190715 v.11

Table of Contents

1. SaltStack Support Policies - Scope of Document
2. Supported Software
3. Authorized Technical Contact (ATC)
4. Requesting Support
5. Standard Life Cycle of a Support Ticket
6. Issue Resolution
7. Standard Business Hours & Supported Languages
8. After Hours Support
9. Severity Level Definitions
10. Ticket Priority
11. Escalations
12. Support Levels
13. Support Lifecycle

 

1. SaltStack Support Policies - Scope of Document

Details of this document may change without notice. SaltStack provides Support of eligible software under the terms of this Support Policy. In order to be eligible for Support, Customer must maintain a current, active annual subscription to SaltStack Enterprise for a number of licenses at least equal to the number of nodes on which Customer has installed Salt Open and SaltStack Enterprise (in the aggregate). “Support” means the services described in this Support Policy and does not include one-time services or other services not specified in this Support Policy Document, such as training, consulting, customer success implementation or custom development.

2. Supported Software

Support covers only SaltStack software (the “Supported Software”) currently licensed under an annual software subscription.

3. Authorized Technical Contact (ATC)

Support may be initiated and managed only by Customer’s Authorized Technical Contact (ATC). ATCs are named individuals who are responsible for administration of the Supported Software within Customer’s organization and have received Saltstack Enterprise Portal accounts from SaltStack. The number of ATCs that a Customer’s Organization is entitled to is dependent upon Customer’s Support Level as detailed in this document.

4. Requesting Support

SaltStack will provide reasonable product and technical support to address questions and identify issues with the Supported Software. ATC may initiate Support requests with SaltStack by generating a support ticket in SaltStack’s 24x7x365 ticketing system via either: 

• The SaltStack Enterprise Portal: https://help.saltstack.com/
• Sending an email to: enterprisesupport@saltstack.com

Note: SaltStack must create SaltStack Enterprise Portal accounts for the ATC before the ticketing system will permit the generation of a ticket in the SaltStack support ticketing system.

5. Standard Life Cycle of a Support Ticket

1. Customer generates a Support Ticket in the SaltStack ticketing system.
2. SaltStack will evaluate the contents of the submitted ticket and the Priority Level assigned by Customer. Severity Levels may be changed at the sole discretion of SaltStack, according to the objective definitions below. The ticket will then be triaged to the appropriate team to handle and process the ticket.
3. If a SaltStack engineer needs additional input from Customer, SaltStack will add a request to the Customer ticket, and set the ticket into the Pending state. A Pending state indicates that no further action will be taken by SaltStack until Customer has provided the requested information.
4. When Customer responds (via SaltStack Enterprise Portal or via email client), the ticket’s state will automatically be changed back to the Open state. The Open state indicates that SaltStack is responsible for the next update to the ticket.
5. On-Hold: When a ticket is put into On-Hold status, the target date for the next-update is dependent on the details of the respective case. An On-Hold status generally means the ticket is an “issue” (bug, defect) that is assigned to engineering and is “on hold” until it has been included in, and released with, a future software release.
6. Once SaltStack and Customer agree that the issue in the ticket has been resolved, the ticket will be set to Solved status.
7. Customer may reopen a ticket by responding to the ticket for up to four (4) days after it has been set to Solved status.
8. After four days at Solved status, the ticketing system will automatically set the ticket to Closed status, and it cannot be reopened.
9. If the issue returns, Customer may create a new ticket that contains the data from the Closed ticket.

6. Issue Resolution

SaltStack will make commercially reasonable efforts to address any Issues submitted by Customer’s ATCs. Such efforts may include helping with diagnosis, suggesting workarounds, providing patches, or making a change to the Supported Software in a new release. An “Issue” is a material and verifiable failure of the Supported Software to conform to its Documentation. Support will not be provided for: 

1. Use of the Supported Software in a manner inconsistent with the applicable Documentation.
2. Modifications to the Supported Software not provided by or approved in writing by SaltStack.
3. Use of the Supported Software with products or software not provided or approved in writing by SaltStack.
4. Troubleshooting network, infrastructure, third-party software or other system issues not directly attributed to Supported Software.

7. Standard Business Hours & Supported Languages

The SaltStack support ticketing system is operational 24x7, 365 days per year.

 Standard Business Hours are defined as: 

• Monday - Friday
• 8am-6pm Mountain Time
• Excluding Holidays

Support is provided in the English language.

8. After Hours Support

After hours support is only available to customers that have an active license subscription with Global Level Support.

By default, all tickets submitted through the SaltStack support portal outside of Standard Business Hours (see Section 7) will be processed when Standard Business Hours next resume.

When a Customer with “Global Level Support” (see Section 10) submits a ticket outside of Standard Business Hours, and Customer believes the issue should be classified as a Severity 1 – Critical, or Severity 2 – High (receiving 1 or 4 hour response times), it is the Customer’s responsibility to call SaltStack using the Escalation Process in Section 10. If a call is not made, the ticket will receive prompt attention when Standard Business Hours resume.

9. Severity Level Definitions

Severity refers to a set of objective criteria that classifies the level of impact an issue is having within the production environment. When a SaltStack Customer creates a ticket in the SaltStack Enterprise Portal, the Severity default level is set to Severity 3, since this is the most common Severity Level for SaltStack Issues. Most issues will fall in the Severity 3 or Severity 4 levels. During the course of the resolution, the SaltStack support team adjusts the ticket’s Severity Level initially and as it changes according to the definitions outlined below.

• Only tickets regarding Customer’s Production systems are eligible to receive a Severity 1 or Severity 2 level.
• Severity Level assignment is open to discussion; however, it may only be reassigned by a SaltStack Support Engineer.

Support Severity Levels
Severity Level	Key Points	Definitions & Scenarios
Severity 1	- Production system down - Essential operations down	A catastrophic problem in Customer’s production systems, e.g. a complete loss of service, production systems that have crashed, or a production system that hangs indefinitely. Customer cannot continue essential operations. Example: The raas daemon will not restart in production.
Severity 2	- Essential operations are disrupted - No workaround available	A high-impact problem in Customer’s production systems. Essential operations are seriously disrupted. No workaround is available. Example: Salt commands are intermittently responding in production.
Severity 3	- Operations are disrupted but may continue with workaround	A problem on a production or non-production system that involves a partial or limited loss of non-critical functionality, or some other problem involving no loss in functionality. Customer can continue essential operations. Customer has a workaround to continue essential operations. Example: Beacons cannot be configured.
Severity 4	- Implementation questions - Enhancement requests - Product is working as designed	A general usage question, requests for new products or features, and requests for enhancements or modifications. There is light impact on the quality, performance, or functionality of the product in a production or non-production system. Example: “How do I…” “Why doesn’t the product do…”

10. Ticket Priority

Priority refers to the urgency of a ticket within a specific Severity Level. The customer sets the priority upon ticket creation, according to the internal urgency for the issue to be resolved. Priority levels include: 

• Urgent (P1)
• High (P2)
• Normal (P3)
• Low (P4)

11. Escalations

The customer may request an escalation on any given ticket, or groups of tickets, based on factors not used in assessing a Severity Level. Considerations supporting the proposed escalation may include: general business impact, internal deadline pressure, number of employees affected, age of open issue, etc.)

Escalation Process
Customer escalation begins with Level I and moves up as necessary
Level	Escalation Owner	Priority & Engagement	Communication & Ticket Management
I	Support Engineer (SE) https://support.saltstack.com/ enterprisesupport@saltstack.com +1 (888) 992-9460	▪     Repositions escalated issue in individual support engineer’s queue	▪     Ticket updated to acknowledge issue reposition and resolution plan
II	Support Manager (MGR) kjordan@saltstack.com +1 (801) 207-7440 x1002	▪     Repositions escalated issue in Priority Level queue ▪     Reassigns engineer if necessary, for appropriate attention	▪     Ticket updated to acknowledge issue reposition in Priority Level and resolution plan ▪     New support engineer is identified, and new assignment is made as necessary ▪     Support Manager manages communication
III	Area Sales Director (ASD)	▪     Repositions escalated issue in Priority Level queue ▪     Reassigns engineer if necessary for appropriate attention ▪     Refactors Response Time and Update Frequency to match higher Priority Level	▪     ASD communicates resolution plan with customer. Includes Sr. Dir., Customer Services as necessary.
IV	Sr. Dir., Customer Services Hunter Cannon +1 (801) 310-4868	▪     Sr. Dir. works with ASD to organize escalation meeting with Customer’s executive team to review and agree on a resolution plan	▪     Sr. Dir. manages communication and resolution plan in the escalation meeting and in follow up email communication until escalated issue is resolved.

 

12. Support Levels

All SaltStack Enterprise License Subscriptions include Technical Support. SaltStack offers three levels of Support: 

SALTSTACK SUPPORT LEVELS
Available only with the purchase of a SaltStack Enterprise License Subscription
Support Elements	Team	Corporate	Global
SaltStack Enterprise Portal	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support Contact Channels	Email Only	Email, Phone (business hours)	Email, Phone (24/7)
After Hours Escalation (S1, S2)	No	No	Yes
Authorized Technical Contacts	2	5	10
Annual Ticket Limit	5	10	Unlimited
Maintenance and Upgrades	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ticket Response Time – No Greater Than:
Severity 1	Next Day (Business Hours)	4 Hours (Business Hours)	1 Hour (If after hours, call required)
Severity 2	Next Day (Business Hours)	12 Hours (Business Hours)	4 Hours (If after hours, call required)
Severity 3	Three Business Days	Two Business Days	Next Business Day
Severity 4	Five Business Days	Three Business Days	Next Business Day
Update Frequency Once a Support Issue within a specific ticket has been fully assessed and stabilized, update frequencies will vary as informed by the details of the respective case.
Severity 1	Three Business Days	Twice Daily	Every Two Hours
Severity 2	Five Business Days	Daily	Twice Daily
Severity 3	Five Business Days	Five Business Days	Two Business Days
Severity 4	Five Business Days	Five Business Days	Five Business Days
Severity Remediation SaltStack will provide all reasonable efforts to fully remediate or reduce Severity 1 & 2 issues to no more than Severity 3, by workaround or temporary fix, according to the following service targets.
Severity 1	Five Business Days	Two Business Days	Eight Hours
Severity 2	Ten Business Days	Five Business Days	Two Business Days
Severity 3	Per workload	Per workload	Per workload

 

13. Support Lifecycle

Support Lifecycle Phases
Phase	Definition
1	Regular point release support: SaltStack will issue regular point releases with bug fixes. Fixes in newer branches will be back ported if possible. Improved software functionality may be provided at the discretion of SaltStack. Point releases will include the content of previously released updates. The focus of Phase 1 releases will be medium, high and critical bugs.
2	On-demand support: SaltStack will release point releases with bug fixes as requested by SaltStack customers. Fixes in newer branches will be back ported if requested. Point releases will include the content of previously released updates. The focus of Phase 2 releases will be high or critical bugs.
3	CVE support: SaltStack will release point releases with fixes for any CVEs. Fixes in newer branches will not be back ported.
4	Extended life support: SaltStack will not release any point releases. Users will still have access to any documentation. SaltStack will provide ongoing reasonable-effort technical support for SaltStack customers on existing installations. No bug fixes, security fixes, improved functionality, or root-cause analysis will be provided.

  

Support Lifecycle by Detail and Period
SaltStack Support	Phase 1 Regular Point Releases (6 months)	Phase 2 On-demand  (6 months)	Phase 3 CVE  (6 months)	Phase 4 Extended life (12 months)
Access to existing documentation	◼	◼	◼	◼
Technical support (with paid SaltStack subscription)	◼	◼	◼	◼  (reasonable effort)
Access to SaltStack customer portal (with paid SaltStack subscription)	◼	◼	◼	◼
Software enhancements	◼
Point releases with bug fixes	◼	◼
CVE fixes	◼	◼	◼