Get a flying start to support

You would be surprised how often we get support tickets with just "We have an issue, help" and not much more or maybe a screenshot on a line from a log. As you can guess, this will not get a flying start at support! To speed things up from the beginning, there are a few things to include when you create a ticket.

• Proper description for the ticket. Try to capture the core of the issue. 

• Don't paste half the log-file in here, please!

• If you need to provide more details or screen shoots, create a separate file containing that information.

• Details on version/build for Streamserve/Exstream and what OS/DB plus version you use.

• Attach log-files and give us a date/time range for the issue.

• If it makes sense, attach the project as a dcpackage.

Can’t you get it off my old ticket?

Providing all this information from the start avoids the back and forth asking for more details. We do get the question "But I have another ticket open, can't you get it from there?". This is not always a good option as we never know if a hot-fix has been applied or not. Logs might not cover the same period for the issue and we would need to verify the information with you anyway.

Full logs and debug verbose

Regarding the logs, please, always attach them in full and not part of them (happen way too often). If the issue is reproducible, it's very much preferred to have them in debug verbose as this is what engineering requires. It also reveals a lot more details and can lead to a quicker conclusion. A pushback we get quite often is that this is in production and the performance will take a hit. It's true, but in general, it has around 5-10% effect on the performance and debug verbose might be the only thing that gives a hint to the issue.

To sum things up: rather include a detail or file too much than too little!

Happy production wishes/ 

Johan Rydmark, Manager Exstream Technical Support