Supplemental Support

To meet today's requirements for improved service levels and operational efficiency, some organizations might require an enhanced level of product support beyond traditional OEM support models.

Brocade Supplemental Support augments existing support plans for SAN and IP networking products purchased from Brocade OEM Partners and Brocade Solution Providers, providing direct access to Brocade Technical Support expertise and resources on a 24×7 basis to accelerate problem resolution and improve uptime.

With Brocade Supplemental Support, if an issue arises involving a Brocade product, customers will first contact their Brocade Solution Provider according to the existing support contract and obtain a support ticket number. After that, customers can contact Brocade directly for troubleshooting hardware/software issues and providing software fixes.

For more information on Brocade Technical Support Plans, contact us.

Brocade Technical Support Plan Policies cover Brocade products that are supported under a purchased Brocade Technical Support Plan. Any equipment or software for which you have not purchased a Brocade Technical Support Plan is covered only by the warranty you received when you purchased the equipment or software. Except for the Severity Definitions and Response Time Targets, which apply to in-warranty support, these Technical Support Plan Policies do not apply to equipment or software for which you have not purchased a Brocade Technical Support Plan.

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL SUPPORT IS PROVIDED ONLY SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE APPLICABLE BROCADE TECHNICAL SUPPORT AGREEMENT. These Technical Support Plan Policies are subject to change at the discretion of Brocade. Changed versions of these Technical Support Plan Policies will be posted on this page.

• Support Terms
• Hours of Operation
• Information Required
  • Call Flow
  • Severity Definitions
• Response Time Targets
• End of Life Support

SUPPORT TERMS

Worldwide Technical Assistance
Brocade Technical Support Plans are supported by a worldwide organization in more than 50 countries, closely integrated with the state-of-the-art Technical Assistance Centers at Brocade headquarters in San Jose, California; Broomfield, Colorado; Plymouth, Minnesota; London, United Kingdom; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Chennai, India; and Tokyo, Japan.

Onsite Hardware Repair and Replacement
In the unlikely event that your hardware goes down due to a hardware problem, a Brocade-trained technician can be onsite within four hours (depending on the level of Support purchased), with replacement parts to restore the affected Brocade equipment functionality as quickly as possible.

Software Updates
Brocade Technical Support Plans include a comprehensive software update program that is available for a fee and includes bug fix releases and software maintenance updates.

Secure Remote Access
Accessible through an AES 256 encryption connection to your location through a B2B Internet or a private MPLS circuit from the Brocade network, Secure Remote Access provides a view into the configuration of your network devices, proactively identifying problems before your network is impacted. If a problem is identified, tight integration with the Brocade Technical Assistance Centers expedites the creation of service requests and reduces time to resolution. To effectively diagnose your problem, machine configuration and error data needs to be collected. To receive Support Saves for analyzing, diagnosing, and troubleshooting the problem communicated by the SNMP alerts, the following information is necessary.

• Configuration of network device
• Hardware errors
• Software errors
• Interface errors

Brocade will not access, receive, or collect any personal identifiable information or customer data. All information gathering and use practices comply with the Brocade Information Security Policy. A copy of the Brocade Information Security Policy is available upon request.

24×7 Online Self-Help
24×7 Online Self-Help allows you to download Web-distributed software bug fixes and patches, as well as software maintenance releases and feature updates. It also makes available online a wide array of information, including the online compatibility matrix, white papers, release notes, technical bulletins, and product documentation.

Flexible, Solution-Oriented Coverage
Brocade Technical Support Plans offer a flexible approach to ensuring the availability of mission-critical data and hardware resources. The plan levels allow you to choose the coverage that best suits your specific requirements, from small entry-level businesses to enterprise-class support with Brocade Onsite Support Engineers (OSEs). Multi-year options are available to make long-term budgeting easier.

Telephone Technical Support
Brocade Technical Support Plans provide direct telephone access to the Brocade Technical Assistance Center. The Center operates on a 24x7 basis and is equipped with devices from Brocade qualified vendors. Calls are automatically routed to the technician best qualified to assist with your specific question.

Support-Level Objectives
Brocade maintains strict support-level objectives for each defined severity level, plus escalation procedures for handling unresolved support requests. Under these procedures, unresolved issues are transferred to technical support management teams, and onward to successively higher levels of technical and operational management, until the problem is resolved.

Out of Warranty Inspection
If a product goes out of warranty before a Brocade Technical Support Plan is purchased, the product must be inspected and certified as serviceable for a charge. Brocade may inspect the product within a reasonable time following the date on which Support begins. If the product is not in an acceptable condition for Support, you can have Brocade restore it for a charge, or you can withdraw your request, provided that you will be charged for any services that Brocade has performed prior to withdrawal.

HOURS OF OPERATION

The Brocade Technical Assistance Center is available 24×7 for hardware and software issues. Please check your Brocade Technical Support Plan to verify the level of service and hours of access per your contract.

INFORMATION REQUIRED

You should have the following information readily available when contacting Brocade Technical Support, either via phone, e-mail, or the Web:

• Any problem symptoms
• Product identification:
  • For Brocade SAN switches and directors: Serial number or World Wide Name
  • For Brocade IP networking (Foundry) products: Serial number
  • For Brocade legacy channel extension products: Serial number or network/system ID
  • For Brocade file management products: Serial number
• Details about whether the Brocade product has been installed and is operating in a production environment
• The types and vendors of hosts/servers, storage, and host bus adapters as well as the firmware/operating system versions and driver versions for hosts
• A complete list of host and storage types

CALL FLOW

a. Hardware issues
Brocade Technical Support will help troubleshoot the reported issue. If it is hardware-related, Brocade will dispatch a service technician to the site with the necessary replacement parts in accordance with the terms of the purchased Brocade Technical Support Plan.
b. Software issues
A Service Request will be generated, and the Brocade Technical Support team will classify the problem's severity level from 1 to 4 as follows:

1. Severity 1 Critical:  Systems are down or performance is severely impacted due to but not limited to data loss or data corruption. No other work can continue until the issue is resolved. No workaround is yet available.
2. Severity 2 High:  The product's functions or network operations are impaired or unavailable. You can still address other related issues, but a valid workaround is not yet available.
3. Severity 3 Medium:  A system or product function might have failed, but workflow is not impacted at the systems level. Brocade Technical Support knows about the issue, and a workaround is available.
4. Severity 4 Low:  You acknowledge that the issue is non-critical and consider resolution within the next maintenance or major release adequate. You can submit a Request For Enhancement (RFE) to modify existing products or product documentation.

Brocade will use reasonable efforts to provide a Patch for any material deviation between the current release of the software and its specifications which is reported by customer to Brocade and is reproducible by Brocade.  Additionally, Brocade may provide customer with Maintenance Releases, Feature Releases and Platform Releases of the software, on an "if and when available" basis, that Brocade generally makes available to other Brocade customers at no charge beyond the fees for support.   As used herein: (i) "Platform Release" means a platform, operating system or software architecture change and/or the addition of a major new application or function; (ii) "Feature Release" means a major new feature or an enhancement in operating performance that does not alter the basic functionality; (iii) "Maintenance Release" means a regularly scheduled update which may include defect fixes and limited platform-specific improvements; and (iv) "Patch" means a temporary solution to a customer-reported critical defect.

SEVERITY LEVELS AND BROCADE TECHNICAL SUPPORT RESPONSE AND ESCALATION TIMES*

Essential Customers:

Premier & Premier Plus Customers:

* The times listed are targets only and are not a guarantee that Brocade will respond or escalate within the target time.

Hourly Rate
The hourly rate for issues handled on a time and materials basis is US$425 per hour plus travel expenses.

GENERAL END OF LIFE SUPPORT POLICY
End of life announcements for individual Brocade products are posted on MyBrocade and Partner Network. The same Brocade Technical Support Plans that are offered for generally available products may be purchased to cover end of life products. Brocade will provide Software Support for the then current Feature Release and the greater of (i) the two immediately preceding Feature Releases, or (ii) all Feature Releases made available within the preceding 12 months.  As a general rule, Upgrades must be installed sequentially through all Feature Releases and Platform Releases (e.g., to upgrade from release 5.1 to 6.0, all Feature Releases and Platform Releases after 5.1 will be added as part of the upgrade process).

This is a general policy that might vary from product to product. Please review the end of life announcements on the Brocade Web site for additional details on specific products.

• Data Sheets

  • Brocade Essential Support Data Sheet (636.5 KB)

  • Brocade Network Monitoring Service (762.2 KB)

  • Brocade Onsite Support Engineer (598.8 KB)

  • Brocade Premier And Premier-Plus Support – Direct Support (668.8 KB)

  • Brocade Supplemental Support Data Sheet (637.8 KB)

  • Brocade Support Account Manager (620.8 KB)

• FAQs

  • Brocade Technical Support FAQs (74.7 KB)

• Miscellaneous

  • Customer Support Reference Card (88.7 KB)

• Support Plans

  • Brocade IPv6 Supportability Statement (34.2 KB)