[c-nsp] TAC Support [was Re: Moving Routing from 7206VRX to 6509-E]

[Reuben Farrelly]

On 17/12/2012 8:57 PM, Gert Doering wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 02:32:27PM -0800, Randy wrote:
>> It also may be worthwhile for your $Employer to consider some form of *service-contract* with Cisco. CCO has a wealth of information (for your own edification). You will need a valid-contract to have access to said info! Google-Foo will only get you so-far.
>
> Actually, almost all technical documentation on CCO is available without
> a contract.
>
> Still, unless you have spare parts on site plus the experience to work
> around IOS bugs, a support contract is a good recommendation.  (Not that
> I'm always happy with the outcome of our tac cases...)

Completely agree.  The value for us has been in replacement hardware. 
I've never had any issues having hardware replaced when it's broken, so 
for this reason alone I'd recommend a contract (even if only a basic 
8x5xNBD one).  That's the real value that will get you out of a messy 
ugly situation in the event of hardware failure.  There is only so far 
you can go obtaining spares using a credit card, in a dire situation 
like a Sup failure or line card losing the plot.  It's usually easier to 
get an RMA on a card than buy a new one, as sparing seems to be based on 
smartnet, not distributor sales.

So I'd definitely recommend you get something to cover yourself.

In terms of TAC support, I've just this evening filled in one "feedback" 
form where I put 2 out of 5 for 3 sections and 1 out of 5 for two more 
on a single survey.  About the only good thing was the "courteous" 
treatment.  I've never given feedback with so poor numbers before.

That was for a CEF switching issue (or rather, lack of it) on a 2851, 
and after 3 months of going nowhere the case has been closed and I've 
been advised to talk to another engineer who was working on a completely 
unrelated crash on the box.  I don't think he knows he has acquired the 
case yet ;)  It just feels like a huge lob off and not a co-ordinated 
response.

Given past experience with much better scores I imagine I'll be 
contacted quite soon about that one.

I've got four more cases which I have had on the boil (one including a 
low priority SIP/NAT ALG problem ongoing for 54 weeks and counting, and 
we've only JUST in the last 5 days figured out the trigger and a 
workaround).  Metrics on happy vs unhappy cases aren't looking too good 
at the moment, and have gotten worse than ever before this year.

Having said that, I have had much better luck with the bigger platforms 
though, such as the 6500/7600, but then I've also had far fewer problems 
with them to begin with.

Reuben