Troubleshooting help from IBM
If we are not able to resolve a WebSphere Application Server problem by following the steps described in the troubleshooting topics, by looking up error messages in the message reference, or by looking for related documentation on the online help or the IBM support page, contact IBM Technical Support.
Purchase of WAS entitles you to one year of telephone support under the Passport Advantage program.
If we cannot resolve our problem by any of the preceding methods:
- Go to the WAS support page.
- Expand the Contact Support section.
- Click "Exchanging information with IBM Tech Support", and follow the information collection instructions provided.
- Click "Directory of worldwide contacts" to find the appropriate contact information for our geography.
IBM Support has documents that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve this problem. Before opening a PMR, see the IBM Support page.
IBM Support Assistant
Use the IBM Support Assistant to organize our problem solving investigations and get the latest troubleshooting tools to analyze everything from logs to memory dumps. The IBM Support Assistant provides access to many of the same troubleshooting tools that our IBM Technical Support teams use when solving problems.
IBM Support Assistant Data Collector
The IBM Support Assistant Data Collector is a utility for running automated, symptom-specific data collection scripts. These scripts gather logs, trace, configuration, system-specific information, and other symptom-specific data that is useful to diagnose various potential problems. Attach the resultant collections to an IBM Service Request to get help from IBM Support. The IBM Support Assistant Data Collector is included with WAS, and can be run from your $app_server_root/bin directory. IBM Support might ask us to run this tool and submit the output.
Tracing
WAS support engineers might ask you to enable tracing on a particular component of the product to diagnose a difficult problem.
Consulting
For complex issues such as integration with legacy systems, education, and help in getting started quickly with the WebSphere product family, consider using IBM consulting services.
Subtopics
- Diagnose and fix problems: Resources for learning
- Use IBM Support Assistant
- Use the IBM Support Assistant Data Collector
- IBM support page
- Problem determination skills
- IBM service call preparation