What benefits do CCSM's get?

[Simon_Smith]

Hi, I was just wondering is there any kind of offers on continual training or software for CCSM's?

[Chris_Atkinson]

I've reached out to a contact within TAC to comment / review.

[Jason_Tugwell]

I can alert TAC management on this, but the Escalate to Manager feature may be a good idea as well.

Thanks

Tug

[skandshus]

Then it would certainly help if I felt like the manager took me seriously.. he told me he escalated.. and sent a guy from Tier2..(what kind of an escalation is this)…who just told me to do a specific change in a policy according to an admin guide.. it’s clear that he was trying to buy some time and then wasting mine because the policy chance I was asked to do does something completely different..

guess not much has changed and TAC still don’t feel like getting me some serious help..

[skandshus]

why would that help?
and why is it that everytime something is wrong. the burden is put on the customer and not being fixed internally?

[Chris_Atkinson]

Account services typically deal with entitlement, certification & access issues.

My expectation is that reporting the issue via the official channels should help raise awareness of any potential larger process issue through correlation of tickets for similar symptoms etc.

With that said Shay & Tug have been tagged here for their awareness & comment further to Val's.

Additionally I've reached out to one of the leaders in the TAC regarding this thread and flagged it with them.

[skandshus]

Since they were flagged and you brought this topic to attention of TAC leaders.. what corporate change has  been to implemented to avoid these issues from happening. Cause they still do.

[Chris_Atkinson]

The feedback was that the SR listed here were reviewed and corrections made to the corresponding user profiles, the process in general is also being reviewed for improvement. 

[_Val_]

Some answers: 

Is this a common issue for CCSM certified engineers? (edit) <-- Are you able to find the answer? - VAL: Not as I am aware of
Are TAC procedures for CCSM certified engineers in place and functioning? - VAL: AFAIK, yes
Are all CCSM certified engineers guaranteed the TAC experience advertised/promised? -  VAL: Define "guaranteed". This should be the case for all ppl with a valid CCSM level.
What can be done to guarantee a better quality support experience? - VAL: Neither Phoneboy nor I are the right people to ask this. You should take it with TAC managers.
Are all Sales and Security Engineers aware of the benefits and enabled to assist in the interim? - VAL: Once again, we are not in charge of TAC or Sales.

In my personal experience, all my tickets opened with my own UC account were going to T3. However, this is not the case for any cases opened with shared partner accounts, which are also widely used to open TAC cases. Also, if you are opening a call by phone, there is an issue of associating your status with the case. Ask for T3 access explicitly on such occasions. 

In case you have a valid CCSM status, but a case you personally opened is not automatically getting T3 assigned, escalate both ways: through TAC and also through your SE/AM. Both TAC and Sales should be aware of the benefits and should be able to help. Just do not hesitate to remind them.

[Don_Paterson]

Thanks Val,
@skandshus can comment in the case of livening this thread up today.

Val, don't be afraid to fire off an internal email to a TAC Director to highlight a potential issue. In some cases it may be better for it to be highlighted internally and dealt with, rather than repeatedly vented here, externally 😉

As an ex-employee I am well aware of procedures and the TAC capabilities. I have had the experience from all sides.

To guarantee in this case it to make every effort to assure correct level and quality of support.
For example:"Good day, are you CCSM certified so that I can guarantee your call is routed in the right path through TAC?"

(edit) Obviously a CCSM cert number must then be supplied.

[_Val_]

All relevant managers are already notified, we are never afraid to do that 🙂

[Don_Paterson]

Nice one 👍

If TAC engineers asked about CCSM certification they'd be effectively promoting it 😉 

[Danny]

Did you fill out the TAC support escalation form and write an email to the TAC director?

[Don_Paterson]

Those are valid options.
I think the main issue here is that CCSM certified engineers become frustrated when they get what they see as a bad experience. They are heavily invested in Check Point and are looking for an end-to-end smooth expereince.

Ideally, 1. Tickets don't need to be escalated on a regular basis, and 2. TAC Directors and VPs are not contacted because of Support handling quality issues, meaning that procedures are not set up or are failing (for CCSMs).

[skandshus]

This TAC quality has been an issue Check-Point has been known for, for decades.

Today i had to tell my T2 engineer that it was a pure waste of my time being set up with him as he was both a T2 engineer, which isnt part of the "agreement" and also that he didnt have any experience with https inspection.

My issue is that https inspection is enabled and i just isnt "working" in that sense that it doesnt turn on for whatever reason.
nothing is showing in logs either..

[Don_Paterson]

Without turning this thread into a different story (you could try open a new thread/post). Did you get time to do some debugs on the policy install, or review the .log and .elg files (install_policy.elg) that are populated without a debug running?
Almost seems like a compilation problem on the SMS/DMS(CMA) side (although I obviously don't know any details). I would also check cpm.elg (without a debug running).

sk101226 and 
https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal?eventSubmit_doGoviewsolutiondetails=&solut... 

[skandshus]

i got to the point now where after 2 workings days. i have been in contact with an escalation engineer, who collected logs.. nothing has happeneded ever since. Were now running on 3rd working day with this not working. 
i no world could this ever be satisfying..
and i meet nothing but bad excuses on why its not solved yet..

[_Val_]

I am sorry to hear about your experience. You can escalate once again if you need. Also, if you need my assistance, please send me a personal message.

Also, this particular thread is about CCSM benefits. If you want to share your experience around anything else and seek community support on technical issues, please feel free to open a separate discussion in a relevant space. 

Thanks for your understanding, @skandshus 

[skandshus]

Yep 🙂

[_Val_]

@skandshus From what I see, 054 case is immediately escalated to R&D, this is a higher than T3 level. IT is also opened today, so should not be an issue at all.

Case 335 is now on T3 as well, but it was originally handled by T2. Not sure why, but if I were you, I would request T3 right after being assigned to T2, you have the right.

[skandshus]

i would love to the case in R&D.
But right now im running on my 3rd working day with this not working.
i still havent heard anything ever since the log collection..

the manager isnt of much help either..

right now i have NO idea how to get an answer or how to get things moving, and i dont understand why everytime i need to create a support ticket, i is always something you postpone because it is never a good experience.

[Don_Paterson]

Just to add a little technical input. 
Out of curiosity I did a little lightweight research.

I did a grep for 'inspection' against the 'tail -F cpm.elg' (and no other commands).
It ran while I changed the HTTPSi policy (otherwise there was no output), and then turned it off on the GW and then turned it back on.

I also added the default firewall install log.

Forgot to mention that 'hcp -r all' command might be something to try to.

All that said. It is now in the hands of TAC, of course.

[skandshus]

Thx for the files. ill review them and see if i can find anything looking like that in my setup.
i got 1 Virtual system not working at all with https inspection and a open server, where its partially working.. 

THX!

[Don_Paterson]

If you didn't try it already, maybe try to make a small change to the httpsi policy rules and then try to install again.

I didn't do much investigation, and just tried to grep the word inspection and that worked, but the cpm.elg and the various .txt and .elg files on the gateway might show something (without needing to run debugs).

Search for the usual words, error, warning, fail.

[shay_solomon]

Hi, 

Please email me your details and we will look into it. 

shay_sol@checkpoint.com

Thank

Shay

[starmen2000]

I have been CCSM last week and opened Service Request today. It landed to T2 Engineer. Direct contact to T3 did not work me. I dont know how is it working. 

[Don_Paterson]

Did you achieve CCSM certification last week, for the first time?

If so, then maybe it is too soon to be 'known' to TAC as CCSM certified.

You could open a ticket with Account Services and ask them to confirm that the process is underway. It may be in the queue to be processed with other new certifications on a specific day of the week.

They might be able to put a note on your UC/s in the TAC record/s in the meantime.

[starmen2000]

yes it was the first time, that I ve been CCSM last week. 

[Don_Paterson]

Cool.
Congratulations!
It's probably too soon for the TAC update to have been processed.
I would open a ticket with Account Services (non-technical SR) and take it from there.

[RamGuy239]

I can't say I have consistently gotten T3 engineers on my tickets. I've been CCSM since 10-Mar-2020, and CCSM Elite since 14-Apr-2021. When creating tickets for Maestro, I have one engineer who comes up quite often, and he doesn't have anything regarding his level in his signature to begin with. It's hard for me to say what level he is. Judging by how often TAC engineers seem to ignore most of the details provided and how often they don't register that the required information has already been provided, often several days earlier, it makes me hope they are not T3.

Is it possible for anyone to verify whether my account has been "marked" correctly? Is this a fault in the system for not catching my certification level, or doesn't the system have me marked to begin with?

[Daniel_Szydelko]

Well I read all through this thread and tried to check how it works:

- so I created SR 6-0003721083 in Account Services to check if my certification status (CCSM Elite) is correct and up to date and requested to check if it's really possible to mark somehow that all my new technical SR's should be assigned with T3 engineers

- I received response "Thank you for contacting Check Point Account Services.  The certifications are reflecting correctly in your account and in our system.  At this time I have also updated an Alert that should reflect when you open a request that will alert our engineers that they need to escalate to a T3 Engineer."

- next day I opened new technical SR 6-0003722233 and unfortunately I found that T2 engineer was assigned

- I did SR escalation and requested to assign T3 engineer but nothing happen, no response from TAC manager and still T2 engineer is trying to ask for obvious things...

BR

Daniel.