Edit: I still love getting emails, and I still often redirect questions to IBM Support.
Originally posted November 18, 2008 on AIXchange
I love hearing from readers. People from around the world e-mail me, telling me about challenges they face in their environments. I also love it when readers leave comments about my posts. While I hope you learn from things I write, I can assure you that I learn from you. That’s one reason this blog is called AIXchange, and not aix-i-know-it-all-so-listen-to-me-or-else. Hopefully this continues to be a place where ideas and information are shared.
That said, some things can’t be done in this forum. For instance, readers occasionally ask me for specific answers to specific problems they’re experiencing in their data centers. I like hearing about problems and how they were solved, but unless you want to set up something formally with my employer, I cannot serve as the support organization for your business. What if, by the time I answer, you have another issue? And then what if, given time differences or my schedule, I’m unable to respond immediately?
It may be trivial for me to provide a specific answer to a problem outlined in a reader e-mail. Then again, I don’t know everything either. I could respond with what I think is the correct answer, given my experiences and the information I receive. But maybe, because I don’t have all the information or because I don’t know the specific hardware and other requirements, there’s an outage. I certainly don’t want to get an e-mail informing me that my advice had caused harm to your business.
I try to be very polite with all of these interactions, but for the record, I’ll probably ask you to contact IBM Support or your business partner for help with specific problem situations. Again, I love to talk about the different things you’ve done and experienced, but I am not currently in the position to be your back-end support mechanism.
I always encourage customers to be current with their hardware and software maintenance contracts. If you’re not current, set something up with your business partner. And if your system is down, rather than take time tracking down answers (especially if you’re not strong in a particular area), call IBM Support from the start. Let them gather the snap, trace and other information that will help them quickly and accurately resolve your problem. You’re paying for access to what I consider to be the world’s best IT support organization. Take advantage of it.
Some people tell me that they won’t call IBM unless they have to. While I agree that we should know what we’re doing, again, none of us knows everything. There’s no shame in calling support. At the end of the day we’re trying to provide the best uptime that we can for our customers, while using the best practices available.
Please keep the comments and the e-mails coming. A lot of my “how-to” or informational posts are based on real-world scenarios, so your input is invaluable. But remember, specific questions will probably be answered with a gentle reminder to call IBM Support so you can get the timely help you deserve.