title of new contact
  • Email address of new contact
  • Best phone number to reach new contact (this will potentially be used in the event of an email outage)

Understanding The Support Process For Urgent Issues

In order to receive the most efficient and timely response, please follow this procedure.

  1. Create a new case via the Support Portal
    • In the lower section of the navigation menu on the left, choose Case Menu > Submit A New Case
    • When you need urgent help, please open a case through the Support Portal instead of sending email to support@zimbra.com. Cases submitted through email will not be assigned the appropriate urgency for an outage or otherwise urgent situation, and they will appear lower in priority in our incoming case queue. When submitting a case through the Support Portal you may assign the appropriate urgency level according to scope, impact, and urgency of issue.
    • Please include as much detail as possible to allow us to effectively prepare prior to calling you. Having details of the situation allows us to reach out to any resources (people) we may feel are needed prior to calling you back.
    • Include contact information in the new case record. Desk phone, cell phone, alternate email address, and YahooIM handle are all useful. This allows us to contact you for clarification as needed.
  1. Call the Support Phone Line
    • If you get the voice mail - don't panic or hang up without leaving a voice mail.
      • Give your name and company first
      • Provide the number of the case that you created in the Support Portal
      • Summarize the outage situation
      • Mention your contact information
  2. Continue to work on the issue yourself.
    • Promptly update the case with all relevant information you discover
      • Left-hand lower section, Case Menu > Case Management
      • If you can't "email", use the Comments section with your case record to input the information.
  3. If you have not received a response from us, please try updating the case and calling into the Support Phone Line again
    • Note that depending on the day and hour of your outage, time might be needed for the information to route to the on-call staff and for them to get into a position to respond.

How To Communicate Support Need Clearly

Over the years, open source luminary Eric Raymond has assembled a guide to getting help with technical issues online. Bear in mind that the guide is written with those seeking free help in mind, so the overall guide taken at face value is most applicable for posting to the Zimbra Forums. There is, however, plenty of useful guidance for those submitting support cases. The complete guide is available online as How To Ask Questions The Smart Way; here are a few examples:

  • Use meaningful, specific subject headers
  • Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language
  • Be precise and informative about your problem
  • Describe your problem's symptoms in chronological order

Simon Tatham, author of the PuTTY software, wrote a similar guide for How to Report Bugs Effectively

Support Tools

Bugzilla And Why It Matters

Bugzilla is a critical tool for our customers, and those that ignore it do so at their own peril (mwah hah hah). Well, that was a little over the top, but you should totally learn to use bugzilla. Here's some basics to get you started.

Create Bugzilla Account

This is open to anyone. It's not tied to your Network Edition support id.

Recommended Saved Searches

Once you've created your account and logged in, let's create a search that will find bugs that have your email in the CC: field.

  1. Go to http://bugzilla.zimbra.com/query.cgi
  2. Decide if you want to adjust the highlighted items under "Status:".
  3. Under "Email Addresses, Bug Numbers, and Votes", have only the "a CC list member" checked. The "contains" field should then include your email address.
  4. Click on "Search" at the bottom.
  5. Scroll down to bottom of search results window, and in the field for "Remember Search as" put in "My CC's". Click on the "Remember search" button.

These saved search configurations will now show up towards the bottom of the bugzilla windows. They can be reconfigured or deleted under your Preferences > Saved Searches.

When you have a support case and the issue is tied back to a bug or RFE, it will be crossed linked within bugzilla and our case management tool. Once you know the bug/RFE number, add yourself to the CC: field for it. In my opinion, the Zimbra support case can be closed at this point because bugzilla will notify you of changes via email now. And if you have the saved CC search above, it will be easy for you to manage those as well.

My Saved Bugs

There is also a default saved search, "My Bugs". This is for the bug/RFE's you created.

Bugs And RFE's In Regards To Your Support Case

When you have a case that's related to a bug or rfe, the support staff should tie the case number to the bug or rfe. This will increase the priority. Here's what you need to do on your part:

  • Login to bugzilla and goto the bug / rfe page in question.
  • Add your email address to the CC field and save.
    • This will notify you of updates by email.
  • Click on the Vote button.
    • This is again a way to increase the priority.

At this point, bugzilla will take over the case issue in question. There is no longer need for the support case to be open.

Use The Advance Search

First, here's a trick I do when a new topical question comes up.

  • I go to bugzilla.zimbra.com .
  • Click on the "search" link [not button] which should give you an advance search.
  • I then shift-click all the items under "Status" and then put in my search terms.
    • I believe the default search function only queries against "unconfirmed, new, assigned, reopened".

Missing the other "status" items has burnt me in the past.

You can also narrow your search by choosing the different "components". This is very useful when your using generic search terms.

Create A Forum Account

Please create a forum account. There's a wealth of information and experienced Zimbra administrators that are accessible there.

Please see:

Create A Wiki Account

Here's the direct url to create an account on the wiki server:

Why is this important?

  • It allows you to participate in improving the wiki articles and content. You need to be logged in to make edits.
    • You can make your own articles if you find something missing that might prove useful to others.
    • You can improve existing articles.
    • You can also add to the "discussion" page for an article. This is a good section to add comments for those less inclined to be bold and modify the main article.
      • You can propose questions and other things here as well.
  • You can add article pages to your "watchlist", so you can monitor your favorite articles for changes.
    • You can also setup in your preferences to be notified by email in regards to changes.
  • You can have your own personal section on the wiki.
    • Just use the category of "community sandbox" at the bottom of them.
      • [[Category: Community Sandbox]]
    • My recommendation if you decide to create articles would be to add your username in front of the topic:
      • Username-Topic , for example - Ajcody-New-Customers
    • And then add this under your own user profile page [for example - http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=User:Ajcody]
      • {{:Special:PrefixIndex/YourUsername}} , for example - {{:Special:PrefixIndex/Ajcody}}
      • This will then automatically list out all your articles under your username.

Create A YahooIM Account

Most of us in support have YahooIM accounts and this can prove useful even when on a telephone call since it speeds up the sharing of information. It's to the discretion of the support staff to offer the IM session.

Please see:

Remote Access For Support Situations

Support SSH Keys

If you log into the support portal with your account, you'll find reference to ssh keys that can be used.

Screen Sessions With SSH

Please review the following if you aren't familiar with screen.

Sun Java Shared App

If your a fan of Sun, look at their shared app:

Installation and Migration Planning

Expectations

Support doesn't do migration for customers, nor do we do migration planning. We can help if you run into issues during migration. Are there gray areas involved in this? Yes, of course. Some guidelines to follow:

  • Engage your sales contact about your needs.
    • Sales has access to pre-sales engineers and tools that can help plan your Zimbra deployment and migrations.
    • If your needs exceed the above, they can determine if our Professional Services group would be a good option for you.
  • When you start to engage the Support Team
    • Try to have specific questions or issues rather than large open-ended ones - those that imply support is doing the planning or migration for you.
    • It would be helpful if you documented your "plan" to the best of your ability and to share that with support as issues or questions come up.
      • This gives us more "concrete" information to work against.
    • Be prepared to know and investigate the technical requirements for the "other" mail server. Support will offer what we can but there is no obligation for us to know all the in's and out's of another mail server product. The exception to this would be when we are working with our tools that we developed for migration. And even then, there is a certain expectation of knowledge we require of the administrator in regards to the other mail system.
  • Remember, anyone can use the Zimbra Forums! Advise and help is free and open to everyone on the forums.

First

Please take time to review the Administrators Guide. Noting what features you might want or need for the installation. It would be wise to make notes while your skimming the guide of features your wanting. Depending on the choices you have, it might drastically effect your installation steps. Do you want HSM, Archive & Discovery, Proxies - what type, and so forth.

The Basics

Starting Official Source Guides

Other Resources To Review

General Ways To Find More Specific Information:

Please Consider Your Backup Issues Before Deploying

Assuming you've consulted the other above resources as well.

More items to consider:

Be Aware Of DR Processes

Multi-Server Installations

Assuming you read or skimmed the above.

Starting Official Source Guides

Other Resources To Review

Migration Issues

Yahoo! Hosted Zimbra

Public documentation is at:

Customer Documentation is in the support portal. The url is, you'll need a support portal account to login with:

  • https://support.zimbra.com/ccaredocs
    • Has, as of today (Oct 15, 2008)
      • Hosted Customer Care Application Guide
      • Hosted Integration Guide
        • Branding Instructions are located here.
      • Hosted Zimbra Web Client Guide
      • Support Program Plan
      • Zimbra Hosted Packaging Options

Hosting Bugs And RFE's

Use this url to see the "public" bugs & rfe's that are tied to hosting.

This will pull all of them regardless of their "status".

Quick Tips

License issues (Dos/Unix New Lines)

vi file and then

:set list

Confirm your not getting the ^M characters at the end.

Jump to: navigation, search