Learn about obtaining technical support from Symantec.
Your Maintenance offering entitles you to access Symantec technical support expertise. Symantec’s technical support is designed to maximize uptime and reduce your internal IT costs. Our Customer Support organization is dedicated to resolving your issues quickly and effectively. We view every support engagement as an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to customer satisfaction. You can count on us to help you receive the most from your Symantec technology investments. Refer to the information below to learn more.
The following documentation has been made available to help you quickly address questions relating to your terms of service.
Symantec's Technical Support Terms & Conditions describe the scope of and conditions under which Symantec supplies technical support to eligible customers (customers with current Maintenance or subscription that includes technical support) for those Symantec products that are used in a supported configuration and in accordance with the terms of their License Agreement, documentation and associated policies, including the End of Life Policy.
Read Symantec's Technical Support Terms & Conditions.
This handbook contains important information on the procedures and practices related to obtaining technical support for your Symantec products. Following the processes described in this Handbook will improve your support experience when contacting us for assistance or when using our online resources. Symantec reserves the right to make changes to this handbook and related processes at any time. The content in this Handbook does not apply to:
Symantec’s Norton (Consumer Security) software products
Products acquired by Symantec pursuant to an acquisition of a company or product line (each, a merger & acquisition company) are not included until such time as the products from such merger & acquisition are designated by Symantec to be covered by this policy by offering Symantec’s standard Maintenance/Support offerings for such products..
Customers must have current Maintenance for their product and must be using a currently supported version of that product in order to access technical support. Furthermore, technical support is only provided when the product is used in a supported configuration per the product's documentation (e.g. user documentation, user manual, and release notes provided for the product). This handbook does not replace the contractual terms and conditions under which you acquired specific Symantec products and/or technical support.
Symantec is not obligated to provide product installation, configuration or implementation as part of your technical support under your purchased Maintenance offering. However, we will answer specific questions related to these tasks. We will not tell you how to execute an upgrade or walk you through installation steps.
Technical Enquiries: 24/7 phone-based support is available to eligible customers for severity 1 problems* only. Lower severity problems must be logged via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal.
Non-technical Enquiries: Customers may phone Symantec during regional business hours** or log a non-technical case 24/7 via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal.
How to Report a Problem:
Support Response Times: While problems of all severities may be logged on a 24/7 basis, case-handling priority is given to severity 1 problems. Lower ranked severities are addressed within regional business hours. Depending on the time of the day a problem is logged therefore, a response may not be provided until the next regional business day.
| Problem Severity | Severity Level Definitions | Reporting Method | Service Level Goal (SLG) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sev 1 | A problem has occurred where no workaround is immediately available in one of the following situations: (i) your production server or other mission-critical system is down or has had a substantial loss of service; or (ii) a substantial portion of your mission-critical data is at a significant risk of loss or corruption. | By Telephone | Within 30 minutes |
| Sev 2 | A problem has occurred where a major functionality is severely impaired. Your operations can continue in a restricted fashion, although long-term productivity might be adversely affected. | Enterprise Customer Support Portal | Within 2 business hours |
| Sev 3 | A problem has occurred with a limited adverse effect on your business operations. | Enterprise Customer Support Portal | By the same time the next business day |
| Sev 4 | A problem where your business operations have not been adversely affected. | Enterprise Customer Support Portal | Within the next business day |
*A "problem" is an error or a failure of a product to conform to the documentation or other authorized Symantec published specifications.
** "Business hours" refers to standard regional business hours and days of the week, excluding weekends and local public holidays. In most cases, "business hours" means 08:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m. in the local time zone as selected by the Customer.
Symantec offers extensive support resources:
SymDiag – The Symantec Diagnostic Tool (SymDiag) is a multi-product, multi-language diagnostic and security analysis utility. SymDiag is designed to provide self-help support for Symantec software technical issues, zero-day threat analysis, best practice recommendations, and proactive services to customers. If further assistance is needed, SymDiag lowers customer effort and increases support efficiency by providing automated data gathering and support case submission.
Notifications – Symantec support alerts are subscription-based, allowing customers to subscribe and unsubscribe at any time to bulletins about Symantec products. Available alerts generally include the following but may vary slightly from product to product:
A list of global contact numbers is located at https://www.broadcom.com/support/software/contact. Symantec offers toll-free phone support in certain areas; you will be responsible for all other charges you incur (for instance toll calls, Internet services, postage, and postage insurance).
Symantec provides technical support in English. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide non-English language support during regional business hours, subject to our having available resources. For more information, refer to the list of global contact numbers at https://www.broadcom.com/support/software/contact.
Your designated contacts will act as a liaison with Symantec technical support staff. The number of designated contacts you are entitled to appoint is based on the Maintenance offering you purchased for your product (Essential Support customers may designate up to six (6) contacts per title of software). Your designated contacts must have a thorough understanding of the specific Symantec product that is the subject of the technical support case, along with applicable technical and product knowledge needed to assist with the timely resolution of a case.
If we believe your designated contact lacks the necessary technical and product knowledge to help address the problem, we may request that you replace your designated contact with someone who has more technical or product knowledge to help progress the case. When you log your case, you may identify specific individuals as your designated contact(s) for that case. If qualified designated contacts are not available throughout the problem troubleshooting process, Symantec’s ability to assist you will be adversely affected.
You must register your designated contacts via the Symantec Licensing Portal at https://support.broadcom.com/entitlement/entitlement-view.html. Details on how to add or change designated contacts can be found at https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/180320.
Severity definitions are for guidance purposes only and describe in general terms the impact a problem may have on business operations. While cases of all severities may be logged on a 24/7 basis, case-handling priority is given to severity 1 problems per Continuous Efforts below. Lower ranked severities are addressed within regional business hours only.
As a designated contact, you are responsible for determining the initial severity level of each problem you log with us. The severity level reflects your assessment of the potential adverse impact to your business and needs to match the definitions described under Severity Level Definitions.
If we determine that the severity level assigned to your case does not align with our definitions, we will re-categorize it to reflect those definitions. As your case progresses, the seriousness of your problem may change and may no longer match the initial severity level you assigned. In such cases, we will also reclassify your case, to reflect our definitions, and will handle your case in accordance with the corrected severity level.
Eligible customers may request that Symantec provides "continuous efforts" to work on a severity level 1 case. Continuous efforts means that our technical support personnel will provide uninterrupted efforts 24 hours a day including weekends and holidays to address a severity 1 case.
If you request continuous efforts, our ability to provide such continuous efforts will depend on the availability of your designated contact to continue problem resolution. If you do not request continuous efforts, or if your designated contact is not available to help us, work on your case will stop at the end of your regional business hours and resume at the start of the next business day for your region. Continuous efforts will generally be performed in English outside of regional business hours where we may provide specific language support.
Note: Our initial efforts will focus on making your Symantec product operational, and there may be temporary degradation in performance while we continue to work to address your problem. Continuous efforts apply to severity 1 problems only.
If you identify a problem with your product, you should contact us via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal or by phone (severity 1 cases only) to open a technical support case as described in Support Delivery above. Once verified as eligible for technical support, you will need to provide us with all relevant diagnostic information that we may require to replicate or address your problem -- such as product or system information, log files, configuration information, error messages, and details about your releases or software version upgrades installed.
You will need to initiate a separate case for each problem, and we will assign a unique case identification number (case number) to each case in our global tracking system.
Notes:
When you wish to open a case, you are required to provide your Symantec Support ID or Serial Number. One of our technical support engineers (TSEs) will prompt you for additional information about the problem you are reporting. Symantec uses this information to categorize your case and route it to the appropriate support staff to address the problem.
Your case will be logged in our technical services case tracking system, at the severity level indicated by you and you will be provided a case number. You will need to use this case number in all future interactions with us about that case.
Case management is broken into several key activities. The first activity is when we acknowledge that you have contacted us by phone or via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal about a problem. Our goal is to acknowledge your request for assistance within 15 minutes.
When we acknowledge the problem electronically or by phone, we will verify your entitlement to receive technical support, and note the severity level you assign to the problem. We will ask your name to verify whether you are a designated contact, and will ask for additional required information. We will open your case, log it into our global tracking system, and assign a case number. A Reference ID will be included in the acknowledgment email sent by Symantec, and should look like the following:
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The Technical Support Engineer (TSE) assigned to your case will ask you specific questions about the problem you are experiencing to assist them in diagnosing the problem. By supplying as much information as possible, you can help the TSE make progress in addressing your case. The TSE will work to isolate the cause of the problem, which may involve you answering further questions, running diagnostics, applying patches, remote access, etc.
When the specific cause of your problem is known, the TSE will provide a workaround or other solution, or may also work with you to develop a plan of action outlining expected steps towards addressing your problem. Symantec will track and log steps taken in our case management system, which can be viewed on the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal. In addition, you may view case notes and communicate with the TSE via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal. Symantec will use commercially reasonable efforts to carry out the related activities within the targeted timeframes. However, Symantec has no obligation to meet any specific time frames.
Note: If you have logged a severity 1 problem, our initial efforts will focus on making your product operational, and there may be temporary degradation in performance while we continue to work to address your problem.
The TSE managing your case will update you on your case’s status and maintain a current plan of action. You are able to monitor the status of the case and interact with the assigned TSE via the Broadcom Enterprise Customer Support Portal.
If you need to call technical support regarding an open case, you will need to provide your case number to the support representative who will transfer your call to the TSE managing your case. If that TSE is unavailable, you can leave the TSE a message, or alternatively have the option to be transferred to the next available TSE. You may also update your open support Case via email to [email protected] with the Reference ID in the subject line or body of the email.
The Reference ID is in the acknowledgment email sent by Symantec, and should look like the following:
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We will close a case under the following circumstances:
a) We have provided a solution that addresses your problem; (b) you have told us that you no longer need us to work on the problem; (c) we both agree to close the case; (d) if we have repeatedly tried to contact you about your problem and you do not respond; (e) if we make a good faith determination that the problem is likely not resolvable even with the investment of reasonable time and resources; or (f) if we determine that your product is operating materially in accordance with its documentation. We will consider your problem resolved if (g) we have advised you to download a patch or software version upgrade that we believe will resolve your problem, or (h) we have explained that we may consider addressing your problem in a future release, (i) we feel the problem is not caused by the Symantec product (j) a workaround mitigates the issue or (k) that we are closing your case for other reasons under our standard business processes.
If you still need assistance on the same problem after we have closed a case, you may open a new case, which we will cross-reference with your original case.
Notes:
We recommend that you configure a test system and/or environment that can be used to validate configuration and settings before you install your software in a production environment. A test environment will also allow you to perform troubleshooting outside of your production environment. With respect to some of our more complex products, we may be better able to interface with you and resolve your issue, where you have configured such a test system and/or environment.
We will provide technical support for our products when used in a supported configuration. Our products are designed to interoperate with many types of systems, applications, and hardware.
Sometimes a customer may choose to use our products in an alternative (unsupported) configuration, namely, an environment that has not been validated, approved, or verified to operate with our products or which does not support such products or only supports limited functionality. We do not support alternative configurations, and we have no obligation to provide technical support for products being used in an alternative configuration. Symantec makes no warranty with respect to the use of products in an alternative configuration and any such use is at your own risk.
A supported configuration might be converted into an alternative configuration where a vendor modifies one of its components that is part of the original supported configuration. As a consequence, your product would then be operating in an alternative configuration. If you experience a problem with the product in an alternative configuration or if your problem deals with non-standard or non-public functionality (not documented in our manuals or other materials), that was not developed by Symantec or an authorized consulting partner, please contact your Sales Representative or channel partner to determine whether any assistance is available and under what terms.
Symantec encourages all users to install and configure software products properly and to adhere to security best practices. Customers are advised to always install the latest available upgrades and updates:
Symantec believes in prompt assistance and transparent communication on every aspect of its hardware technical support—from warranty and contract information to RMA and HDD policies to end-of-life information and documents. Get the details you need right here—or contact us and we will answer your questions promptly.
This policy handbook sets forth guidelines for doing business with Symantec and describes Symantec's policies relating to the new purchase and renewal of entry-level Maintenance offerings for Symantec’s hardware and software (on-premises) products.
Courtesy support is provided at Symantec’s discretion. Please review the accompanying document for terms and conditions regarding Symantec Enterprise courtesy and temporary entitlement support. (Courtesy Support Terms PDF, available in the Download Files section below or via the sidebar.)
The following documents identify key dates for hardware and software that have reached end-of-sale, end-of-maintenance, or end-of-life in their product life cycle.
Symantec provides a range of entry-level Maintenance offerings for its software and hardware products. A summary is provided below. More detailed information is available on the Symantec Maintenance page.
Symantec’s Hardware Support options are designed to meet customer hardware support needs.
All options (Standard, Standard Plus, Advanced, Premium, Premium Plus & Software Support) include the following:
Symantec has a broad range of multi-vendor collaborative support arrangements, including via TSANet. Symantec will typically leverage these collaborative support arrangements if our customers experience interoperability problems between Symantec software and products from other vendors.
If we determine that the problem may be related to a product from a vendor that we do not have a cooperative support relationship with, we may ask you to request such a vendor to work with us to address the problem. If the issue relates to the third party product and not to the Symantec product, then the third party vendor (and not Symantec) will determine the progress and resolution of that issue. In the event your issue relates to another vendor's product and not to your software, then we may transfer your issue to that vendor. In such cases, you will need to work directly with that vendor to resolve your issue.
The Symantec Customer Care team responds to non-technical licensing and serialization questions related to Symantec's enterprise products. These may include license activation, software version upgrades, product access, and renewals. Should you require assistance in any of these areas, please visit https://www.broadcom.com/support/software/contact.
A Maintenance term is typically 12 months. A renewal is an extension of your Maintenance term for a specified renewal period of 12 months or longer. You will not be entitled to receive any technical support once your Maintenance expires. However, you may still access our online knowledge base and those bug fixes and patches that we make generally available to all licensees regardless of whether that licensee has current Maintenance. For more information on renewals, refer to the Maintenance Policy Handbook or visit https://www.broadcom.com/support/symantec/renewals.
This handbook does not cover any offerings other than Symantec's commercially available entry-level Maintenance offerings.
Symantec offers education and training courses covering product familiarization via Symantec Education Services. These offerings provide a principal source of knowledge, insight, and skills to help you design, build, secure, and manage your IT environment and Symantec products.
No matter where you are in your system cycle—implementation, upgrade, or optimization— we have a fast four-step model to assess your educational needs, design and deliver your training, and review your preparedness. You benefit from the most up-to-date training available on Symantec products, certified instructors, and flexible delivery options.
Symantec may offer to sell third party support for certain third-party branded products. If our customer elects to purchase such third-party products and third-party branded support, such support will be provided solely according to the terms and conditions of the applicable support agreement with that third party. The information published here will not apply to the delivery of such third party-branded technical support.
Equip your enterprise with a single point of accountability and security expertise when and where you need it. For more information about our portfolio of Symantec's Premium Support offerings please refer to: https://www.broadcom.com/support/symantec/services/premium-support.