Technical Support for Microsoft Partners

Report Problems on behalf of a customer

Check requirements, benefit activation (Link support contract) and then submit your New Azure technical support request or check an existing request. After completing online submission you will be contacted by a Microsoft support professional.

1. Requirements:

First check that you meet the three requirements below

1. Your support request must be associated with an Azure subscription. Therefore, you need to Sign-in with the relevant Azure subscription before you submit a support request or you will see the error “You don't have a subscription.“
2. If submitting a request on behalf of a customer, you need to have a Sign-in for the customer’s subscription. You also need to be a Cloud Solution Provider Partner of Record, OR have Azure classic portal “administrative privileges” (service administrator or co-administrator), or have ‘write permissions’ (owner, contributor) on the customer’s Microsoft Azure subscription.
3. You need an Access ID and a Contract ID to add a new support plan (Link support contract) eg Signature support, Advanced Support for Partners (thereafter, it will be associated to your sign-in information for future requests)

Note: The access ID and contract ID are sent to the primary program contact when the benefit is activated. Signature Cloud Support (or ASfP) has its own special access ID and contract ID; it is not the same as the Microsoft Partner Network product support benefits.

To request access ID and contract ID – see below

Note: Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) start requests via: https://partnercenter.microsoft.com. Select the Dashboard, select Customers, click the Customer's subscription, Service management, Click Create or view Service request to open the Azure portal and create a new request. CSP have a “Cloud Solution Provider” support plan and do not require benefit activation.

2.Benefit activation (Link support contract)

Note: Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) have a “Cloud Solution Provider” support plan and therefore they do not need to Link support contract.

Entitled partners should use their Signature Cloud Support (SCS) benefit. Partners who do not have Signature support should use Product Support incidents. For benefits entitlement see Microsoft Partner Network technical benefits summary.

You must have the Access ID and Contract ID or already have the benefits linked to your subscription sign-in before you can submit a new support request. Access ID and Contract ID are sent to your primary program contact following benefit activation. To request Access ID and Contract ID see Requesting access ID and contract ID.

To associate the Access ID and Contract ID to multiple subscriptions, use Map Access ID to this Microsoft Account for the relevant subscription Sign-in.

1. Ensure you use the relevant Azure Subscription Sign-in and click to Sign in to Azure
2. If required click settings to change your theme, language or region format
   
   
    
3. Help +support
   Select Help + Support
   
   , Support Plans, then Link support benefits
   
   
    
4. Enter the Access ID and Contract ID (remove any blank spaces), then click Link
   
   
    
5. Click the Link button and you should see the IDs greyed out and the green text Contract linked. The support contracts are now associated with the Sign-in account
   
   
    
6. Click the blue text Create a support request to continue

The next time you Sign-in follow the New Azure technical support Request process below because you do not need to enter the Access ID and Contract ID again.

If you need to associate the Access ID and Contract ID to multiple subscriptions, use Map Access ID to this Microsoft Account for the relevant Sign-in. You may also remove benefits from the Microsoft account if required.

3. New Azure technical support request
Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) start request creation via Partner Center and have a "Cloud Solution Provider" support plan, therefore they do not need to activate benefits.

1. Click Help + support

2. Click Support plans, thenoption

Note: If you see an error “You don't have a subscription“ this is because you did not use a Sign-in associated with an Azure subscription. You must use a valid Azure subscription sign-in to create a support request.

3. Select Issue type eg Technical, Subscription, and Service. Support plan will display any Support benefit you previously added via Link support contract. CSP select the Cloud Solution Provider support plan.

Note: Unfortunately, the Support plan name is not display for partner support contracts. The support contract may be identified by the year, text eg SCS or Partner Advanced and the Partner ID. In the example below we have 17 SCS – 46xxxxx – unk (xxxxxxx). The contract was created in 2017, SCS is Signature, and 46xxxxx is the partner ID.

4. If you have added benefits, select your support plan and if not then see Link support contract. Alternatively, click the text link I Don’t have a support plan, then enter Access ID and Contract ID, then click link

5. After selecting a support plan click Next to continue, select Severity, Problem type, Details, Time frame and upload a file if required. Click next

Note: A good quality description helps to resolve the problem faster

6. Enter the contact information and an additional contact email if required

7. Click Help+ Support, All support requests to see the new or existing request

Requesting access ID and contract ID
The primary program contact for your organization's headquarters are sent the Access ID and Contract ID following support benefit activation. Gold and Silver partners have their benefits activated proactively and Action Pack partners need to request activation. Contact your local Regional Service Centre (RSC) for contract activation or to resend the Access ID and Contract ID.

Gold, Silver and Microsoft Action pack subscribers, can submit an RSC request online

From the MPN portal, go to the My benefits and activities page, use your MPN sign-in, submit a request, Create a Program Support Case
Important: On the contact information page, please make sure you select the relevant the country or region because this controls the routing of the request.

 

1. Requirements

To submit a support request on behalf of your customer they must give you Delegated Administrator Privileges (DAP). You send the customer a delegate admin offer, they are sent an email and click on a link to give your organization Delegated Administrator Privileges. Finally, you need to Assign administrative access to companies you support to give a user in your own organization the permissions to act as a delegated administrator on behalf of your clients.

For more information, see Help for partners

Note: Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) have Delegated Administrator Privileges (DAP) for all their customers by default.

2. Benefit activations

Your support benefits are activated automatically and assigned based on your tenant ID. You do not need to add support benefits or use Access ID and contract ID for online requests

3. New Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM support request

After completing online submission, you will be contacted by a Microsoft support professional.

Note: Cloud Solution Providers (CSP) start requests via: https://partnercenter.microsoft.com. Select the Dashboard, select Customers, click the Customer's subscription, Service management, Click Create or view Service request to open the Office 365 admin Center –see create a service request below.

Check requirements, then click https://portal.office.com. You must sign-in with an account assigned “administrative access to companies you support” to use Delegated Administrator Privileges (DAP)

1. 
    
2. Once you have logged in, click on the icon on the left hand corner of the home page. This will display the menu of options to choose from. The Partner option will be displayed if you are a Partner with Delegated Admin Privileges.

   
   Note: To create a request for any tenant where you are a local Administrator, click the Admin tile - see below.
   

   
    

3. To use DAP to submit an incident on behalf of your customer:
4. To submit an incident on your own behalf (i.e., your own subscription or a subscription where you have Administrative permissions).

a.   Click on the Partner tile and you will be directed to the Partner Admin Center where you will see a list of all of your customers for which you have Delegated Admin Privileges (DAP).

b.  Select the customer then click on Service Requests

c.  Verify the name of the customer and click on the "+" symbol to add your Service Request.

d.  The Partner Support agent selects the appropriate customer in Partner Center to submit a technical support request and is redirected to the customer portal (AOBO) and click on “New service request".

e.  1. Partner Support Agent enters problem description
     2. And the Support Agent sees the support tools and suggestions

f.  The Partner Support Agent can run diagnostics on the customer tenant.

g.  And request a callback from MS Partner Support or get email contact.

i.  A support request will automatically be created when requesting the email or callback contact.

4. To submit an incident on your own behalf (i.e., your own subscription or a subscription where you have Administrative permissions).

a.  Click on the Admin tile of the Office 365 Administration home page.

b.  In the Office 365 admin center on the left side of your screen, scroll down to the Support option and click on Service Requests.

c.  Click on the "+" symbol to add your Service Request

d.  End-Customer of CSP Tier1 clicks on Support Request.

e.  End Customer Enters Problem Description.

f.  Customer Admin or 2nd tier Reseller can Perform Suggested Actions .

g.  Customer Admin or 2nd Tier Reseller can check relevant articles..

h.  Customer Admin or 2nd Tier Reseller Can Run Diagnostics on Customer.

i.  As A Last Resort, They Can Contact Their Partner.

Introduction

This article explains how an Access ID and a Contract ID are used to submit on-premises technical support incidents online. The example used here is for Microsoft Partner Network product support incidents. However, the workflow is very similar for MSDN, BizSpark, and other professional support options.

Online submission is convenient because you may submit a request anytime (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), avoid a phone queue or phone menu, find relevant self-help resources, and enter a detailed problem description, including attachments, to help solve the problem faster.

An Access ID and Contract ID are used for professional on-premises and Microsoft Azure technical support requests. This includes the Microsoft Partner Network Signature Cloud Support (SCS) benefit and the Microsoft Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) offering.

Support contracts

A support contract is required when you have multiple professional support incidents. The contract is used to track the balance of available support incidents and expire the benefits after one year. An Access ID and a Contract ID are required to uniquely identify your support contract and enable you to submit a support incident online. They are only entered once and then associated with your portal sign-in for future requests. To share your support benefits, simply share the Access ID and Contract ID (sharing sign-in and passwords is not recommended).

Online submission portals

*You can use any email address as the username for your new Microsoft account, including addresses from Outlook.com, Yahoo!, or Gmail. If you already sign in to a Windows device, XboxLive, Outlook.com, or OneDrive, use that account to sign in.

How to provision your Access ID and Contract ID

You can proactively associate your Access ID and Contract ID to your Microsoft account without waiting until you need to create a support incident.

Be careful to associate with the correct Microsoft account. The Azure sign-in needs to be associated with your customer's Azure subscription. Therefore, it may be different from the Microsoft account used for your product support incidents.

See Map Access ID to this Microsoft account.

To submit an on-premises request online, select your preferred portal and sign in when required. You may need to select IT Professional, developer or Microsoft partner support type. Select a problem type and category and then review the self-help resources. Select the payment option, Use my existing contract (Access ID), enter your Access ID and Contract ID (one time), enter a detailed problem description, attach a file, and then submit to create the request. Requests are immediately deducted from your available support incidents. If closed as non-decrement the incident is automatically credited back.

Microsoft Partner Network members may choose to start their support requests from the My support benefits and activities page on the Microsoft Partner Network portal (see below). However, they will need to use the same workflow to enter their Access ID and Contract ID to submit support requests.

If you have purchased an incident before and are familiar with creating a request online, you can go to Step 4.

1. The Online Assisted Support (OAS) workflow may be started from multiple links on support.microsoft.com or directly via http://aka.ms/OAS. Partners may choose to start incident submission via the Microsoft Partner Network portal. However, both customers and partners use the same workflow. Click or search for your on-premises product.
    

   Note: Cloud requests (Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, etc.) should be started via https://portal.office.com, or for Azure via https://portal.azure.com. (See the Azure Support Guide.)
   

   

2. After selecting a product (for example, Windows 8.1), you may be asked to select how the product is used. If you are prompted, please select the option, I use it as an IT Professional, developer or Microsoft partner and then click Next.
   
   
3. Select your Problem type and Category. The self-help resources displayed are relevant because they are based on the problem type and category selected. Review the self-help technical articles displayed or click Show more. Click Start request to continue.
   
   
4. When submitting a support incident, you are required to select a payment option. Select Use my existing contract (Access ID).
   
   
5. Select the Use another contract option to display the Access ID and Contract ID fields.
   
   
6. Enter your Access and Contract IDs, then click Add to validate the IDs.

   Note: If a support contract is not eligible for the selected product, is expired, or has no incidents available, the service name is not displayed.
   

   
   
   
   If you see the Online submission error “These contracts cannot be used with” error message, click the “More information” link.
   
   Partner Cloud support offerings eg Signature or Advanced Support for Partners (ASfP) are entitled for Cloud products only. For on-premises products, use either core benefits or select “Purchase support” and Pay Per Incident.
   
   Core benefits eg Partner Support Gold 20Pack, Partner Support Silver 15Pack, Partner Support MAPS 10Pack are entitled for Cloud and recent versions of on-premises products. If an old product is used eg Exchange server 2010, the support incident cannot be created because the older on-premises productare not entitled for core benefits. The alternative is to use the “Purchase support” option because Pay Per Incident offerings are entitled for all mainstream and extended support products. For more information on core benefit entitlement see aka.ms/n-1.
   
7. After the Access ID and Contract ID are validated, you will see the Access ID and support service name listed (for example, 0230242323 - Partner Support Gold 20Pack). Please remember to include all digits for your Access ID and Contract ID, including zeros. For example, 0230242323 will be invalid if you enter 230242323 without the 0. The Access ID and Contract ID are only required on first use; they are then associated with your sign-in for future requests. This will save you time when you submit a request in the future!
   
   
8. Edit the contact information if required, and click Continue.
   
   
9. The final step is to Create an incident – describe the issue. It is important to take time to provide a detailed issue description because this will give you an improved initial response and help to resolve the problem more quickly. Use the option for a file upload if you have more detailed information, such as screen shots, to add. You must accept the Agreement for Microsoft Services. When you click Submit, you will create a new technical support request and deduct a support incident from your contract. You will see the support request number, severity, and response time displayed and sent to you via email.

For product support or to buy support incidents. From the MPN portal, go to the My benefits and activities page, use your MPN sign-in, submit a request, Submit a Product Support Incident. If you are not entitled to MPN support incidents, you may purchase an incident during the workflow. If you do not have an MPN Sign-in and urgently need to submit a request, use aka.ms/oas and any Microsoft account.

For more information, see Using Access ID and Contract IDs to create on-premises support incidents.

If you do not have any support incidents or your support contract is not displayed, you can still Submit an incident. The Microsoft Partner Network portal uses the Online Assisted Support (OAS) workflow and you will have the option to enter your Access ID and Contract ID or select the “Purchase support” option and Pay Per Incident.

If you do not have an account associated with the partner organisation and cannot Sign-in to the MPN portal, you can still submit a request via the My Support menu
Note: You need to Sign-in to submit a request for the “Advisory Service” (aka Technical Presales and Deployment Services) or “a benefit or membership issue”

Microsoft Advanced Support for Partners

Office 365 Help for partners

Azure Support Plans

Microsoft Partner Network technical benefits summary

My benefits and activities

Using Technical Presales Assistance and Deployment Services

 
Contact Microsoft Partner Support

Note: Using the Contact Microsoft Support button requires you to login into the MPN site using a valid Microsoft Partner Network login. If you do not have a valid Microsoft Partner Network login or are having problems logging in to MPN, you can get more information or assistance from the MPN Support site.