RMA is a component of each of the maintenance offerings and varies based on the level. Customers that purchase Bronze level maintenance must ship the unit back to Citrix for analysis and Citrix will ship a replacement unit within 10 days. For customers that purchase Silver and Gold level maintenance, Citrix will ship a replacement unit within one business day. Technical Support will provide verification that the unit is defective and will then forward the RMA case to the Customer Service team in each region for fulfillment.

The RMA process depends on the level of Appliance Maintenance either Bronze, Silver or Gold.

Bronze RMA process

• Customer contacts Citrix Technical Support with a hardware warranty issue
• Technical Support verifies that the unit needs to be replaced and forwards the information to Citrix Operations
• Citrix Operations issues an RMA and ships a replacement unit within 10 business days
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five business days

Silver RMA process

• Customer contacts Citrix Technical Support a with hardware warranty issue
• Technical Support verifies that the unit needs to be replaced and forwards the information to Citrix Operations
• Citrix Operations issues an RMA and ships replacement unit overnight within one business day
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five business days

Gold RMA process

• Customer contacts Citrix Technical Support with a hardware warranty issue
• Technical Support verifies that the unit needs to be replaced and forwards the information to Citrix Operations
  
• Citrix Operations issues an RMA and ships replacement unit overnight within one business day
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five business days

4-Hours Advance Replacement (Depot Service)

Designed for mission critical deployments, the 4-Hour Advance Replacement option guarantees a 4-hour turnaround on the delivery of advance hardware replacements. This option is available 24 x 7 x 365, including holidays.

Rules

• Citrix will deliver advance replacements for selected defective hardware any time, 24 x 7 x 365, within 4 hours of final diagnosis of a part failure by Citrix, to customer sites located within 100 miles of an authorized Citrix depot location.
• 4-Hour Advance Replacement is available as an add-on to Citrix Gold Maintenance level.
• There is no limit to the number of times the 4-hour Advance Replacement service can be activated during the contract time.
• This service is assigned to one Citrix customer location. It is not transferable.
• This service cannot be enacted during a disaster or other situation considered an act of God.
• Each 4-Hour Advance Replacement agreement covers up to eight appliances.
• Customers can increase the number of reserved appliances by purchasing additional 4-Hour Advance Replacement agreements.

Technical support for Access Gateway can currently be purchased through two options: as maintenance on the specific hardware product or through a software support agreement.

Maintenance option
Maintenance includes technical support and hardware warranty. The level of support and specific hardware warranty options vary based on the level of maintenance purchased. Maintenance is only available on the device itself; Subscription Advantage is available for the Access Gateway user license.

Note: A Citrix software support agreement is required for customers to receive direct technical support from Citrix on products other than Access Gateway (e.g. XenApp), since non-Access Gateway incidents cannot be opened against an Access Gateway Silver or Gold maintenance agreement.

Software support agreement option
Customers can choose to support their Access Gateway product through one of the existing software support agreements. However, if customers choose to purchase a software support agreement, they will not be able to receive the advanced RMA option available in the maintenance option.

There are three types of builds: a Private Build, a Point Fix and a Maintenance Build. Each build has a different definition and turn around time.

Private build (NetScaler, Application Firewall, Access Gateway Enterprise Edition)

A private build (or engineering build) is a preliminary code fix which is given to a customer when actively working on resolving a customer problem. This is an “informal” fix that has had limited in-house testing, and that may or may not be expected to solve the problem the first time. The private fix may contain additional tracing and debugging code to help in problem determination. Private fixes are not completely regression tested, are not intended for release into a production environment and may not have gone through the formal test QA process. This private fix is only available from the Citrix Escalation and Third Level Teams. Turnaround time is

• 5 - 10 days from Dev-Test, depending on issue

Point fix (Access Gateway Standard and Advanced)

This is a hotfix found in the internal Citrix knowledge base and delivered in a self installing package which provides a code fix which is targeted at a specific end-user issue. This problem is specific to that customer’s environment and would not readily be seen by other customers. The level of testing is limited to problem verification and limited regression testing. Every hotfix, whether limited-release or general-release is subject to a formal test process. This hotfix is available if the customer calls into Citrix Support and the customer environment is experiencing the specific problem that the Limited-release hotfix was created to resolve. Turnaround time is

• 3 - 4 days once the point fix has been checked in, depending on issue (some issues can take several days of testing as bugs do not always show up unless running for an extended period of time)

Maintenance build

This is a product build delivered in a self installing package which provides a code fix targeted for the general public. Testing consists of problem verification and full regression testing of the modules in question. Every hotfix, whether limited-release or general-release is subject to a formal test process. This build is available from the Citrix web site. Maintenance builds are released every 6-8 weeks.

The severity levels for Appliance Maintenance are as follows:

The following table indicates the timeframes and the guidelines for the customer.

After purchase of maintenance for a specific appliance, customers with active maintenance have the option to renew on an annual basis. Maintenance can be renewed at any level (Gold, Silver, or Bronze). Maintenance should be renewed prior to the expiration date. Expired maintenance can be renewed with the getCurrent Appliance Maintenance program. To renew contact your sales representative.

Contact Technical Support

• Open a Support Case Online - Open and manage your service requests and view returns/exchanges.
• Contact Support by Phone - Contact the support center in your region.

Technical Support agreement numbers

Note: Citrix has discontinued the creation of new technical support agreement numbers for hardware customers. Support agreement numbers expired as of the end of 2009 (except for multi-year purchases); access to technical support now occurs via the hardware device serial number for all customers.

This new process enables any contact in a given company to receive support for any NetScaler/WanScaler device that has a valid maintenance agreement in place.

Coverage hours are based on the level of support Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Our goal in Citrix Technical Support is to resolve any issue as quickly as possible. If you feel that your Service Request is not making progress, you can bring the case to the attention of the Citrix Technical Support Management Team. Take the following steps to raise the priority of your case, or to report a satisfaction or service quality issue:

• Signature of the engineer – The e-mail signature of each support engineer contains the e-mail address and phone number of their manager. If you feel your Service Request needs special attention, please feel free to contact the manager directly.
• General e-mail address − If you are unsure whom to contact for a satisfaction or service quality issue, send an e-mail to supportfeedback@citrix.com.
• When escalating a Service Request, please provide the following information:
  • Service Request number
  • Why you are escalating the Service Request
  • Information on the business impact the issue has for your company