Frequently Asked Questions

If you have an active support agreement:

• Open a technical support case online
• Call one of our worldwide phone numbers
• Citrix Customer Success Services customers: Try Live Chat for fast answers to general technical questions. Launch chat now.  

With eight support centers around the world and over 900 support professionals, cases are seamlessly transferred from one support center to the next, following the sun, to ensure cases are continually worked for rapid resolution.

Citrix Technical Support Centers cover the following regions and are defined as follows:

• Americas: North America, Latin America and the Caribbean
• EMEA: Europe, Middle East and Africa
• APJ: Asia Pacific Japan

All services are primarily provided in the English language. Our technical support centers offer support in other languages during local business hours. Subject to availability, you may request to be supported in a language other than English when opening a support case. Our support centers offer support in eight languages, although we cannot guarantee availability.

• Americas: English, Spanish and Portuguese
  
• EMEA: English, French, German and Spanish
• APJ: English, Mandarian, Korean and Japanese

Citrix provides 24/7/365 for Severity 1 issues only. CSS Priority and TRM customers receive 24/7/365 for Severity 1 and Severity 2 issues. Severity is determined jointly by the customer and Citrix. Assistance with Severity 2 (site degradation) and all other issues is available during local business hours, Monday-Friday excluding local public holidays.

• Americas Business Hours
  • 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., local time
• EMEA Business Hours 
  • 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., local time
• APAC Business Hours 
  • 8:00 a.m.to 5:30 p.m., local time
• Japan Business Hours
  • 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., local time
    

Citrix Technical Support provides a range of targeted response times depending on incident severity. We do not guarantee resolution or restoration times at any support level-with no exceptions.

Restoration means production use of the supported product has been restored however, additional incidents may still remain and further troubleshooting may be necessary to complete resolution.

Severity 1

Your production use of supported product is not functioning and a large portion of your operation is so severely impacted you cannot reasonably operate. The operation is mission critical and the situation is an emergency. There is no viable workaround to the problem.

Examples:           

• All, or a substantial portion, of your Citrix solution, is unavailable - the system hangs; is not accessible; performance is not tolerable.
• There is a high-risk security issue, as determined by Citrix.

*Restoration estimates are targets only and do not serve as a form of guarantee.

Severity 2

There is a severe loss of service with a feature of your supported product. The operation continues to function in a diminished state.

Examples:

• A critical feature of your solution is running in a diminished state – performance is poor; unacceptable frequency of errors.
• Productivity is impacted.
• A major project milestone is at risk.

Severity 3

There is a partial, non-critical loss in the functionality of the supported product.

Examples:

• Some operational impairment but users can continue to operate.
• An inconvenience that may require a workaround.

Severity 4

There are general product usage questions or cosmetic issues not impairing users.

Examples:

• “How to” questions regarding features/functionality.
• Minor errors in documentation.

To purchase support and maintenance agreements:

• Request a call

To renew support and maintenance agreements:

• In the United States and Canada, try the new modernized renewal tool: Digital Online Transaction Interface ("DOTI"). 
• In all other locations, please contact your Citrix partner to renew your maintenance programs

Additional resources:

• Open a customer service case online or call one of our worldwide phone numbers

Step 1: Open a support case

• Contact Citrix to open a support case
• Customer Service verifies your support entitlement

Step 2: Engagemewnt with Software or Hardware Technical Support team

A Software or Hardware Support Engineer works with you to identify the issue and begin troubleshooting. This may involve:

• Requesting more information, traces
• Reproducing the issue
• Gaining remote access
• Requesting the installation of hotfixes or upgrading to a new software version
• Implementing a workaround
• Testing a solution in a non-production environment
• Requesting to open a ticket with a third-party vendor

A Support Engineer may engage a Senior Engineer when necessary. Once all action items have been completed, if the Support Engineer cannot resolve the problem and no progress is made on the case, it may be transferred to the Citrix Escalation team.

If the issue requires a code fix or code-level analysis, the Citrix Engineering team will be engaged. 

Step 3: Close a Support Case

Before closing a support case, you will be asked to confirm that the issue has been worked to your satisfaction and that the support case can be closed. After the closure, a summary will be sent to you with a description of the problem and the reason for closure or resolution. After case closure, you may receive a survey to ensure your case was worked to your satisfaction.

Other reasons for closing a support case may include:

• You are not entitled to support from Citrix Technical Support
• No response has been recieved after several attempts to contact you

Progress of your Support Case/Updates
To review the progress of your case,please log in to www.citrix.com/MyAccount.

Support Case Severity
The case severity is determined mutually by the Support Engineer and the customer according to the severity description. Severity levels will not increase once mutually established but may be reduced per Citrix's reasonable discretion.

Support Case Closure
Your support case will be closed when it is resolved, no further troubleshooting is possible or you authorize the engineer in an e-mail to close the case. Your case will also be closed if no feedback has been received by you within a specified time frame.

Reopening a support case: You will have 30 days from the support case closure to reopen a request if necessary. If the 30 days have lapsed, a new support case will be opened. Reassignment of the support case - In situations where your support case needsto be re-assigned (e.g., holidays, sick leave, or escalation to a senior engineer or an engineer with additional skills, etc.) you will be informed who to contact going forward.

Our goal in Citrix Technical Support is World Class Service and Support. Your support team will work with you through the life cycle of your case to ensure that the appropriate resources and level of attention are focused
towards a timely resolution of your issue(s).

If you are not satisfied with your Technical Support experience you can raise the case to the attention of the Citrix Technical Support Management Team.

How do I Escalate the Visibility of a Support Case to Management?

To contact the Citrix Technical Support Management Team, take any one of the following steps:

Web: Customers can also raise a case to management attention in the eService portal on a specific case -It notifies the internal case manager and on call manager to review.

Phone: Call one of our Technical Support Service Center phone numbers and work directly with the support engineer assigned to your case to request further escalation, or simply request to speak with the on-call
manager. This is the recommended option for time-sensitive issues. Response: 1 hour (24/7/365)

E-mail: Email your support engineer's manager. The email address is included in the support engineer's email signature. Response: Same business day If you are unsure whom to contact for a satisfaction or service quality issue, send email to supportfeedback@citrix.com. Response: No later than next business day.

General Issues: If you are unsure whom to contact for a satisfaction or service quality issue, send email to supportfeedback@citrix.com. Response - No later than the next business day.

When communicating with Citrix, please be prepared to provide the following information in order to accelerate our response to you:

• Case Number
• Business Impact - Help us understand the impact of the issue to your current production users and/or any project deadlines that may be adversely affected as a direct result of the ongoing issue(s)
• Summary - A summary of your request and desired outcome (escalate; speak with a manager, etc.)
• Contact Information - (If different from the contact noted in the existing case)

What Happens after an Escalation Request is Made?

Once your request for escalation has been received, someone from the Citrix Management Team will acknowledge receipt of your request and contact you to communicate the next steps that will be taken to address your concerns. If your concern/issue requires extended engagement, a plan will be discussed with you to bring these issues to resolution.

These resources and best practices can help you quickly find the answers you need or help expedite your issue.

• Knowledge Center: A database of articles and bulletins written by Citrix technical experts.
• Product Documentation: A library of product documentation for Citrix solutions and technologies.
• Support Forums: Discussion forums where you can ask questions and get real-world answers from other customers.
• Automated Troubleshooting Tool: Citrix Insight Services is a free tool from Citrix that analyzes your log files, profiles your virtualization environment and scans for hundreds of known issues. It's the same tool our support engineers use every day to diagnose problems quickly and accurately. Available for Citrix Virtual Apps, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Citrix Hypervisor, Citrix ADC, ByteMobile, Citrix Endpoint Management, Citrix SD-WAN, CloudPortal, Provisioning Services and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Connector. Connector.
• Communities: User groups and interest groups where you can share ideas, opinions, technical information and best practices.
  
• Citrix Education: Training and certification courses to build your skills.
• Virtual Demo Center: See how Citrix solutions enable mobile workstyles and power cloud services.
• Blogs:  Straight talk from Citrix executives, product teams and technical experts.
  
• Citrix Customer Success Services on Twitter: Interact with Citrix Service professionals who monitor social networking sites.
• Citrix Customer Success Services on Facebook: Find the latest news, hotfixes, events and more for Citrix Consulting, Education, Support, and Cloud Success.
  
• Citrix User Group Community (CUGC): A community of technology proressionals sharing high-value content, knowledge sharing and other professional connections.

Please see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Servicing Options for more information on Long Term Service Releases.

In order to receive Customer Success Services (CSS) benefits, customers must have active CSS for 100% of its licenses within one product line and under a single ORG ID. This is known as the “All-in Rule.”

Partial CSS coverage within a product line is not permitted. If the customer has licenses that are no longer in use, they have the option to permanently rescind such licenses in order to exclude these from pool of licenses for which CSS is being purchased. License transfers to new or existing ORG IDs, for the purpose of avoiding the All-in Rule is not permitted. A customer is not permitted to extend the benefits of CSS to any licenses that do not have an active CSS agreement.

Compliance will be monitored and without waiving other remedies, Citrix reserves the right to suspend CSS benefits and invoice a customer for any underpaid CSS fees for compliance violation(s).

Return Material Authorization (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 ten (10) days. 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 Operations Team for fulfillment. For customers that purchase Gold Plus maintenance, the service includes delivery within 4 hours after Citrix authorizes the issuance of a replacement Product from the Service Center.

Note: Effective March 16, 2015 -  Citrix will offer Gold Plus Maintenance to customers with a Citrix appliance that has not reached End of Maintenance and will no longer offer 4-hour Depot Service to customers with Gold Maintenance. Existing 4-hour Depot Service agreements will be honored and customers with 4-hour Depot Service may move to Gold Plus Maintenance when their current maintenance agreement renews.
 

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 ten (10) business days
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five (5) business days

Silver 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 (1) business day
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five (5) 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 information to Citrix Operations
• Citrix Operations issues an RMA and ships replacement unit overnight within one (1) business day
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five (5) business days

Gold Plus RMA process

• Customer must submit the physical address of the Product with Gold Plus coverage to goldplusaddress@citrix.com immediately after the Product has been installed.  Addresses can also be updated by emailing goldplusaddress@citrix.com. Such address is the Customer location referred to above where the replacement Product will be delivered.  Any variations to such address will not be accepted at the time of the service request.
• Customer contacts Citrix Technical Support with a Hardware Warranty issue
  Technical Support verifies that the unit needs to be replaced and forwards information to recognized express courier service.
• Citrix shall deliver via a recognized express courier service a replacement Product to the Customer location no later than four (4) hours after Citrix authorizes the issuance of a replacement Product from the Service Center; provided that Citrix determines that a replacement is needed, and a local contact name and phone number is received (Express Courier Service has been able to make contact with customer and customer has agreed to accept delivery).
• Customer ships the defective product back to Citrix within five (5) business days

Note: This service is only available if the Customer location where the replacement Product will be delivered is within 70 miles of a Citrix Service Center (for locations in the United States), or 50 miles of a Citrix Service Center (for locations outside the United States), and the Customer location and the Citrix Service Center are located in the same country. Customer is responsible for ensuring that it is located within such radius. Citrix Service Center locations can be found at https://citrix.bybaxter.com/z2z/z2z.  Any questions related to Citrix Service Center locations should be sent to goldplussupport@citrix.com.
 

If the Customer location meets the requirements above but a new Citrix Service Center needs to be set up, this will require a lead time of up to (6) weeks in the U.S. or three (3) to six (6) months outside of the U.S. prior to Gold Plus Maintenance being available. Customer will receive Gold Maintenance (next business day RMA shipment) for the applicable Products until the Citrix Service Center is set up.

*Some Product components are not available under the Gold Plus Maintenance.

Citrix Appliance Maintenance is available for the Citrix Gateway physical appliances. Appliance Maintenance is not available for Citrix Gateway VPX. Customers needing support for their virtual appliances can purchase Citrix Customer Success Services, which includes 24/7/365 technical support with best-in-class response times, plus product version updates and upgrades.

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

Private build

(Citrix ADC, Citrix Web App Firewall, Citrix 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 with 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 development to testing, depending on issue

Point fix

(Citrix Gateway Standard and Advanced Editions)

This is a hotfix found in the internal Citrix knowledge base and delivered in a self-installing package which provides a code fix targeted at a specific end-user issue. This problem is specific to a 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 a customer calls 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 the 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.