Co-author: Ambrose Taylor
You need to add a new switch to a stack of Catalyst 9300 switches, but it will not join the stack. You could open a Technical Assistance Center (TAC) Case for help but would rather find the answers yourself. Finding the answer on your own timeline is the easiest way to solve the problem quickly, which is easily done as you go and find the solution at Verify and Troubleshoot Stackwise on Catalyst’ 9200/9300
Cisco Support Services’ TAC is on a quest to improve self-service offerings, make information easier to find, and help you resolve issues without opening a case. To achieve this goal, we have refactored and remodeled the oldest but most heavily used type of intellectual capital: Documentation. Focusing on continual improvement and innovation, we will keep transforming with your feedback.
We have created a new framework called DOC-IC (Documentation Intellectual Capital) to create high-value content, that is easy to find. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) across our technology spaces, create documents and videos based on what our customers need and the trends in our product.
Here is how we are simplifying your experience:
Making Self-Service Easy
- Integrating troubleshooting documents with certain configuration guides. These guides are in an easily “findable” location, which allows us to create a complete record of information for our features. For switching posts or when applicable, the Catalyst 17.8 contains troubleshooting and other documents authored by our SMEs.
- Looking for our new ‘Troubleshooting’ Chapter under each major section. Locate the relevant feature section to find troubleshooting content. For example, look for the section Troubleshooting Stacking and High Availability within the Guide.
- Providing regular updates about authored articles. We are posting regular updates on the SCM (Support Case Manager) portal, Cisco Communities, and other channels to inform our interested customers each time there is a recent publication.
- Making our content easier to find on search sites. As a result of cross-linking within Cisco.com, find-ability within search sites is much easier.
Requesting Help
- Cisco community: There is a wealth of information and advice available from other Cisco customers who may have experienced an issue already and have provided a solution. For more information, visit the applicable Cisco Community.
- Raising a case: If you are not able to find a resolution on the Community, raise a support case at Cisco Support.
Feedback and Improvement
Your input helps. If you find an issue specific to a document, please let us know. Remember to provide as much detail as possible when submitting a request or feedback on an existing document including information regarding the section, area, or issue you had with the document and what could be improved.
You can provide feedback in a few ways:
- Using the Feedback button located at the right panel of the corresponding article.
- Submitting your feedback on an existing article or video, or new document request to doc-ic-feedback@cisco.com.
- If you are opening a TAC (Technical Assistance Center) case, you can notify your engineer of the gap or missing content and they can create a request on your behalf.
As we transform and innovate our business, we’d love your input!
If you have further suggestions, send and email to
doc-ic-feedback@cisco.com
It will be a great initiative. I want to add one more thing if we can add a quick chat option for a specific error or issue so that it will be resolved at the same time and it will also be used as a quick update of such kind of issues
What a world of good this is going to do for our customers and partners. Go Cisco TAC!
Do check out amazing videos created by TAC engineers themselves to help our customers with self serving capabilities at:
https://video.cisco.com/channel/tac
New videos are added regularly and you can request new content by speaking to your TAC engineer.
I’ve sent a lengthy email to the email address, but to cut a long story short this needs feedback to be logged and trackable by users to make sure that action is taken unlike past cases where I and others have reported problems but years later they still have not been fixed – people at Cisco often just ignore the feedback.
Hopefully this new system will solve that somehow?
Hi Richard,
I fully agree with you.
When we find incorrect details in bug pages or missing details in Release Notes and we take the time to tell TAC and sometimes even explicitally ask for those to be fixed/updated, but the engineer closes the SR saying he/she can’t update the document.. well this is just disconcerting.
Bugs are often not well documented, versions are missing from either Affected or Fixed, RNs don’t contain all bugs fixed… the more correct info we find ourselves, the less SRs we’ll open.
Thanks Cisco for the efforts with improving self-service. Hopefully that also includes engineers that listen to suggestions and act on those.
Respected Sir,
I have a Cisco SG350-28P 28-Port Gigabit Poe Managed Switch Device that’s not worked please give support me for complaint tis switch.
Product ID
SG350-28P-K9-EU
Serial Number
DNI223106G1
Release Date
2016-02-02
End of Sale
2021-10-30
End of Support
2026-10-31
Hello Deepak, thank you for your comment.
The question your have posted here will require a TAC case with Small Business Support to answer. In order to open a case, you will need to be entitled for support and be requesting support on a product that is not end of life. In oder to better resolve this, you can use this page https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/support-resources.html which has phone and chat options available to help you.
This initiative allows you to let the DOC IC team know if there is a specific issue in any TAC authored support document, or if there is any gap in TAC documentation that can be fixed. If you have any comments about documentation you think would be helpful for TAC to author, you can use one of the feedback options mentioned in the blog post.
Respected Sir,
I have a Cisco SG300-28 28-Port Gigabit Poe Managed Switch Device that’s not worked please give support me for complaint tis switch.
Product ID
SRW2024K9V01
Serial Number
DNI150500ZP
Hello Deepak, thank you for your comment.
The question you have posted here will require a TAC case with Small Business Support to answer. In order to open a case, you will need to be entitled for support and be requesting support on a product that is not end of life. In oder to better resolve this, you can use this page https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/small-business/support-resources.html which has phone and chat options available to help you.
This initiative allows you to let the DOC IC team know if there is a specific issue in any TAC authored support document, or if there is any gap in TAC documentation that can be fixed. If you have any comments about documentation you think would be helpful for TAC to author, you can use one of the feedback options mentioned in the blog post.
Hi Richard,
I fully agree with you.
When we find incorrect details in bug pages or missing details in Release Notes and we take the time to tell TAC and sometimes even explicitally ask for those to be fixed/updated, but the engineer closes the SR saying he/she can’t update the document.. well this is just disconcerting.
Bugs are often not well documented, versions are missing from either Affected or Fixed, RNs don’t contain all bugs fixed… the more correct info we find ourselves, the less SRs we’ll open.
Thanks Cisco for the efforts with improving self-service. Hopefully that also includes engineers that listen to suggestions and act on those.
Good But I need a support to open TAC
Still need to open a TAC case
Hello Laxmikant, thank you for your comment.
For help with a specific product you must be entitled for support in order to open a TAC case.
This initiative is for documents that are created by TAC authors, and you can use one of the feedback options mentioned in the blog.
How is it possible to make licensing that complicated and escalating?
How can it be, that i need to create a service request for entering a license key for a device that is up and running for Years. It’s nothing more than as key to extend service for another three years. Instead of a solution a bot is answering things like
“Please be informed that Bill To ID 100******* belongs to different company.
Hence we are unable to grant access to the Bill To ID 100*******,
as there is mismatch between user profile company (name) " COMPANY XXXX "
and Bill To ID 100******* company (name) "COMPANY YYYY" .”
and there is no chance that the BOT at the other side will understand or just listern to my objections.
And last but not least the countless experiences when clicking a link and getting these messages:
“Some error occured.”
“503 Service Unavailable
No server is available to handle this request. ”
…
Cisco should keep in mind, that there are companies, existing just in ONE country at ONE location – and administrators in these companies, who need to register their email security appliance every three years have to understand this registration process (which is completely impossible because it’s not allowed to drink alcohol here) – and it will not work because somewhere in the order processing chain appeared a distributor named xyz.com while the end users domain is abc.de and so he has no access to it and needs to beg someone from cisco to solve that problem. Not to tell what happens when orders, messages, delivery notices are being translated from English to … whatever. Suddenly all these numbers have different names, PAK, Order number, Customer number Order IID, Serial#, Product Number, SKU, Instance Number … and all of the correct and wrong translations into customers language – how small is the chance to enter the correct number into those forms?
There are companies (not smaller than cisco) who sloved that problem!
Just put some kind of “bend off” button at the very first page of the “licensing monster” that leads stupid administrators directly to the “Generate simple, old fashioned License” place – no sharing, no second and third level administrator, no financing-, cloud- services, no “other continent branch” …. and keep this button active until Your “very nice and perfect customer portal” is ready and it is as simple as You promises make believe.
What i learned over the years working with cisco: It isn’t worth to tread this way full of obstacles and learn to fight this licensing procedure. If i come back again, after one of my licenses have expired, You for sure will have a “very new” and “very easy” and “customer friendly” portal that fulfills every customers wishes.
“Thank you for your comment. We are working hard to improve our work with licensing.
For more information please review a blog specific to licensing: https://blogs.cisco.com/perspectives/our-path-to-a-more-effortless-licensing-experience
“ Focusing on continual improvement and innovation, we will keep transforming with your feedback. ”
Hogwash.
Your licensing process is incredibly convoluted, error prone (on your end), badly documented. You introduce multiple steps across multiple media (web, sends email, then ASDM, then web, then email). The web interface tools required you to enter information only to find “we don’t support that capability”.
Cisco is incredibly obtuse and resistant to customer input on licensing. From outhere in the field, my feedback is “Blow it up”. start over, with a simple system that ties the equipment ID to the license. Period. The equipment can check the web to pick up the licenses rather than passing zip files to customers with license codes to paste into a text editor. Your otherwise sophisticated products use prehistoric tools to do licensing. Your failure to address this costs all of us way more time than any other manufacturer we deal with including Dell, Microsoft, Veritas Backup Exec, Symantec, etc.
Hi Bob, I hear your comment loud and clear. All of the feedback here is also being shared widely, it is being heard.
We are on the journey of simplifying licensing and addressing many of the changes you have suggested:
-We are simplifying Enterprise Agreement terms and conditions to make it easier for customers to buy and use Cisco products and services
-We are working on unifying licensing terms across Cisco products
-We are enhancing customer visibility to entitlements/usage and asset management through CX Cloud
All of these are improvements while, at the same time we are transforming our licensing program into what will ultimately become a much more effortless licensing experience.
Replying to my reply – adding my name.
Still need to open a TAC case
What a world of good this is going to do for our customers and partners. Go Cisco TAC!