General Ubuntu Advantage Service Guide

Ubuntu Advantage Services Guide

Expert advice.Specialist tools.Dedicated support.

Invest in your business with Ubuntu Advantage.

Contents

04 Introducing Ubuntu Advantage

05 Ubuntu Advantage

06 Landscape systems management

07 Landscape features

08 Comprehensive support

09 Enterprise systems management for Ubuntu

11 Knowledge

12 Server

13 Service level agreements

14 Cloud

14 Landscape management

14 Cloud support

14 Knowledge transfer


16 Desktop


18 Additional services

18 Landscape dedicated server

18 Premium service engineer

19 Support systems

19 Severity levels

19 Entitled systems

20 Support collaboration

22 Ubuntu releases and support

Open source is playing an increasingly important role

in business IT. The flexibility, efficiency and power of

open-source tools and systems are critical parts of the

puzzle for a growing number of businesses, large and small.

Ubuntu is used globally by organisations that trust its

security, reliability and performance as part of their

critical infrastructure.

Ubuntu Advantage gives you the tools and access to expertise

to make the most of Ubuntu in your business. Included in the

subscription is the Landscape systems management tool,

which can help you run your systems more efficiently.

Landscape simplifies manual and repetitive administration

tasks. It offers all the systems management and monitoring

capabilities to easily manage your physical, virtual and cloud

machines through a single, easy-to-use web interface.

Ubuntu Advantage also gives you access to Canonical’s global

support team, along with service guarantees to implement

Ubuntu with ease and success. The team provides the skills

and knowledge that business users can depend on to resolve

the most difficult problems. Ubuntu Advantage also includes

legal assurance so that you can deploy Ubuntu without

complex legal concerns.

If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you. You

can contact us at ubuntu.com/business/services/contact

Introducing Ubuntu Advantage

04

Ubuntu Advantage is your gateway to saving time and

money in your business. It gives you online tools to help

you run Ubuntu machines at scale with less effort and

access to experts to rapidly resolve any issues. Available

for the desktop, server and cloud, Ubuntu Advantage

provides the following:

• Landscape systems management – offers systems

management and monitoring tools for physical,

virtual and cloud machines.

• Comprehensive support – gives you direct access

to technical support engineers to quickly rectify

any problems with your Ubuntu systems.

• Legal assurance – provides legal indemnification for

claims of intellectual property (IP) infringements.

• Knowledge– gives you access to definitive and exclusive

knowledge for running Ubuntu according to best practices.

Ubuntu Advantage

05

Landscape systems management Ubuntu Advantage includes the Landscape systems management and monitoring service to help you manage a multitude of Ubuntu machines (physical, virtual and cloud) as easily as one, through a simple web-based interface. It provides powerful, automated systems administration tools to manage, monitor and provision Ubuntu across many machines at once.

Each managed system connects to, and securely exchanges information about, packages and system operational parameters with the Landscape server. Package updates are downloaded directly from either the Ubuntu public repository or your own internally-maintained package repository. Because Landscape is web-based, it is easy to set up and use, it requires no special hardware or advanced skills to operate and it can be accessed from mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. Each Ubuntu Advantage subscription allows you to register one machine to the Landscape service, whether a server, desktop, or a cloud infrastructure host.

Each managed system connects to and securely exchanges information with the Landscape server. Package updates are downloaded directly from either the Ubuntu public repository or

your own locally managed package repository. Landscape is available in two versions: a hosted service managed by Canonical or the Dedicated Server Edition residing within your firewall’s

security perimeter.

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Package Package profiles: Define sets of packages for common profiles such as ‘sales desktop’ or management ‘web server’. Package profiles build on Ubuntu’s package management. Import and export package

sets from dpkg or other tools, or snapshot a managed device to create a re-usable profile.

Group machines to match your needs: not all machines need to form a single group. You can split machines into multiple groups for different requirements but all can be administered through a single interface. Dynamically group machines using saved search queries. Leverage access to hardware and software data to form advanced capability-based queries.

Scheduling: schedule scripts and package updates in advance so you can implement changes to your systems during maintenance windows.

Release upgrades: remotely upgrade the version of Ubuntu from one standard release to the next or from one long term support (LTS) release drectly to the next LTS release.

Administrator delegation: group your systems to meet your needs then assign permissions to different administrators as necessary. Define functional roles and limit machine access and operational permissions as needed.

Manage packages across the network: see a package inventory for each computer and allow administrators to install, upgrade or remove packages from one or more computers. Roll back upgrades to restore a previous software state. Place version holds on crucial packages to stop them from being accidentally upgraded. Configure systems with automatic update policies to maintain security.

Integrate custom repositories: configure Landscape to securely update systems from your own private package repository or from the public Ubuntu package repository. Locally manage repositories through Landscape, and stage updates through a testing integration pipeline. Manage Apt’s sources.list remotely on your managed devices.

Support disconnected systems: systems that are disconnected from the network will be properly handled when they next get online. Enables the seamless management of a highly mobile laptop fleet.

Automation Create scripts that automate routine work: deliver custom configuration settings to managed devices.


Systems monitoring Customise trend information: customise the display of the parameters that you need to track.

System info tool: update the status of your system information at sign-in without having to look for it.

Hardware inventory: maintain a detailed hardware inventory through an easy-to-understand hardware information display.

Simplify security audits: access detailed history logs which display actions performed by all administrators. Export compliance reports on machine patching and security posture of your managed infrastructure.

Bare metal Integration with Ubuntu’s Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS): enables provisioning of physical systems provisioning and cloud images to leverage the same mechanism and configuration data.

Landscape features

Remotely script the Landscape server itself, through its comprehensive open API, creating custom automation uniquely suited to your site’s needs.

Leverage API calls to integrate Landscape with the rest of your infrastructure, including monitoring systems, paging devices and more.

Export system and audit data for processing in reporting systems or external compliance tools.

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Comprehensive support The Canonical Support & Services (CSS) team was set up to provide outstanding support for Ubuntu business users. We provide around-the-clock coverage for Ubuntu deployments all over the world from our support centres.

Our distribution engineers provide backup to the support team ensuring that even the most complex issues can be resolved. Engineers are based around the world in a range of time zones ensuring that we can provide 24/7 coverage for the toughest engineering issues. Canonical engineers are the primary maintainers of the core packages in Ubuntu, which means that Canonical can provide enterprise-level support.

Key benefits

Support for common applications We provide installation assistance and help you resolve issues with any of the thousands of applications that are included with Ubuntu, ensuring your business gets maximum productivity from your Ubuntu servers or desktops.

Support for advanced technologies Ubuntu Advantage provides your business with support for complex configurations, including clustering and high-availability failover, as well as virtualisation on Ubuntu servers and desktops. It also offers support from industry experts for the latest technologies such as cloud computing. Ubuntu Advantage helps you deploy a fully supported cloud platform, ensuring that any issues you encounter can be swiftly resolved.

Phone and online support portal You speak directly with our technical support engineers when you phone CSS, ensuring you receive help from someone who has first-hand knowledge of how to resolve your issue. All support issues are tracked through Canonical’s online support portal, which allows you to see the progress of submitted cases in real time. The portal enables both you and Canonical’s support engineers to view opened and closed cases in a single location for more rapid issue resolution.

Problem resolution Support engineers in the CSS team are industry experts who can resolve your issues with speed and certainty. As Canonical is the leading force behind Ubuntu, we have the in-depth platform expertise to solve difficult issues that may arise.

Flexible service Ubuntu Advantage offers different service levels so that you can choose the level of support that is right for your workload. It gives you the flexibility to receive a higher level of support for complex configurations such as virtual private networks and cloud computing, as well as standard support for common workloads such as file and print serving.

08


Enterprise systems management for Ubuntu Manage Ubuntu at scale

Landscape enables a single administrator to manage thousands of machines as easily as one, freeing up valuable time for other tasks. And by eliminating human error from mundane management tasks, it can make your department even more cost-effective. Landscape provides a centralised view of your entire IT infrastructure, yet allows an administrator to drill down into the specifics of a single device.

Complete API

All of Landscape’s functionality is available via its server API, remotely scriptable through a Python library or a Bash shell client. Automation can be customised to your site’s exact needs, using Landscape as a powerful set of building blocks that you don’t have to develop, test and maintain in-house. The API is also a flexible conduit for integrating Landscape with other parts of your enterprise infrastructure, such as user provisioning, trouble ticketing, or other management tools.

Role-based access control (RBAC)

Landscape makes it easy to assign different levels of administration privileges to different individuals, enabling you to maintain strict controls over which operator does what on your machines. The built-in RBAC features give you the flexibility to create custom profiles, with a default configuration included to ensure that these capabilities can be easily used out-of-the-box.

Compliance reporting

Landscape produces standardised compliance reports, showing which machines are up-to-date with security patches. For non-compliant machines, further detail is also available, including the total number of days for which they have been non-compliant (or out of contact with the Landscape server). Listing the specific vulnerabilities applicable to a system is also possible, as is tracking the speed with which they are brought into compliance, accelerating the audit process.

All report data is published to the web console by default, but it can also be exported in CSV format or accessed via the API.

Bare-metal provisioning

In combination with Canonical’s Metal-as-a-Service (MAAS) technology, Landscape delivers a centralised console for rapid system provisioning. This gives you a unified view that’s centrally controlled, while delivering the bits using the local network, closer to their destination and shielding your wide-area links from unnecessary traffic.

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10


Determine at a glance the patch compliance status of your entire fleet of Ubuntu assets

Knowledge Knowledge Base

Ubuntu Advantage customers have exclusive access to the Canonical Knowledge Base. This gives you access to technical articles written and audited by Canonical’s CSS senior engineers. The database provides you with a library of technical articles to solve common issues immediately without having to log a support case and wait for an answer.

Key benefits

Immediacy The Knowledge Base helps you find solutions to your problems faster by giving you a central repository and a single reference point for tried-and-tested solutions to common issues. Solution categories include technical articles on security, migration and networking.

Best practices Our Knowledge Base and training courses help you reduce potential issues so you can run your Ubuntu systems according to best practices. We provide easy-to-follow guidelines to support you in the process of configuring and implementing specific workloads on Ubuntu.

Skills transfer Quickly gain the skills necessary to confidently use and manage Ubuntu in your business so that you can see a quick return on your investment. The Ubuntu Certified Professional course will help you efficiently install and configure Ubuntu systems, maintain system security and configure network connectivity and key network services.

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• Network infrastructure serving

• Package and task selection

Installation

Landscape systems management

Applications

Support

• Hardware setup Yes Yes Yes

There are three subscription levels for Ubuntu Advantage on the server:

• Essential: for basic server workloads including file and print, email, network, web and application serving.

• Standard: for standard enterprise usage including integration into existing Windows infrastructure, virtualisation, and directory and authentication services.

• Advanced: for more advanced configurations such as high-availability failover and clustering.

Server

Package management Yes Yes

Task automation Yes Yes

Systems monitoring Yes Yes

Server features Essential Standard Advanced

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ubuntu Assurance Programme Yes Yes Yes

Online Knowledge Base Yes Yes Yes

Legal assurance

Knowledge

Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes

Systems administration

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• File serving Yes Yes Yes

• Network/Automated installation

• Windows integration

• Setting up package repositories – – Yes

• Clustering – – Yes

• Server security – Yes Yes

• Package tools usage Yes Yes Yes

– Yes Yes

– Yes Yes

• Web serving Yes Yes Yes

• Network serving Yes Yes Yes

• Enterprise Java – Yes Yes

• Virtualisation – Yes Yes

• Kernel support Yes Yes Yes

• Firewall configuration Yes Yes Yes

• Updates and upgrades Yes Yes Yes

Service-level agreements The table below shows hours of coverage, support channels and response times.

Server SLAs

Hours of support

Number of cases

Support channels

Response times

Severity 1

Severity 2

Severity 3

Standard

Local business hours

Unlimited

Phone and online

4 hours

1 business day

2 business days

Advanced

24/7

Unlimited

Phone and online

1 hour

4 hours

4 hours

Server options Technical contacts

Standard 2

Advanced 3

Essential


Unlimited

Phone and online

2 hours

4 hours

1 business day

Severity 4 4 business days 1 business day2 business days

Essential 1

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Number of technical contacts The table below shows how many people can submit support cases based on the server option covering your systems.

Cloud is fast becoming an alternative solution to many traditional server platforms. Ubuntu Advantage gives you the necessary tools to help you make the most of cloud technology in Ubuntu. To successfully deploy and use an Ubuntu cloud, Ubuntu Advantage provides you with cloud-management tools, enterprise-level support, access to knowledge and legal assurance to deploy and manage your Ubuntu cloud platform with ease.

Landscape managementLandscape allows you to manage and monitor your Ubuntu private cloud, as well as Ubuntu instances on public clouds such as Amazon EC2. You get a single-pane-of-glass view of your IT assets, regardless of whether they are in a traditional datacenter, part of a private cloud, or hosted on a public cloud.

What’s more, Landscape keeps track of all activities performed on managed devices, enabling painless compliance reporting and auditing when necessary.

Cloud supportUbuntu Advantage gives you the assurance of being able to contact an Ubuntu cloud expert in Canonical’s support team who can quickly resolve any issues you encounter. They will help you maintain the same high IT service levels for your Ubuntu private cloud as expected by your business with more traditional platforms.

Knowledge transferThrough Ubuntu Advantage, you get access to cloud and Ubuntu platform experts who will help you realise the value of deploying new cloud technology. They will help you implement an Ubuntu cloud solution, enabling you to provide IT services to your business more effectively and efficiently. They also show you how to maintain your cloud platform so you can manage it easily and make the most of your IT resources.

Cloud

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Key benefits

Systems management Ubuntu Advantage Server options include the Landscape management tools for you to simply and quickly manage your Ubuntu private cloud.

Access to expertise You receive 24/7 or business hours phone and online access to cloud technical experts to help you resolve issues quickly.

Comprehensive support Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Infrastructure gives you complete coverage for your entire platform by providing support for Ubuntu cloud instances hosted on top of each physical node.


There are two Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Infrastructure options which provide support for OpenStack technology that isn’t included with Ubuntu Advantage Standard Server and Ubuntu Advantage Advanced Server.

There are two Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Infrastructure options which include additional services beyond those provided by Ubuntu Advantage Standard Server and Ubuntu Advantage Advanced Server.

• Standard: includes Landscape management tools and local business hours support.

• Advanced: includes Landscape management tools and 24/7 support.

Cloud SLAs

Hours of support

Number of cases

Support channels

Response times

Severity 1

Severity 2

Severity 3

Standard


Unlimited

Phone and online

Advanced

24/7

Unlimited

Phone and online

1 hour

4 hours

4 hours

2 hours

4 hours

1 business day

Severity 4 1 business day2 business days

There are two Ubuntu Advantage options for the desktop:

• Standard: for general business use, including creating office documents, email, calendaring and working with web applications.

• Advanced: for more complex desktop use, such as development work.

The table below lists the features included in both services.

Desktop

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Landscape systems management

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

–

–

Support

Network/automated installations Yes Yes

Desktop security Yes Yes

Yes Yes

Package management Yes

Task automation Yes

Systems monitoring Yes

Desktop features Standard Advanced

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ubuntu Assurance Programme Yes Yes

Online Knowledge Base Yes Yes

Legal assurance

Knowledge

Certified applications

Desktop virtualisation

Developer tools

Skills training credit Yes Yes

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Desktop SLAs

Hours of coverage

Number of cases

Support channels

Response times

Severity 1

Severity 2

Severity 3

Standard


Unlimited

Phone and online

2 business days

2 business days

2 business days

Advanced


Unlimited

Phone and online

4 business hours

1 business day

2 business days

Number of technical contacts The table below shows how many people can submit support cases based on the desktop option covering your systems.

Desktop options Technical contacts

Standard 2

Advanced 3

Additional servicesFor customers that require behind-the-firewall systems

management and a higher level of support, there are

two additional services offered for Ubuntu Advantage

Desktop, Server and Cloud.

Landscape Dedicated Server The onsite Landscape Dedicated Server Edition allows you to run the Landscape systems management and monitoring service from behind your firewall. It offers all the features of the hosted service, but with the added security of running Landscape entirely within your security perimeter.

Premium Service Engineer The Technical Account Manager (TAM) service provides an additional level of care for large enterprises. It gives you a named Ubuntu expert in Canonical’s worldwide support team, whose priority is your business needs. As a virtual member of your team, they know your IT environment and are on hand to resolve any disruptions in your environment or work on the most complex problems. Key benefits

Single point of contact Your TAM is a named contact who builds up knowledge of your environment and works closely with your team. With this knowledge, they can provide tailored solutions for your business and technical environment.

Direct access to expertise Each TAM is an expert in Ubuntu technologies and enterprise deployments.

This means you have direct access to expert help as and when you need it.

Responsiveness TAMs have direct access to Ubuntu engineers and developers ensuring they can escalate and resolve problems quickly.

Collaboration Your TAM will work closely with your team providing advice and expertise on Ubuntu technologies and best practices. This close collaboration ensures you get the most from your Ubuntu investment and reduces the number of issues you’ll face by helping you to implement best-practice solutions.

Regular communication Your TAM will ensure that you’re aware of new Ubuntu developments and technologies. Additionally, they’ll represent your needs and priorities to the Ubuntu development community. This means you’ll be able to plan and deploy new capabilities as soon as they become available.

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Severity

Level 1

Definition

Core functionality not available

Responsibilities

Continuous effort will be provided during the coverage hours by the appropriate support engineer(s) and/or development engineer(s) to produce a work-around.

As soon as core functionality is available the severity level will be lowered to level 3 and a permanent resolution developed.

Canonical will use reasonable efforts during coverage hours to produce a work-around.

The support engineer will aim to produce a work-around that is sufficient to adjust the priority level to level 3 where a permanent resolution will be developed.

Canonical will use reasonable efforts during the coverage hours to provide the customer with a work-around as soon as possible balanced against high severity-level cases.

Having provided a work-around, Canonical’s support support engineers will work on developing a permanent resolution to the case.

Level 2 Core functionality severely degraded

Level 3 Standard support request

Support systemsFor all service options, a number of standard rules apply. These

include the way that CSS will determine how serious a problem

is, along with the system that is covered by the support service.

Entitled systems Each Ubuntu Advantage subscription entitles you to receive support for a single physical machine on which either Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server or Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure is installed, as well as unlimited hosted Ubuntu virtual machines.

Entitlements can be moved between machines as systems within the organisation change. For example, it is common to move an entitlement from an old system to a new system as part of an upgrade process.

Severity levels The severity level of an issue determines the priority that the issue receives from CSS. Severity is agreed between CSS and the customer by judging the impact of the issue on the customer’s IT environment.

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When you experience an issue, your first course of action should be to consult the Knowledge Base through the support portal. The Knowledge Base contains a range of documentation detailing issues and solutions that have been experienced by other users.

If there is no appropriate solution, you can either enter the problem through the support portal ticketing system, or you can telephone CSS directly. Severity level 1 and level 2 issues should be reported by phone.

Support Tier 1 Initial calls are handled by Tier 1 engineers who have been trained to handle basic configuration or usage issues. The engineer’s first task is to verify the nature of the issue and the severity level of the problem. Having done so, they will work with you to undertake basic debugging and deliver an appropriate resolution.

If the problem is beyond this tier’s capability, it is escalated to the second tier.

Support Tier 2 Tier 2 engineers have extensive Ubuntu experience and may be specialists in a particular domain of knowledge. Aside from escalated issues, this tier deals with complex problems where there are a range of subsystems involved. The engineer will work to recreate a complex problem and isolate it into a repeatable test case.

In general, issues that involve advanced configuration are resolved at this level. Any resolved issue is then added to the Knowledge Base so you and other users will be able to refer to it in the future.

Support Tier 3 An issue that moves through to the Tier 3 level has been isolated to a repeatable test case. The third tier works on any code changes that are necessary to resolve the problem for you. At this stage, an issue is considered a software defect or a request for an enhancement. The Sustaining Engineering team will focus on resolving software issues or even design changes at this level. They will be responsible for delivering fully supported interim builds when necessary (usually referred to as “Hotfix” in the industry) as well as working with distribution developers to integrate the change in future Ubuntu update releases.

Support collaboration It’s often the case that a problem is not isolated to the operating system, physical hardware or the application itself. Complex issues often exist between the boundaries making it difficult and time-consuming to isolate and debug them. This can become more complex when a variety of vendors are involved. To ensure that our customers receive the highest level of support for these types of issues, we are members of the Technical Support Alliances Network (TSANet). With members such as IBM, HP, Dell, VMware and EMC, you are assured that multi-vendor issues will be co-ordinated and resolved. More information on TSANet is available at tsanet.org

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Ubuntu releases and supportNew versions of Ubuntu are released every six months for both

the desktop and server. The standard releases are maintained

with critical fixes and security updates for 18 months. Every

two years, a long-term support (LTS) release is issued, which

is five years on both the desktop and server.

Ubuntu Desktop includes the core of Ubuntu with a graphical environment and common applications like Firefox, LibreOffice and Thunderbird email. Ubuntu Server includes the core of Ubuntu, along with common server applications such as Apache, Samba and MySQL.

All releases follow the same development process ensuring they reach the same high-quality standard. Each release also comes with security updates and commercial support from Canonical. This means you can choose the release that is most appropriate for you.

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CSS provides support for any release of Ubuntu that is still within its life-cycle, whether it’s a standard or LTS release. Whenever you are ready to upgrade to the next release of Ubuntu,

the support team is there to provide assistance, should you have any problems or issues.

© Canonical Limited 2013. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Canonical and their associated logos are the registered trademarksof Canonical Ltd. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Any information referred to in this document may change without notice and Canonical will not be held responsible for any such changes.

May 2013

Choose Ubuntu Advantage for your business.

Get in touch today:canonical.com/sales+44 207 630 2402

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General Ubuntu Advantage Service Guide