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Novell® Customer Center

Glossary of Terms

General Questions Functionality Questions Process Questions Questions about Troubleshooting and getting Help

Glossary of Terms

  • Action: the Action column appears in the list of products and allows users to perform the following functions:
    • Renew: When this status appears, it indicates that there is a quote available to renew a subscription. Simply click on the link for further instructions on how to renew a subscription.
    • Extend: Allows a user to extend an evaluation license for an additional 60 days.
  • Administrator: There are two types of administrators in Novell Customer Center: Organization Administrators and Group Administrators. Organization Administrators control rights for the entire company. They can add users, groups or other administrators. Group Administrators have the same rights within a group of subscriptions or systems that was created by the Organization Administrator.
  • Entitled Product: Product your organization has rights to based on the purchase of upgrade protection or maintenance, more commonly called an "upgrade."
  • Purchased Products: Products which are Novell proprietary products and/or which have perpetual licenses under the MLA and VLA programs.
  • Subscription: Any product or service that expires on a certain date is a subscription. This includes activation codes for Novell Linux products as well as product Maintenance or Upgrade Protection. In the Products and Subscriptions section, subscriptions are differentiated between Service Subscriptions (Technical Support) and Product Subscriptions.
  • Systems: Hardware that uses a subscription and can be managed in Novell Customer Center, or in other words, any machine on which you have installed a Novell product governed by a subscription. Initially, this applies specifically to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, though you will be able to manage other products through Novell Customer Center in the future.
  • User: A user in Novell Customer Center is a person who has activated a system using a subscription owned by the organization. This person's access to the site is limited to that particular system unless the Group or Organization Administrator grants more rights to other subscriptions or systems.
  • ZENworks Linux Management: The only solution that uses Policy-Driven Automation to deploy, manage and maintain Linux resources. These automated and intelligent policies allow ZENworks Linux Management to provide centralized control across the lifecycle of Linux systems with desktop lock down, imaging, remote management, inventory and software management.

General Questions

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What is Novell Customer Center?
Novell Customer Center is an online interface that makes it easy to manage your business and technical interactions with Novell. From one location, you can review the status of all your Novell products, subscriptions and services—and obtain critical Linux updates and support. Novell Customer Center combines the innovative tools and automated services you need to ensure licensing compliance and reduce systems-management costs.

What are the key advantages of Novell Customer Center?
As a Novell Customer Center user, you'll benefit from automated registration for new SUSE Linux Enterprise products; manual access to patches and updates for all shipping SUSE Linux Enterprise products; order-history logs for all Novell products, subscriptions and services; entitlement visibility for all SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions; the ability to view Linux subscription-renewal status; and subscription renewals via partners or Novell.

Who benefits from using Novell Customer Center?
Because Novell Customer Center is primarily focused on managing your business relationship with Novell, it addresses the needs of organizations' purchasers, IT administrators and IT directors.

What is the relationship between Novell Customer Center and solution partners?
Novell Customer Center allows both Novell and its solution partners (resellers) to better serve Novell customers. If you have purchased products from a solution partner, you will have the option to renew through that partner. In addition, you can allow your solution partner to manage products and subscriptions on your behalf by granting them access to selected company subscriptions and systems.

Does Novell Customer Center replace Customer Care and the SUSE Portal?
Yes, it does replace the former portals, although both of these Web sites will continue to exist for a short time while you and other customers migrate to the new site.

What is the difference between Novell Customer Center and the Customer Care Portal?
There are several key differences between Novell Customer Center and the Customer Care Portal. We believe you'll find Novell Customer Center just as easy to use as the Customer Care Portal, and hope you will enjoy the added functionality and control of Novell Customer Center. Here are some of the main differences:

  • The look and feel of Novell Customer Center is quite different and includes a summary dashboard where you can see the current status of all your Novell products as well as recommended actions. The Customer Care Portal simply linked to pages containing more information about systems and products.
  • Novell Customer Center is designed as a control center for all customer transactions with Novell, including purchased downloads, patches, updates, and systems and subscription management. The Customer Care Portal focuses solely on allowing customers to download purchased or entitled Novell products (not patches or updates) and to view their order history. It provides no system of subscription management capability.
  • Novell Customer Center has three levels of access: Organization Administrator, Group Administrator and Entitled Users. For more information about these levels of access, see this question. The Customer Care Portal has only two levels of access control: Users and Administrators. Administrators can add or delete other administrators and users. Users can access all entitled products.

What enhancements are planned for Novell Customer Center?
Novell Customer Center will be enhanced on an ongoing basis. In the near future, Novell Customer Center will include tools to enter, track and report on technical-support requests; purchase-planning tools; renewal-date synchronization; and notification management.

Functionality Questions

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What products can I administer in Novell Customer Center?
As long as you have been designated as an administrator for your organization, you can administer any product you have purchased from Novell. Novell Customer Center currently supports full administration of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 products only, but will extend to include management capabilities for all Novell products in the future. If you wish to manage all of your software—including that from other vendors—from a centralized location, we offer Novell ZENworks®. ZENworks includes capabilities for managing systems and software lifecycles on popular operating systems. It also has a complete software asset-management tool. For more information on ZENworks, visit the product site.

Will I be able to use Novell Customer Center with my current Linux products, or is it available only for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10?
Yes, you can administer previous versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise products in Novell Customer Center. However, you will be unable to leverage some advanced features, such as viewing your system information and status.

Who has access and rights to Novell Customer Center?
Anyone with a Novell Login account can access Novell Customer Center, although many features will not be available or useful until you either register products and services or are associated with a company that has registered products and services. If you do not already have a Novell Login account, you will be asked to create one before you can enter the site.

What levels of authorization are available?
There are five levels of authorization in Novell Customer Center:

  • Organization Administrators: Users who are authorized to manage information for the organization and all subscriptions the organization purchases.
  • Group Administrators: Users who are authorized to manage all subscriptions associated with a group.
  • Entitled Users: Users who are authorized to manage individual subscriptions.
  • Organization User and Group User: Users who can download product and see all systems and users for their organization(s) or group(s). However, they cannot add/delete users, move systems or subscriptions or change organization information.

What data do you collect?
Novell Customer Center optionally collects information to help you identify and manage your systems. At your discretion, Novell Customer Center will collect a name for your system (it defaults to the system host name but can be whatever you prefer), some basic hardware demographics and software-update status. You are in complete control over how much information you share with Novell.

What do you do with the data you collect?
Novell securely stores your information to better serve you. Your information is available for you to look up in Novell Customer Center. System-specific information is available only to you to identify your systems or determine their patch statuses. Similarly, subscription-specific information—such as the number of systems using a particular subscription activation code—is available only to you. If you want your sales representative or solutions partner to see this information, you need to grant them access to your account. (Please see the Process Questions section to learn how to administer account access.) Novell will use aggregate information (e.g., statistics on commonly used hardware) for product-planning purposes, but the information is not connected to your specific account. For more information review the Novell privacy policy.

How does Novell Customer Center compare to Red Hat Network?
Red Hat Network addresses subscription management and software-lifecycle support. Red Hat focuses on delivering what systems administrators need to keep their software up to date. While Red Hat confuses its customers by applying this name to both its online support system and its customer-premises-management product, Novell clearly delineates between its online tool (Novell Customer Center) and its management product (Novell ZENworks Linux Management).

Although Red Hat provides software updates effectively, the company does not meet all customer needs. For instance, it neglects the needs of IT managers and purchasers, and it does not provide tools for channel partners.

Red Hat allows updates to be pushed from rhn.redhat.com. This provides a single point of compromise for Red Hat customers using this service—if Red Hat gets cracked, bogus updates could be pushed out without any check or balance from the customer. Novell does not allow updates to be pushed. Instead, you obtain only the updates you want.

Why do several addresses appear in my drop-down list?
Your orders were processed under multiple addresses, so each address appears here as a separate organization. To change organizations, select a new organization from the drop-down box below the title of any Customer Center page. When the user selects a different organization, his role and screen displays also change based on his assigned rights in that organization.

I have Novell licenses and/or products that I can't see in Novell Customer Center. Where are they?
If you have paper licenses from earlier purchases, they are still active and found in the Customer Care Portal rather than in Novell Customer Center.

Process Questions

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How do I access Novell Customer Center?
If you are the contact listed on the order submitted to Novell, either directly or through our partners, you will be granted rights as the Organization Administrator. Log in to Novell Customer Center using your existing user name and password. If you do not have a Novell Login account, you will be asked to create one.

If you are not the contact listed on the order, you may request access to Novell Customer Center from your Organization Administrator. When she adds you as a user, you will receive an email containing instructions and an activation code which you will use to log in to Novell Customer Center.

If you do not have an Organization Administrator, or that person has left your company, you can send an e-mail to Customer Resolution with your name, company name, company address, and company contract number. A Novell service representative will then handle your request.

How do I extend an evaluation?
If you are currently evaluating Novell software, you may choose to extend the evaluation for an additional 60 days. To do this, you need to log in to Novell Customer Center, look up your product and click the Extend link in the Action column. When appropriate, your Novell sales representative can extend your evaluation.

NOTE: You can extend each product evaluation only once.

How do I renew a subscription?
To renew an expired subscription, locate it in the products and subscriptions page of Novell Customer Center and then click the Renew link in the Action column.

How do I review my order history?
If you have the necessary rights to do so, you can review your order history by simply clicking on "Order History" in the navigation panel of your Novell Customer Center. You will see a history of your organization's orders. You can sort the list by clicking on the column headings and can get more details about an order (such as date, PO, the reseller's contact information and more) by double clicking on it.

If you click on a particular line item electronic delivery URL in the Order History tool, it will open up that product information. For products that need to be registered, this action will automatically register that product to your login account.

How can I see the products I'm entitled to through my Upgrade Protection or Maintenance purchases?
Click on "Products and Subscriptions" and then select "List of Products and Subscriptions." You should then see the following information: All Product Subscriptions, Purchased Products, Service Subscriptions, Entitled Products. Click on "Entitled Products." Find the product you are entitled to and double click on it to get any media or license files. Note: If you are not able to see the product you are looking for in the list of available upgrades, it could be due to one or more of the following reasons:

  • Your upgrade protection has expired.
    Solution: renew your upgrade protection/maintenance.
  • No upgrade protection or maintenance was purchased.
    Solution: purchase the latest version of the product along with upgrade protection so as to be ready for the next release.
  • You have multiple contract numbers and the upgrade protection or maintenance that you purchased is under a different contract.
    Solution: Try logging in under your different contract number.
  • You own the latest version of upgrade protection for a product but no upgrade is available at this time.
    Solution: wait until the next release of the product.
For more information, see the Upgrades Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.novell.com/licensing/upgfulfill/faq.html

How can I update my Organization information?
You can update contact information for your organization by clicking on "Administer Organization" in the navigation panel. Select the "Overview" tab, then click "edit" next to the Organization Information heading. A box pops up allowing you to make changes to the address fields for your organization. Click "Save" after making the changes; your changes are immediately displayed in Novell Customer Center.

You might see a "Request Change" link next to the Organization Information heading instead of the "Edit" link; this difference simply has to do with the way your account was created. When you click on the "Request Change" link and change your organization information in the resulting pop-up box, your changes are submitted to the appropriate team at Novell for review prior to being displayed in your Novell Customer Center.

Why can't I renew online?
In some countries and with some contract-pricing structures, Novell is unable to offer online transactions. To renew your subscription, you must purchase a new activation code and move your systems from the expiring code to the new code.

How do we reassign a subscription from a user who left the company?
An organization administrator can reassign a subscription from one user to another. If the person who left the company is the only organization administrator, please contact us.

How do I unsubscribe from e-mail notifications about my product(s)?
To unsubscribe from an e-mail notification about your product, you may click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail.

You can also do this by clicking on "Notifications" in the left navigation panel in Novell Customer Center. If you are an Organizational Administrator, the Notifications page allows you to manage notifications for all your SUSE Linux Enterprise products from one location. Check the boxes to receive notifications about all products for which you are an Organization Administrator.

If you are the Organization Administrator for more than one organization, or your Novell Customer Center is managing more than one product, you may manage notifications about specific products by clicking the "Choose Products" link on the Notifications page. On the new page, select the organization whose products you want to manage, then select the products for which you want to receive notifications. Click "Save" to apply your changes and return to the Notifications page.

The boxes next to the Choose Products links indicate your selection(s). A full x in the box means you have chosen to receive notifications for all products in the category. A partially checked box means you have selected notifications for only some products in the category, and an empty box means you have opted out of notifications for all products in the category. Note: Make sure to click "Save" to save your notifications preferences

How does Novell Customer Center work with my online updates?
In Novell Customer Center, you can access updates by navigating to your product or subscription. Double click on the product or subscription you wish to update, then select the "Overview" tab in the "Downloads" section. Click on the "Patches and Updates" link.

Registering your product with Novell Customer Center when you install will enable your access to online updates. If you elected to report your hardware and software inventory information to Novell during registration, the Novell Customer Center can also give update status ("traffic light") reports of your systems to help you know whether they are up to date with the latest security patches. You are always in control of what information about your systems is visible outside your firewall.

Can I give my solutions partner access to my account in Novell Customer Center?
Yes. You can grant your solutions partner access at any of the three authorization levels mentioned above. To grant an organization administrator access, navigate to the Users tab of your organization's detail page. Click the Add button and check the Organization Administrator box. Group Administration access can be assigned to a group of products in the Products and Subscriptions List page by adding a new group or editing an existing group. You can add basic users to specific products by double-clicking the product, selecting the Entitled Users tab and adding a user there.

I've been using the Customer Care Portal. What rights do I have in Novell Customer Center?
If you are an administrator or a user in the Customer Care Portal, you will have been granted rights as the Organization Administrator in Novell Customer Center.

I'm the administrator for my organization. How do I make sure that I'm the only one who can do the administering?
You can lock other users out of Novell Customer Center by removing their names as users or administrators. To do so, click "My Profile" and select "My Organizations." Select the Users tab, and double-click the organization containing the user(s) you want to remove. Select the user(s) you want to delete, then click the minus sign next to the user's name. Click "Yes" to confirm that you want to delete the user. That user is now unable to access any information about your organization. You should also ensure that your username and password are secure.

How do I move, reassign or transfer subscriptions or systems?
If you are the Organization Administrator, you can move a subscription from one organization to another. Select the subscription you want to move from the "Products and Subscriptions" list page and click the "Move Items" button. Then select the organization you wish to move the subscription to. If the target organization is not in the drop down list, you may enter the email address of the target organization's administrator. A notification will then be sent to that organization administrator prompting him to accept your move request. The status of the subscription then changes to "Move Mending." Note: If you are the Organization Administrator at the new organization, no approval is required. The subscription will be automatically moved. If you do not see the "Move Items" option, you may not move subscriptions in your Novell Customer Center due to the way in which your account was created.

You can also move a system or systems to another subscription. Select the system from the System page and click the "Move Systems" button. Select the target subscription from the drop-down list or enter the subscription's activation code in the "Enter Activation code here" text box and click "Move."

How can I manually add a system that is not connected to the Internet?
Click "Products and Subscriptions" in the left navigation panel. Locate the subscription you want to add in the Products and Subscriptions list and double click it. Select the "Systems" tab. Click the "Add" button under the listed systems and enter the requested information in the popup window. Click "Register System" to save and apply your changes.

I installed a system without an activation code. Can I still activate it?
Yes. When a system is installed without using an activation code, it is given temporary access to patches and updates for 15 days, and then the administrator must move the system to a valid subscription in order to continue receiving access to patches and updates. To do so, go to the Systems page and select the system needing activation. Click the "activate" button. Select the target subscription from the list or enter the activation code in the "Enter Activation code here" text box and click "activate."

How do I register ShopNovell activation code to my existing Customer Center account?
You can register your ShopNovell purchase within your existing Novell Customer Center account. Log into the organization in which you want the purchase registered. From the left menu, hover over "Products and Subscriptions" and click on "Activate Products/Subscriptions." Enter the Activation code you received from ShopNovell. This action will register that code within the organization you are logged into.

IF you have already registered this code to your User Created profile and would like to transfer that registration to an organization account within Novell Customer Center, log into Novell Customer Center and find the registered product from within your User Created (example: UC123456) account. Click on the product and find the "Move Subscription" button on the right side of the page. Then simply follow the onscreen instructions.

How can I set up a local mirror for SUSE Linux Enterprise updates from Novell Customer Center?
You can find complete instructions for this process in our Linux Technical Library. Download the pdf.

Questions about Troubleshooting and Getting Help

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What if product information is missing from Novell Customer Center?
Most products purchased prior to March 2006, or which do not require an activation code or serial number are not yet tracked in Novell Customer Center. To access these products please go to the "My Products" section of the Customer Care Portal located at www.novell.com/customercare.

Please be sure that you have access to the correct organization account under which your products were purchased. Novell creates a new Customer account for every address from which a company submits orders. It is possible that your company has multiple accounts if purchases were made with multiple addresses. Please contact your Customer Resolution Specialist at 888-321-4272 for assistance with accessing the right company portal. Please have one of your Novell Product Deliveries available to reference a Sales Order or Purchase Order for your company.

If you do not see a product to which you are entitled through your Upgrade Protection or Maintenance plans, see this question and answer.

Why is my download failing?
You may have difficulty downloading large files, including DVD ISOs, depending on your browser or download manager. For best results, you should use Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later. If you use a download manager, your browser version will not be a factor. Make sure you're using the latest version of your download manager and that it supports large files. For example, if you use wget, it must be version 1.10 or later.

Note: Following are some browsers that are unable to download files larger than 2GB:

  • Firefox versions earlier than 1.5 (downloads 2GB then quits)
  • Internet Explorer 6 or earlier (fails to start download)
  • Internet Explorer 7 Beta (fails to start download)
  • wget version earlier than 1.10 (downloads 2GB then quits)

What browsers does Novell Customer Center support?
Novell Customer Center makes extensive use of Web technologies such Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), XHTML and CSS. Novell has tested a variety of browsers that support these standards, including popular browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

How do I get customer support for my online ShopNovell purchase?
Customers may request customer service information for their ShopNovell purchases by calling 877-466-8353 or from the Customer Service Web site

Where can I get product installation support?
Most products only have online self support options. For additional assistance, you might find the following options helpful:

Documentation:
See the full Documentation for your product at http://www.novell.com/documentation. These documents will assist you with your product installation questions.

Technical Information Documents:
Go to http://www.novell.com/support and search for support documents for your particular issue.

Installation Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise products:
You must register all of your servers to receive the following benefits according to the Novell licensing policy.

Online Updates and Service Packs
We encourage you to update your SUSE Linux Enterprise installation regularly by using the product update functions of Novell Customer Center or by going to http://www.novell.com/slesupdates. On a regular basis, Novell consolidates product updates into extensively tested service Packs. These service packs are available as CD images.

Self-Service Support Site
Visit www.novell.com/support/products/linuxenterpriseserver/ to access the Knowledgebase, view documentation, subscribe to receive notifications, and leverage other resources to assist you in managing your server.

Installation Assistance Through Community Forums
Visit http://support.novell.com/forums/ to participate in community forums if you have installation or configuration questions.

30 days of Standard Support
Your SUSE Linux Enterprise product subscription includes a 30-day trial of Standard Support. The 30 day period begins upon registration of your server, and provides 12x5 telephone and electronic technical support with a maximum targeted initial response time of 4 hours. Please take advantage of this great offer. We want you to be delighted with your SUSE Linux Enterprise product as well as with our support, and we are confident that you will have a good experience with our Novell support engineers.

During your 30-day Standard Support trial, contact Novell engineers using one of the methods below. When you open a Service Request, please be prepared with the following information so we can better assist you:
  • What you are trying to do
  • How you are trying to do it (exact keystrokes)
  • What result was expected
  • What result was experienced. You should have access to relevant log files and warning and error messages, copied verbatim.

Electronic Requests

Phone Requests (available everywhere except Latin America)

  • Dial 1-800-858-4000 within the US or 1-801-861-4000 outside the US
  • Customers in Europe, Middle East or Africa, please dial 31-10-286-4944 (English) or 49-211-5632-1849 (German)
  • Provide your contact ID Number

If you would like to continue receiving Standard Support after your 30 day trial, or to upgrade to Priority Support, please call 888-321-4272.

Sharing Access
You may share support access rights for this server with anyone in your organization that has root access. All you need to do is access our user administration system at novell.com/register.

Whom should I contact for help?
Please contact the Customer Response Center, your Novell sales representative or your Novell support account manager.

Where can I provide feedback about Novell Customer Center?
Please use the feedback button available at the bottom of any page on www.novell.com to send us a message. You can also find contact information in the left column of every page of Novell Customer Center.

Copyright & 2006 Novell, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Novell, the Novell logo, SUSE and ZENworks are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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