Escalation & Advanced Support

Overview

Understand when and how to escalate issues to specialized support channels.

Escalation Decision Tree

Escalation Criteria

Escalate when:

Initial troubleshooting doesn’t resolve the issue
Multiple components involved
Requires specialized expertise
Impacts production workloads
Security implications
Vendor coordination needed

Information Requirements

Before escalating, gather:

Detailed symptom description
Timeline of failure
Environment details
Diagnostic outputs
Attempted solutions
Impact assessment
Business criticality

Support Channels

Tier 1: First-Line Support

General troubleshooting
Common issues
Configuration guidance

Tier 2: Technical Support

Complex diagnostics
Performance optimization
Architecture guidance

Tier 3: Engineering Support

Root cause analysis
Engineering involvement
Specialized expertise
Vendor escalation

SLA Expectations

Critical: 1-hour response, ongoing support
High: 4-hour response, daily updates
Medium: 8-hour response, weekly updates
Low: Best effort, as available

See also: Troubleshooting Tools