IBM Support Assistant Features and Benefits
The IBM Support Assistant helps you find solutions to your software issues, and provides features and tools that can help you achieve this goal. This page highlights some of these features:
Discover existing solutions and answers for your software issues
The IBM Support Assistant can help you locate technical docs, fixes, and discover the latest and most useful support resources available. When you experience unexpected behavior from IBM software, or need to learn more about how to configure your application or enhance your skills, you can use the IBM Support Assistant to discover the resources that IBM support teams have provided in many different locations.
The following features in the IBM Support Assistant are geared towards this goal:
- Search Information: With the flexible search interface in the IBM Support Assistant, you can search a number of different web sites and information centers with just one click. You can choose to filter the search results so you only see results for the IBM products you care about, or even filter the results so you view the results based on the type of result (e.g. fixes, white papers, books and articles). Product-specific information centers and filters are automatically added based on the product add-ons you install.
- Product Information: The product information pages provide you with a page full of useful resources specific to the IBM software you are looking to support. Not only can you quickly jump to the product home page, support page and user forums, but you can use this page to discover troubleshooting and education links. The product information page also provides the latest support news feed which is updated to reflect the newest fixes, APARs, Technotes and other support data for your IBM product.
Find product education and training materials
The IBM Support Assistant can help you build your product skills and acquire training from sources such as the IBM Education Assistant. When you have a question about a certain product feature, you can look to the Support Assistant to find educational materials on how to use your IBM product, saving you valuable research time.
The Media Viewer feature in the IBM Support Assistant provides this benefit:
- Media Viewer: Using the Media Viewer, you can discover free education and training materials available on the IBM Education Assistant and other sources. Watch the Flash-based videos, read documentation, or download all of these to view them later even without an internet connection. The IBM Support Assistant can act as a central education and skills enhancement resource to help you learn more about your IBM products.
Automate Data Collection and Analysis
The IBM Support Assistant has a number of features to help you automate the manual tasks involved with software troubleshooting. When you run into an issue with IBM software, the IBM Support Assistant can help you gather the relevant diagnostic information automatically so you don't have to manually locate the resources that can explain the cause of the issue.
The Collect Data feature in the IBM Support Assistant provides this benefit:
- Collect Data: With its automated data collection capabilities, you can let the Support Assistant do the running around as it collects important data that can help you determine the cause of your software issues. The data collection feature allows you to specify the troublesome symptom and have the relevant information automatically gathered in an archive. You can then look through this data, analyze it with Support Assistant tooling, or if you choose, forward it to IBM support who can work with this information to provide you with a faster and better response.
Assisted Troubleshooting and Guided Problem Analysis
The IBM Support Assistant can even help you when you need some step-by-step guidance with resolving your software issues.
The Guided Troubleshooter described below provides this functionality:
- Guided Troubleshooter: The Guided Troubleshooter can help you narrow down, or diagnose software issues when you are not sure about the next steps to take. This feature provides a step-by-step troubleshooting wizard that can be used in a simple mode for more guidance and detailed help, or in advanced mode for users who already have a good idea for the problem they are facing. The Guided Troubleshooter can help you look for logs, suggest tools, or steps on fixing the problems you are running into.
Analysis and Troubleshooting tools for IBM products
The IBM Support Assistant provides you with numerous tools that enable you to troubleshoot your own problems. From analyzing JVM core dumps and garbage collector data, to analyzing system ports and getting remote assistance from IBM support, there are a host of tools that can help you identify and fix your issues. Best of all, these tools are free and come with instructions to get you started with the help you're looking for. For more information, visit the tools page for a list of all the tools and how to install them in the Support Assistant.
To get started with using the Support Assistant features, proceed to the download page.
