Methods to provide data for Veritas Technical Support cases

Description

Introduction

Veritas Technical Support cases often require extra information to understand a situation and progress a case to resolution. Typically, this information includes the product configuration and operational log files, as well as system settings, and environmental information. Technical Support also provides product specific tools to gather information from a customer environment for use by Technical Support. This document covers the various methods available and provides links to specific instructions.

All customer uploaded data has to be associated with a Technical Support case number for tracking and auditing purposes.

General methods

These methods can be used to upload and download a small number of files direct to an existing Technical Support case. They are listed here in order of ease-of-use and preference:

• Direct file transfer to an existing case via the MyVeritas web portal using existing Veritas Account credentials.
• Direct file transfer using a file transfer website (https://mft.veritas.com)
• Direct file transfer using SecureFTP (sftp://sftp.veritas.com).

Please contact your Technical Support Engineer, if unsure about which method to use. Per-case enablement is needed for the file transfer website and sftp methods. Ask your Technical Support Engineer for further details.

Use sftp with Filezilla program or one of the product specific methods listed below for larger configurations.

The Veritas Support Portal (also known as MyVeritas) which launches the mft.veritas.com interface

Access this interface via the Veritas Support Portal (My.Veritas.com) to transfer files.

1. Go to https://support.veritas.com/
2. Log in using your Veritas Account credentials.
3. Open Case ID: <YYMMDD-NNNNNN>
   • Example, Case ID: 230214-000001
4. Click 'Upload attachments' and follow the prompts to upload the data to the case.
   • Example: Support > Manage Support Cases > Case Details: Upload attachments

Note: Clicking on 'Upload attachments' will launch the Secure MFT server link (mft.veritas.com), similar to the example below.

What information to provide

Only information directly relevant to the Technical Support case at hand should be provided. Product, network and operating environment configuration files, log files and error messages that span the time of the problem are also relevant. Please contact your Technical Support Engineer, if unsure about which files to send.

Other product specific methods

Veritas Quick Assist, Sort Data collector, Appliance log submission and NBU command line tools are available for product specific data upload for support cases.

Product Specific Information to Include:

NetBackup:

On the Primary, Secondary, and Client servers involved in the issue run an NBSU (NetBackup Support Utility) and gather the output to upload to the case.

Windows: C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\support\nbsu
Unix/Linux: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/support/nbsu

If the case is being raised due to a specific error/status code then do the following to gather logs for the issue:

• Open the failed job in 'Activity Monitor' and get the full start and end time of the job in the lower left of the 'Job Overview' tab, you'll need it for the log collection, in the format of mm/dd/yyyy-hh:mm:ss. You can turn the logging down now if you'd like.
• On the master, media server doing the backup, and client run:

Windows: "C:\Program Files\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\support\nbcplogs -B --no-nbsu --fast -F -s mm/dd/yyyy-hh:mm:ss -e mm/dd/yyyy-hh:mm:ss -c C:\Temp\nbcplogs-%COMPUTERNAME%"
Unix/Linux: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/support/nbcplogs -B --no-nbsu --fast -F -s mm/dd/yyyy-hh:mm:ss -e mm/dd/yyyy-hh:mm:ss -c /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/support/output/nbcplogs-$HOSTNAME

• Use the start and end times from the failed job to replace the -s and -e values in the above examples.

Do not normally send this type of information (by these methods)

Please obtain specific agreement from a Veritas Technical Support Engineer before sending any of these classes of data:

• Malicious code samples. Suspicious files attached to Technical Support cases will be deleted unexamined for security reasons.
• Password files (encrypted or not)
• Databases or files of financial, sensitive, classified or personal information
• Extended log files that are outside of the time band of the issue being worked
• Very large files over 100GB except by prior arrangement.

How provided data is used to progress technical support cases

In the event that Veritas requests logs, and customer agrees to provide logs to assist with troubleshooting a reported Case, Veritas will safeguard customers’ personal data in accordance with the ‘Customer Information’ section in Technical-Support-Solutions-Handbook.

Links for specific methods

• Customer portal administration assistance with accounts and passwords
• Customer portal uploads direct to a case
• psftp Command line software for Windows x86 (provided by 3rd party)
• How to use the Report tab of Veritas QuickAssist to review scan results and correct issues with Enterprise Vault
• How to upload Clearwell eDiscovery system logs to Veritas support
• VTAS eDiscovery Diagnostic Tool