IBM Support

What type of Guardium problems should I consider to be a Severity 1 Case?

Question & Answer


Question

What type of Guardium problems should I consider to be a Severity 1 Case?

Answer

The IBM Support Severity definitions are detailed in the Support Guide - Specifically here
Please note that Guardium Severity 1 issues are normally reserved for Production environments meeting the System Requirements as detailed in the related information below
The following list contains examples of issues which would normally be considered Severity 1:
  • Guardium Appliance is down
  • Appliances unable to communicate with the Central Manager (CM)
  • Database full
  • Sniffer restarts more often than once an hour
  • STAP crashed DB server
  • STAP severely affects DB server performance
  • STAP is not running
  • Upgrade failed during scheduled weekend service window * see note below
For any other issue that you consider to be a Severity 1 you should provide a business impact statement including details on:
  • number of users affected by the problem
  • whether production,development or a test system
  • deadlines impacted by the issue
  • any other information you deem relevant
Specific note on Upgrades *
In order to avoid any potential upgrade problems it's vital to install the latest required Health Check and check the results just before the upgrade.
Further detail on upgrade considerations here
Dial In requirements
Customers should be aware of the dial in requirements if IBM Technical Support determines that a remote dial in is necessary - including the need to have previously recorded their root passkeys for all appliances.

Root Cause Analysis
The main aim of a Severity 1 case is to get a system back up and running as soon as possible
Once any critical impact has been alleviated, some root cause analysis of the problem may not be possible outside of normal business hours since it can require extended analysis, time and specific R&D engineers to be available. In these cases the root cause analysis will continue during normal business hours.
IBM Support Severity definitions (see related link below)
We will work with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week to resolve Severity 1 problems provided you have a technical resource available to work during those hours.
If clients do not respond to updates within 24hrs then we reserve the right to lower the severity until such time as the client is able to work 24*7 with IBM Support.


Case Severity levels
If at any time you need Severity 1 attention to an existing Case then you should update the Case via the Service Request tool and set the Severity accordingly.
Setting a case to Severity 1 is not suitable for longer ongoing investigations.. Severity 2 is more suitable and receives high priority attention during normal business hours. This avoids cases from being moved between the Severity 1 shift engineers as the shifts change around the globe, with the case owner being able to perform in depth diagnostics which is significantly harder when cases are changing hands on a frequent basis.

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Document Information

Modified date:
15 February 2023

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swg21587895

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