I am writing this as I sift through the rejected emails to see what is going on with SunSolve Service Request for Customers. The uptake is strong and growing, and I need to remind everybody of a few house rules for this feature, which will stop you receiving a email notification indicating your request could not be created at this time.

1. Only Valid Serial numbers are accepted. This means the serial number / item number, must have warranty or current contract. If it's not covered you will get a notification email to call Sun. Remember you can check the serial number first on the Check entitlement for Serial number widget on the home page of SunSolve.


2. Take note, if you hit the submit key twice only one SR will be created, there is a an automatic feature built in to limit SR for the one serial number to one per hour.


3.  Be sure to include as much detail as possible, and if you are uploading files to http://supportfiles.sun.com  be sure include a reference to this in the file name in the SR when you create it.
   


4. Only the primary contact and alternative contact can request updates to the Service Request or request a summary of the service request.


5. If the Summary is light on, that is because Engineers at Sun work at the Task level be sure to ask your Technical Support Engineer to keep a running summary of who is doing what next in the SR so you can stay up to date.

SunSolve 7.4 was released to production on October 20, 2009. This release highlights the benefit of logging in, by displaying a lock or a document with a key symbol. The padlock symbol requires the user to log in and have a contract associated to their account.The document and key symbol shows users that if you use this feature there is more content for contracted customers. For example, if you log in you will see more content or patches.
The search box is now central on the page, a little Google like. Search results are listed under Knowledge KB, and users can filter further by selecting one of the available filters. Additional results are also displayed under separate headers, for example, you will find Documentation results under the Documentation filter.
Based on Customer Feedback that the PatchFinder was to deep with to many clicks to access, a light version has been raised up to the home page. You can now search by Patch ID, or CR (Bug Number), or Keywords or Synopsis. More Patch Finder  features are available if you select "Advanced Search" .
SunSolve community forums, have active communities for contracted customers which allow customers to connect with peers and Sun's Subject Matter Experts. Topics covered are Patching issues, migration and use of Member Support Center and SunSolve related questions.
Browse by Product is new. This feature was added as Sun noticed a lot of traffic from SunSolve to the Sun System Handbook and then back directly to SunSolve to view the content linked on the Handbook pages. This is a new feature and selecting a product will return a filtered list of all
the content with the product. The Sun System Handbook link is still there under SunSovle Navigation.
Sun Alerts are listed out by date order under View Alerts and an additional link to Learn More to explain the Sun Alert creation process.
The bottom half of the screen is divided into two core areas, enabling your system for
support and if an issue does happen, how to log that issue with Sun and make use of online tools to quickly resolved your issue. Take time to ensure your system is setup for as much automated support as possible, this will ensure your issue is resolved quickly.
The new feature for logging Service Requests is now available directly on SunSolve. The recommendation is when possible use the Member Support Center, but if you can not access that application make use of the SunSolve SR feature. The SunSolve SR requires a serial number.
What do you think of the changes ? Use the feedback link to tell Sun if you like the changes, what else you like to see.

The Online Support Center will no longer be available from October 30,2009. Already, I'm seeing e-mails from customers concerned about this due to the perception that they will loose access to Sun's online resources. Here's some examples of comments I've been receiving, along with a quick confirmation of whether they are accurate.


SunSolve is EOL in 2009 - FALSE

SunSovle is changing it's portal - FALSE

OSC is EOL - TRUE

SunSolve and Online Support Center are two different applications - TRUE

Here's a quick recap on alternatives  available:


 1. Use SunSolve to access patches, knowledge, and if you can not migrate to the Member Support Center  make use of the Service Request process. What SunSolve does not have is the ability to view the details of your contract.

 2. Alternatively access Member Support Center (MSC) after requesting access . MSC allows access to approved users  to Service Request creation/updates, viewing install base records and viewing contract details.
 3. If you need to download software, make use of the Download Center. If you are searching for restricted downloads for example the Enterprise Netbackup Software the links are available on SunSolve. Log in to SunSolve and search on "How do I download" to return the articles for downloading restricted software.


If you've still got questions about SunSolve or the Member Support Center, check out our online SunSolve and Member Support Center Community Forums. [First time users: Learn More]

New on October 09, SunSolve Service Request Feature. This allows the ability for users migrating from Online Support Center(OSC) or those customers who do not have access to the  Member Support Center (MSC) to log and update Service Requests.

The create Service Request feature is targeted at users migrating from the legacy Online Support Center and those customers and individuals who can not make use of the Member Support Center and who have a valid SunSolve account. The service is available in a number of supported languages. Selecting the language option will display a new screen with the options available in the selected language.


If you are viewing a red lock symbol next to this feature, it means you have NOT logged in or your account is not valid. To address this please log in and select "Change Contract" and associate a valid Sun contact to your account.

Requirements for use this feature

You need to have a Sun Online Account (SOA also known as your Sun userid and password) this account needs to have either been registered on the Member Support Center or associated to a Contract via "Change Contract" on SunSolve.

1. Log in to SunSolve with your Sun Online Account
   


2. You need to have a valid serial number, and select "Create Service Request" answer the questions and submit the request.

Notes:

1. If the serial number is in Sun's DB more then once the SR will fail.


2. You will receive two emails one to show you the data you entered into the form. This is for your record if the SR creation fails. A seconded email notification will be sent advising if the SR was created or failed.


3. If the SR does fail you need to call Sun. Make use of the data in the SR creation email and ask the Sun contact to
   investigate why there are more then one serial number for this product in the system.


4. Please remember the summary feature provides a lite update, meaning you only see published notes at the SR level. For an in depth summary users if possible should log in to the Member Support Center.

Learn More or Need Help ?

1. Please take a few minutes to access the SunSolve Help Site and view the step by step instructions.


2. If your still experiencing issues, chat to Sun SME's and your peers on the Sun Community Forums. Login and select "SunSolve from the Private Area".
   

SunSolve user accounts, I can't tell you how many times I get asked to fix a SunSolve account or investigate an issue. Think of this blog entry as SunSolve Entitlement demystified. Starting with the basics a SunSolve account is made up of two parts. Your user identity and your entitlements.

Your User Identity, This is your Sun Online Account also known as SOA, CWP-id, MySun Account, it's the user id and password you use when accessing any Sun site which asks that you login. You only need to create it once, as most of the sites on sun-DOT-com which ask you to login make use of this one account. Best Practice: Create a user name which is your email address, many of Sun's sites only enable a user to use their email address as their user name a few legacy sites like the Member Support Center allow the option of selecting a email address or user name. Sun recommends you use your email address.

Your Entitlements, these are derived by what contracts you associate to your user identity. When you purchase contracts from Sun, some products have specific entitlements and others have broad entitlements. When you login on SunSolve and select “Change Contracts” you can see the list of patch based entitlements you have [ Learn More ]. If you are a Member Support Center User and you access SunSolve, the entitlement system will return a unique list of all the patch entitlements you are associated to in the Member Support Center and display those on the "Change Contract" Screen.

What can go wrong ?

Password locking. This is when your password was working and you have moved around some of Sun's sites and for some reason your password stops working. Make use of the Need Help link which is on all pages which prompt you to login. This automated process will reset your password and then you will need to change it to something more meaningful. Sun Recommends, you maintain your password and do not share it with your team members. If the automated process did not reset your password, please make use of the SunSolve Feedback link. Our Support team will investigate your issue and provide an answer to you.

Contract Number is not found, SunSolve has a direct link to the internal contracts system. When a contract is not found, typically it because the contract is not active or is not in a status which allows support. If you believe your contract is active and you should have support , make use of the feedback option to have the SunSolve team investigate your issue. Sun Recommends, you report contract issues via the feedback link. Our Support team will investigate your issue and provide an answer to you.

The Patch you want is showing that you need to purchase a contract. This occurs when you are trying to access a patch which requires a specific product to be on Contract. The main incidence of this is Solaris 8 patches . Most Solaris 8 patches which have been released after April 09, require a Sun Solaris Vintage8 Patch Contract. Remember, just because a previous rev of the patch was available to you on your Solaris 8 contract does not mean you can download the latest rev if it was released post April 09, when Solaris 8 went into it's Vintage Program. Likewise, Solaris 7 and Solaris 2.6 patches are no longer available for download. If you are running these EOL products you should considering upgrading to Solaris 10. Sun Recommends, you report contract issues via the feedback link. Our Support team will investigate your issue and provide an answer to you.

Package downloads Packages are very different from patches. Packages for OpenSolaris require you register yourself on the Member Support Center. For individuals you will have a unique individual party number sent to you with your OpenSolaris or GlassFish contract. You use the number  to register on the Member Support Center when prompted to enter your party number. Once registered and approve you will have access to download all the packages for OpenSolaris or GlassFish from pkgs.sun.com.   Sun Recommends, if you are individual purchaser of OpenSolaris you  need to register on MSC with the person party number provided to you. If you work for a company your organization will have a party number. If you need assistance to identify your party number contact msc-support-AT-sun.com

Need to use the Support Forums ?

Your Screen Name  First time users are prompted for a screen name, when logging into either wikis.sun.com  or support forums. You do this once and it's shared been Sun applications that make use of your screen name. Sun Recommends, you pick a screen name that represents who you are for example; miriam_at_sun or John@IBM or JohnS@IBM, your reputation is built on your screen name.
Entitlement and Sun Forums.  When you login on SunSolve and navigate to the Sun Forums the application session transfers you. This enables the forums site to see that you are a contracted customer and provides additional access to private forums. Sun Recommends, you login on SunSolve prior to selecting the link to go to Sun Forums to ensure you see all the private forums.

New feature on SunSolve

On Sunsolve the new patch  download service requires SSL (https) access.  This means you need to be running wget 1.10 or higher.  Avoid 1.11 as this does not work with SunSolve; use 1.11.1 or higher.  If you are using an old script, you may have to update the SunSolve URL as some old formats no longer work.
With the new SunSolve Patch  entitlement service, you may experience a delay of up to 48 hours after associating contracts to your account on SunSolve before wget can be used with those contracts.  This is due to synchronization requirements between systems within Sun.  If you have registered within the  Member Support Center or more contracts where added to you account within the Member Support Center, then you need to trigger the synchronization. To do this you will need to do a test run of your wget script using the new details. This might then fail on SunSolve but will trigger the synchronization process. Sun is working to reduce the synchronization time.


More information on this and other topics on wget can be found in knowledge article "Patch Download Automation using wget" 

What are customers searching for in the SunSolve Knowledge base ?

Customers are interested in these areas.

1. How to enable their system for support, with explorer documents and the Service Tools Bundle being areas of Interest. Customers can make use of sneep from the Service Tools Bundle to enter their serial number so that they can remotely access this when being asked by the Sun Support Centers for a valid serial number to create a Hardware Support Call. The explorer files enable Sun Technical staff to quickly analysis what issues could be effecting your system. Together these are great reasons why customers should download and setup explorer and sneep. [Download Link] [FAQ PDF] [Explorer Data Collector] [Service Tools Bundle FAQs]

2. The second core are is divided into two ares. The first is understanding the EOSL dates for Solaris and what is in the Entitlement policy for Solaris. Solaris 8 went into phase 2 of EOL which means any new patch or a later revision of the Solaris 8 patch requires a Vintage 8 Solaris Contract.  This is closely linked with searches on Upgrading to Solaris 10 with documents such as: Solaris Live Update Software: Patch Requirements and SPARC: Using Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10 05/08 or later.

3. The third area, is all around patches and wget. In the coming weeks Sun will have a new contracted forum on http://forum.sun.com  for entitled customer to discuss with their peers and Sun subject matter experts issues around patching.

4. Contracted customers are also looking at the  Guide to System Troubleshooting fo rthe Sun x64/x86 hardware platforms. [Login to SunSolve and then you can view Solution 211405]

5. The 5th area customers are searching on is Security Sun Alerts. The document explains the sections in a security vulnerability and related terminology.

What are you interested in finding in the SunSolve knowledge base ?

Provide feedback using the SunSolve Feedback link, and coming soon SunSolve Forums for contracted customers. Share your experience and speak to the Subject Matter experts on SunSolve.

Changes today on SunSolve

Today SunSolve 7.3 was released, this release included the following fixes:

• Real time contract verification.
  


• Improved patch downloading


• Improved content feedback


• Improved application feedback
  


• Minor bug fixes.

 Real Time Contract Verification

 Real Time contract verification means when you enter the contract number SunSolve will validate your contract number in Sun's Source system.  This real time feed replaces a weekly update process which saw delays in service to customers.

If you have any questions or experience any issues, please use the SunSolve Feedback Link as that will track and tag your feedback and enable Sun to ensure you get the replies you need to get access.

 Improved Patch Downloading

Customer have been experiencing breaks in downloading of patches where the back end systems have gone off line and the download was stopped. This has now been addressed by using a new download service.

• New wget users when setting up for automated patch downloads, will have a delay of 1/2hour to enable their wget entitlement requests to synchronize across Sun's systems. 


• For those using SunSolve directly access is real-time, once you enter your contract and refresh your session you will have access to patches.

Improved Content Feedback

When viewing any content on SunSolve you will see the floating [ + ] help Sun Help you by telling us what you think of our content. Rate the content, tell us if it fixed your issue, tell us how easy the content was to find. If you didn't find what the answer provide come comments on what your looking for and your email address and we will get back to you.

This new feature will help drive improvements in the content on SunSolve directly.

Improved Support Feedback

If you want fast support use the SunSolve Feedback Link  select your topic area and let us know what we can do to help you. The Feedback will help drive improvements into future releases of SunSolve.

Minor Bug Fixes

A range of minor house keeping bugs where also addressed in this release.

Take time to advise Sun what you think of the new release by using the SunSolve Feedback link

Searching on SunSolve

As you can see last time I blogged, the focus was on what is coming in 7.3 talking about Searching and pointing out we have this cool drop down menu which nobody uses. After meeting with the GUI design team for Sun Search it was recommend to open up the search on the left side of the screen as that is typically the location that users expect to see filtering.

This was implemented last Friday, just to remind you of the search results; here is a preview:

What is important to remember, is that all users should Log-in first. If you do that first, then when selecting a link in the search results the application will transfer you to that content. If your not logged in then for 80% of the content you will be asked to log-in. The process of logging in will loose your current results and you will have to re-search again.

Today's tip: Log-in on SunSolve prior to searching, to enable you to have one click to view the results.

SunSolve 7.3.0 - due out end of July 09.

Changes are minor and drive improvements to the online experience.

Patch Finder : Users will notice that the new Patch Finder utility is now main stream. Minor improves in the utility have been made.

Feedback :  The feedback utility has been updated. When displaying content the [ + ] symbol allows users to rate the content. Make use of this to provide real time feedback to Sun. Tell Sun if the content in the solution is good or needs improvement.

Search : When searching the knowledge base the results are displayed and users can filter the results by selecting from the drop down menu, as shown in the image below.

Contracts :  SunSolve is now doing real time checking of contract information. Please be aware that this means once a contract has expired access will stop on SunSolve.

Every now and again there is a spike of activity on the SunSolve alias with customers and internal users having SunSolve related issues. I would just like to gently remind all users that there are support processes available.
Advising Sun of an issue enables a solution to be developed.

What should you do?

1. As a customer there are two feedback processes you can select the floating [ + ] symbol which will open up a feedback screen where you can enter your address, select form a problem area, enter comments and press submit. The image is an example of the pop-up  users see when selecting the floating + icon. OR


2. You can make use of the SunSolve Feedback link in the blue right hand navigation bar.


3. If you feel your issue is not being resolved, customers can contact their account manager or Sun  Sales team to escalate the issue.
   

Process 1 and 2 capture your issue, track it and enables the 7x24 help process to work your issue. From there the support team will escalate internally has required to resolve the issue.

Process 3 - relies on individuals known which teams to engage and often results is a slower resolution path. 

Alternatively for Sun Internal Employees please use the internal Service Desk Ticket process or make SunSolve Feedback on behalf of your customer.

Accessing Service Requests from SunSolve.

SunSolve released the new PatchFinder tool called Software Update Finder on SunSolve this week. This is a really cool utility and a long awaited upgrade which customers have asked for.
To open up all the features select "Advanced" this enables you: search the patch synopsis, Keywords, Bug Id's (CR's Ids), date ranges, find public or restricted patches and to see if a patch is Available or withdrawn.
The basic option allows a search for patch number (if you know it already) or search on OS release, Architecture, OS Patches Only, Recommended Only  or show / hide Obsolete patches.

Take a few minutes to have a look and let Sun know what you think about this improvement.

This blog site is all about the online experience changes to SunSolve, entitlement and the tools customers use online to enable self support.