Novell Network Management: NetWare 6

Chapter 2: Use Documentation and Research Tools for Support

 

Objectives:

This chapter introduces web based tools on Novell's web sites. The objectives important to this chapter are on page 2-1:

  1. Identify Support Information on the Novell Web Site
  2. Use Novell Support Links to Troubleshoot Problems
Concepts:

This chapter tells you about several ways to get help with Novell problems, and with hardware problems.

Identify Support Information on the Novell Web Site

The first tools described are Novell's online services, specifically three services available through the Internet:

  • www.novell.com - This is Novell's main web site, where you can find lots of company and product information.
  • support.novell.com - This is Novell's support web site, where you can access detailed information about their products, including the answers to many questions that have been called in to Novell.
  • ftp.novell.com - This is Novell's ftp (file transfer protocol) site, where you can download patches and other software.

Previous versions of this chapter specified minimum requirements for connecting to the Internet. Now it appears that Novell assumes you can get to its web site. Online resources are preferred over CD based versions, because they are more likely to be regularly updated. A CD is a snapshot of the resources available at the time it was recorded.

To summarize, you can use the documentation CD if you have no access to the Internet. You can converse with other users and Novell experts, get the most recent files, and information from Novell itself on its web sites.

Major features of the Novell Support site:

  • Online Product Support - This category includes a knowledgebase, patches and updates, support forums, product documentation, and, my favorite, Cool Solutions. Cool Solutions are subsets of the web site dedicated to providing tips, tricks, and advice to users who participate in the site. You should take a look.
  • Paid Product Support - As the name indicates, only available for a price. If you organization has a support contract with Novell, you may be able to contact them by this route a specific number of times a year.
  • Technical Subscriptions - You can receive beta copies of evaluation software, patches, updates, and technical documents on CD, DVD, or download. CD copies of documentation are especially helpful when the nework is not working.
  • Other Resources - The text lists this as a category, and describes it as including trouble reporting mechanisms. This feature is now included in the dropdown menu called Contact Support.
  • Cool Solutions - Described above, you can submit a question, query the archived solutions, or read recent articles supporting the use of many Novell products.
  • Downloads - drivers, patches, support packs, client software, and evaluation software are found here.
  • Developer Support - Speicialized support for programmers who want to develop applications or utilities to run on a Novell server.
Use Novell Support Links to Troubleshoot Problems

This section of the chapter recommends a routine of checking Novell's web site for information administrators will need to keep their networks running well.

  • Check regularly for required patches, support packs, and upgrades for your systems.
  • Check for information about known problems, and solutions for them.
  • Download and install all required patches. Novell support technicians will ask if you have done this before they invest much time in a support call.