Service and support overview

The purpose of this topic is to describe the different aspects of service and support that you can use to ensure that your server and applications are ready when you need them.

There are several different pieces of service and support, as depicted in the following diagram.

• Connectivity
  The fundamental element of your service environment is your connection to IBM^®.
• Inventory
  You can use iSeries™ Navigator on your server to collect and manage various inventories on a regular basis, and store the data on a designated central system.
• Problem reporting
  Your server can help you isolate the cause of system-detected hardware problems and some software problems.
• Fixes
  Your fixes can help you to correct the problem and maintain the system.
• Remote support
  In some cases, IBM^® support personnel can connect directly to your server to try to determine the sources of a problem.