You must select at least one active product to populate the Support Portal pages with helpful content in the Support Portal pages.

Products you add to your products list are maintained with your cookie (if you have not signed in) or your user ID (if you have signed in). When you make a product active, content for that product is displayed in the Support Portal pages.

• My products list: Build a list of a maximum of 100 products that you work with on a regular basis. Use this list to quickly display information for one or more of the products.
• Active products: Select a maximum of 10 products in your products list that you want to work with during this website visit.
  • Check the Allow multiple selections option to work with multiple products at the same time. You can choose a maximum of 10 active products at a time.
  • Uncheck the Allow multiple selections option to work with one product at a time.

See Manage My products list for more details.

There are several ways to find a product in Support Portal. You can browse a list of all products, search for the product, or select products that are associated iwth your login (AVP, Inventories, or Supported software). You can also quickly search for products from the Support Portal task pages using Quick find.

Browse for products

Use the Browse option on the "Find a product" window to step through a product tree and locate a product.

1. Select the Expand/Collapse icon to expand sections of the product list.
2. Select the checkbox for a product to select it.
   Note: If the information icon is displayed next to the product name, the offering consists of multiple IBM products. Select the icon to view the list of products.
3. Optionally, if the Edit icon is displayed next to the product, select it to add details, such as version or operating system.
4. Select the Add button to add the selected product to your product list on the right side of the window.
5. Select Finish after selecting your products.

See Manage My products list for more details about working with your product list.

Search for products

Use the Search option on the "Find a product" window to locate a product.

1. Enter all or part of the product name, machine type, or model number in the entry field.
2. After you have typed at least two characters, the search will begin automatically. Continue typing to further refine the results. Use the checkboxes to select your products.
   Note: If the information icon is displayed next to the product name, the offering consists of multiple IBM products. Select the icon to view the list of products.
3. Optionally, if the Edit icon is displayed next to the product, select it to add details, such as version or operating system.
4. Select the Add button to add the selected product to your product list on the right side of the window.
5. Repeat these steps to search for additional products.
6. Select Finish to return to the Support Portal and view content for your active products.

Use Products for "me"

If you are signed in, the Products for “me” option enables you to select products from a set of products associated to your user ID:

• My AVP products is available if you are registered for the Accelerated Value Program with IBM.
• My inventories is available if you have previously uploaded your system inventory through IBM Fix Central.
• My supported software is available if you have registered with your company’s software support contracts in IBM Service Request.

1. Select Find a product on the left side of the Support Portal page.
2. Select Products for “me” in the Find a product window.
3. Select one of the available options in the dropdown menu and select the Go button to see product lists based on information you or your company has provided to IBM.
4. Select the Add button to add the products to My products list.
5. Select Finish to return to the Support Portal and find content related to the products you selected.

Use Quick find

Use the Quick find field on the Support Portal pages to quickly search for a product:

1. Enter all or part of the product name, machine type, or model number in the entry field, then press Enter or select the Go button to start the query.
2. If your search finds one product match, that product is automatically added to your list and made active.
3. If your search finds more than one match, the "Find a product" window appears. Select the desired product from the results list, then complete steps 3–6 in Search for products.
   Note: If the information icon is displayed next to the product name, the offering consists of multiple IBM products. Select the icon to view the list of products.
4. Optionally, if the Edit icon is displayed next to the product, select it to add details, such as version or operating system.

The Support Portal page will refresh to display content for the newly active products.

For many products, you can provide details about your environment to filter the content to your needs. For example, you can specify the version of a product or the operating system in use. To add or edit optional information for a product:

1. Select the Edit icon next to the product.
2. Select the options from the pop-up window. If versions are available, select one or more. Then optionally select one or more operating systems.
3. Select Submit.
   Note: If the information icon is displayed next to the product name, the offering consists of multiple IBM products. Select the icon to view the list of products.

The Edit icon is available in the "Choose a product" module on all Support Portal pages, and in the “Find a product” window.

To delete a product from My products list, select the Delete icon next to the product you want to remove. When prompted, select the OK button to confirm your request to delete this product from My products list.

The Delete icon is available in the "Choose a product" module on all Support Portal pages, and on the “Find a product” window.

You can have a maximum of 100 products in My products list. You can select a maximum of 10 products from the list as your active products. The active products determine the information displayed on the Support Portal pages.

To work with My products list, select Find a product in the left column of any Support Portal page. The "Find a product" window will appear.

Use the left side of the window to locate products to add to your list:

1. Select Browse, Search or Products for "me."
   • If browsing, expand the sections of the product hierarchy to locate the appropriate product. See Browse for products for more information.
   • If searching, enter part or all of the product name or machine type. See Search for products for more information.
   • If using Products for "me," select the appropriate option to choose from a subset of products specific to your login. See Use products for "me" for more information.
2. Select the checkbox to select a product.
3. Repeat the previous steps to select additional products.
4. Select the Add button to add the selected products to the My products list.

Use the right side of the window to manage My products list:

• Check the Allow multiple selections option to view content in the Support Portal for more than one product at a time. You must enable this feature to be able to select more than one product as active. Uncheck this option if you want to view one product at a time. This option is available only when you have more than one product in the My products list.
• Check the Active option to make a product active. Uncheck it to make the product inactive. You can have a maximum of 10 active products at a time (if Allow multiple selections is checked).
• If displayed, select the Edit icon to specify or edit the product version and operating system.
• If displayed, select the Information icon to view the list of products associated with the entry.
• Select the Delete icon to delete a product from the list.
• Choose Delete all inactive products to remove all products that are not currently active in the My products list.
• Choose Delete all products to clear the My products list.

When you are satisfied with your product list, select Finish to view content relevant to the products you have selected.

After setting up your product list in the Support Portal, you may want to share it with others:

1. Select Share this product list. Your default email application will open with a prefilled message that includes a URL that links to your product list.
2. Specify the recipients of the email and send.

To sign into the Support Portal to view entitled content or to customize your experience, choose Sign in at the top of the right column of any Support Portal page. You must have a valid IBM Web ID to sign into the Support Portal.

After signing in, you will return to your customized view of the Support Portal. See Customize pages to learn more.

The content you see on the Support Portal depends on your active products. Use the "Choose a product" module to select the product content you want to explore.

You can view one product at a time or multiple products at a time. Select or deselect Allow multiple selections to enable or disable the multi-product view.

View single product

Use the product list to change active products and focus the content on the page:

• Select the radio button preceding the product name to display content for that product.
• Select a different product to change the content displayed.

Note: If you previously chose to allow multiple selections and then choose to go back to the single product view, the last product you activated will be the active product in the view.

View multiple products

If you have more than one product in My products list, you can choose to view content for more than one product at a time.

To enable the multi-product view, choose Allow multiple selections in the "Choose a product" module.

The radio buttons preceding the product names in the list change to checkboxes. Select the products you want to make active, and deselect those you want to make inactive.

Note: If you add one or more Services products (for example, "End user support services") to your product list, viewing multiple products will be automatically enabled. You will be unable to change to single product mode until you make the Services product(s) "inactive."

Change products

Use the product list in the Choose a product module on the left side of the portal pages to quickly change which product or products are active. The active products determine the content displayed in the modules.

• Select All to view all products in My products list.
• Select Active to view only the products selected as active in your list.
• Select the radio button or checkbox preceding a product to make that product active.
• Select the Edit icon to edit details related to your environment, including product version or operating system.
• Select the Delete icon to remove the product from your list.
  Note: If the information icon is displayed next to the product name, the offering consists of multiple IBM products. Select the icon to view the list of products.

The Support Portal is organized by major tasks that you need to perform to install and maintain your IBM products. Each task page displays content specific to achieving that task. Select the tabs at the top of the page to view content for different tasks:

• Support home: Find general information related to your selected products.
• Downloads: Get fix level recommendations and obtain fixes, fix packs, updates, drivers, and new release for your IBM systems and software.
• Troubleshooting: Browse content specific to troubleshooting problems and errors, including known problems and resolutions.
• Plan & Install: Find information to plan and implement a successful deployment of IBM products.
• Service Requests & PMRs: Submit an online service request and upload key diagnostic data to speed resolution time. Also review status of open PMRs.
• Documentation: Access task-based documentation and usage hints and tips.
• Communities: Connect with others in electronic social channels to share and learn about IBM offerings.

Information relevant to each task is displayed in modules that categorize the type of information available. Modules are small windows of content in the main area of the Support Portal pages. See Customize pages to learn how to add or remove modules from the task pages.

Each module on the page displays content related to your active products, the task selected, and the topics related to that task.

Browse modules

To view the content available for a product:

1. Select the Expand/Collapse icon next to the product name to view the first five links available.
2. Select a link to view that content.
3. Select the "More results" link to view additional content available for the product.

If content is not available for a product, that product will not appear in the list in the module. Only modules that have relevant content available appear on the page, unless you have changed your Support Portal settings (see Customize pages).

View more results

By default, the first five links available for a product appear in the modules. If additional content is available for that module, a "More results" link appears. Select the "More results" link to view all of the content related to that product, the current task, and the current module topic.

Use the product list in the left column to change the product being viewed on the page. Select Manage products to go to the "Find a product" window and work with My products list.

Use the Search field at the top of the results list to search within this subset of documents.

Filter content

When viewing an extended list of content available for a product, you can filter the results based on criteria listed in the left column of the page. The filtering options available depend on the type of content being viewed.

Select filter values to narrow the list of results displayed. The number of documents that match each value appears in parentheses. Select any combination of filters to explore the content available. Note: When no items in a particular filter category are selected, the content is unaffected by that filter. When one or more items are selected, only the content matching the selected values is displayed.

The IBM Support Portal is available in multiple languages. Page titles, module titles, and other common text is translated based on the Location setting in the IBM masthead. However, most module content (link titles, descriptions, and the content itself) is not translated based on this setting. See Use the translation tool for information about how to translate content.

Set language and location

To view the IBM Support Portal in your selected language, set your location preference for ibm.com:

1. Select the current Location that appears at the top of the IBM masthead.
2. Select the appropriate country or region from the menu.
3. Select the Go button.

Note that this setting will be used whenever you visit any ibm.com web site.

Use the translation tool

IBM provides a machine translation capability for content that has not been manually translated. To use machine translation:

1. Select the desired target language in the Translate this page module on the right side of the page, and then select Translate.
2. A legal disclaimer will appear the first time you enable machine translation in a browser session. Review the disclaimer to understand the terms of use.
3. To accept the terms of use, choose I accept: proceed with translation. If you do not accept the terms of use, choose Cancel.
4. If you have accepted the disclaimer, the content of your page will be translated. This setting will be preserved as you navigate within Support Portal and view content.
5. To exit machine translation mode, choose the "Return to English" option in the Translate this page module.

To help us improve the machine translation dictionary, please select Rate this translation, and provide feedback about the accuracy of the content in your selected language.

To search IBM support content, use the Search support module at the top of the right column on all Support Portal pages. Results are restricted to technical support content, including all those publicly available and, if you are signed in, those for which you have special entitlement.

Search within active products

To limit your search to information related to the active products selected in your product list:

1. Verify that the product or products you want to search are selected as active in your product list in the left column (see Find a product).
2. Select Within my selected products in the Search support module.
3. Enter your search terms in the text box.
4. Press Enter or select the submit button .

Search all support

To search all IBM support-related content:

1. Select All support & downloads in the Search support module.
2. Enter your search terms in the text box.
3. Press Enter or select the submit button .

Search within a specific task

The search function on the Downloads, Troubleshooting, and Plan & install tabs allows you to restrict your content to those respective support tasks.

• To restrict your search to the task, leave the Within task option checked.
• To broaden your search, uncheck the Within task option.

Refine your results

Use the filters in the left column to refine your results on the Search results page. You can also modify your search terms to narrow the results.

• To refine your query, enter new or additional terms in the Search for text box and press Enter or select the Go button .
• To filter the results list, select values in the left column categories, like Task and Content type, to show only information that matches your selections.
  • Set or clear the check box next to a filter to enable or disable it. The results are limited to the filters you have selected.
  • Select multiple values in a category to show information that matches any of your choices.
  • Select a value in more than one category to show only information that matches your choices in each category.

To search all publicly available content across IBM, use the search box in the IBM masthead. Results can include technical support content, marketing and sales information, IBM news, and other information.

To search all content within the IBM site:

1. Enter your search terms in the input field in the masthead at the top of the page.
2. Press Enter or select the Search button .

Tips

Use these tips to create meaningful search terms and get the most out of the results:

• Running simple searches
• Creating effective search terms
• Refining the results using filters
• Hints for no results

Running simple searches

To perform a simple search, type one or more terms in the search box and select the search icon ( or ). The search returns a list of documents that contain all of your terms.

• The search terms you enter in the search box are used to search against the title, URL, keywords and content of support documents written in the language you have selected in the IBM masthead.
• The search engine does not search other values associated with the support documents—such as social tags or document type—that are displayed in the left column filters on the search results page.
• The search finds singular, plural, and related forms of many words, suggests common alternatives, and corrects minor misspellings.
• The search is not case-sensitive, so ibm and IBM return the same results.

The most relevant pages display at the top of your results list. To see the most recent documents found, select Newest First in the “Sort by” option area.

Items preceded with a key icon () indicate that registration is required to view that page. After you select the link, you are prompted for your IBM ID and password, or you are given the opportunity to register.

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Creating effective search terms

To improve the effectiveness of your search results, try these best practices:

• Be specific. Use terms that are unique, or add descriptive terms. For example, a search for DB2 might return too many results. If you are looking for information on DB2 UDB, enter:
  
  db2 udb or db2 udb linux.
• Use synonyms. If you get too few results or do not find what you are looking for, try synonyms for your original terms. For example, if you are looking for education opportunities, instead of searching for java classes, which could imply either education or a file type, try java training.
• Check your spelling. A single misspelled or incorrectly typed term can affect your results.
• Learn from your results. Your search might not return exactly what you are looking for, but scanning the results can help you see the words that were found and give you ideas for other searches. Adding specific terms can narrow your results.
• Search for English content. If your masthead language setting is not English, the search engine looks for documents written in your selected language. To obtain results from English documents, select the checkbox “Search English content” below the search box and select the search icon (). This option will retain your language setting, but will return English language documents that contain your search terms.
• Exclude terms in a search. To exclude terms from a search and narrow results, use the minus sign (-) before the term. Do not leave any space between the minus sign and the term, but leave a space between search terms. For example, enter:
  
  bladecenter accessories -monitor.
  
  The results contain documents with "bladecenter" and "accessories", but not the word "monitor".
• Search for phrases. To search for a phrase, surround it with double quotes (") to reduce the number of results. For example, enter:
  
  "lotus notes support".
  
  The results contain documents that have the exact phrase "lotus notes support" in them. The results may also contain variations of the words, such as singular, plural, and related forms of some words.
• Expand search results with multiple search terms. Normally, each search result contains all of your search terms. To broaden your search so that each result may include any of your search terms, use the OR operator between terms. For example, to search for results that include bladecenter h or bladecenter t, enter:
  
  bladecenter (h OR t)
  
  Note: the parentheses are needed because the space (AND) operator normally takes precedence over the OR operator. Without the parentheses, the search query would be interpreted as (bladecenter h) OR t.
• Search for special characters. Generally, the search engine ignores punctuation. However, you can include the following special characters in a search: + - & | ! ( ) { } [ ] " \ * ?
  To use any of these characters in search terms, insert a backslash ( \ ) before each special character. For example, to search for the precise string (1+2)[3], enter:
  
  \(1\+2\)\[3\].

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Refining your search with filters

Use the filter options in the left column of the Search results page to narrow the results.

• Products filter. Use the products filter to limit your search results to the IBM hardware and software products that you have active in the IBM Support Portal.
  • Use the products filter to add or remove active product(s) from your search criteria to narrow the results to specific products.
  • If you have defined your active products with one or more versions or operating systems, use those values to limit your results.
  • Select All support and downloads to expand your search to all IBM products.
  • Return to the IBM Support Portal to add to or modify your active product selections.
• Category filters. To filter the results list by values that are not part of the document content, select values in filter categories such as Task, Content type, Subject, or Tags, to show only documents that match your selections.
  • Set or clear the check box next to a filter to enable or disable it. The results are limited to the filters you have selected. The first item you select in a filter reduces the results to the documents with that value. For example, if you select a Task of "Install", the results are limited to the documents that are classified as the Install task.
  • Select multiple values within a filter category to show information that matches any of your choices. Each additional selection within a category expands the results. For example, if you select another task, such as "Maintain", the results are expanded to also include the documents classified as the Maintain task.
  • Select multiple values across categories to show only information that matches your choices in each category. Making selections in multiple categories reduces the results. For example, if you keep the selections in the previous example for the Task filter, and select "Readme file" and "Technotes" in the Content type filter, your results are reduced to pages that are classified as install or maintain AND classified as "Readme file" or "Technote".
  • Remove all your selected filters by selecting Clear all.

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Hints for no results

If there are no results for your search terms, you will see a list of tips that can help you obtain results. Follow those tips to find the information you need.

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Modules are hidden by default if no content is found for that topic based on your currently active product(s). However, you can configure the Support Portal to display empty modules:

• Sign in to the IBM Support Portal.
• Select the Customize this page section in the right column of the page.
• Deselect Hide empty modules. The page will refresh with empty modules displayed; this choice will be remembered when you sign in again.
• Select Hide empty modules. The page will refresh with empty modules hidden; this choice will be remembered when you sign in again.

Support Portal displays a default set of modules when you first come to the site. You can configure which modules appear on each of the pages. Your changes will be remembered when you sign in again.

1. Sign in to the IBM Support Portal.
2. Select the Customize this page section in the right column of the page.
3. Select Add modules to this page to display modules that can be added to pages.
4. Hover your mouse over the module you want to add until the "Move" cursor appears.
5. Click and hold your primary mouse button and drag the module to the center of the page. Light blue lines or “targets” will appear around the existing modules in the center of the page. These targets indicate where you can place the module on the page.
6. Move your cursor over the target where you want to place the module on the page. When the light blue target changes to darker blue, release the mouse button.

You can move displayed modules to different locations in the content area on the Support Portal pages. Your changes will be remembered when you sign in again.

1. Sign in to the IBM Support Portal.
2. Mouse users:
   1. Hover your mouse cursor over the title bar of the center column module you want to move until your Move mouse cursor displays.
   2. Click and hold your primary mouse button. Light blue lines or “targets” will appear around the existing modules in the center columns on the page and indicate where you can place the module.
   3. Move your cursor over the target that represents where you want to place the module. When the light blue target changes to darker blue, release the mouse button.
3. Keyboard users:
   1. Select the Module Menu for the module you want to move.
   2. Select one of the "Move" options in the menu. These options change depending on where the module can move. For instance, if a module is already at the top of the left column, then the menu will contain options to Move Down and Move Right.
   3. Repeat as needed to position the module where you want it.

You can remove modules from a Support Portal page. If you delete one, you can add it back later (see Add modules). Your changes will be remembered when you sign in again.

1. Sign in to the IBM Support Portal.
2. Select the Delete icon  in the module title bar
   or
   select the Module Menu icon  in the module title bar then and select Delete.