Role-Based and Enterprise Support

Role-Based Support and Enterprise Support let you configure access to support for Google Cloud organizations. When you use Role-Based Support, you get more predictable rates and a flexible configuration. With Enterprise Support, you get our fastest case response times and you work directly with a dedicated Technical Account Management (TAM) contact who helps you execute a Google Cloud strategy.

Support case management is integrated with the Google Cloud Console with user management built on Identity and Access Management (IAM) for enterprise-grade access control.

To learn about setting up or upgrading basic support, see Getting Support.

Before you begin

• You must have an organization resource. To create or manage an organization, see Creating and Managing Organizations.
• To enable Role-Based Support, you must have the following Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and permissions:
  • Organization Administrator (roles/resourcemanager.organizationAdmin) OR Support Account Administrator (roles/cloudsupport.admin) role.
  • billing.resourceAssociations.create permission for the Cloud Billing account you're using for the offering. This permission is typically granted with the Billing Account Administrator (roles/billing.admin) OR Billing Account User (roles/billing.user) role. For details, see the Overview of Cloud Billing access control.

Setting up your support

You enable Role-Based Support for your Google Cloud organization from the Support page of the Cloud Console.

Enabling Role-Based Support involves requesting a new support account for your organization and selecting a billing account to fund support. The new support account will contain all of your support cases and role assignments.

To enable Role-Based Support:

1. Log into the Cloud Console as an Organization Administrator.
2. Select the organization for which you want to enable Role-Based Support.
3. Go to the Support page and open Cases.
4. Click Enable, and then follow the on-screen prompts to complete the required steps.
5. Submit your request.

User management

After you've enabled your Support offering for your organization, your new support account is created and you are able to start using the Google Cloud Console to add and manage support roles for users in your organization.

Before adding support roles to users, ensure that the users have the resourcemanager.organizations.get permission. Granting this permission to a user will allow that user to see the organization in the Cloud Console without having access to view all resources in the organization. To grant this permission, you can assign them the Organization Viewer (roles/resourcemanager.organizationViewer) role. For more about Identity and Access Management permissions and for other ways to grant access, see the Organization Visibility section.

The Support Account Administrator (roles/cloudsupport.admin) is a key role during the setup process and has the ability to grant users in your organization access to support cases in the Cloud Console anytime by assigning users a support role. You can select from four user roles: Basic, Development, Production, and Business Critical (Enterprise Support only).

Support Account Administrator role

The Support Account Administrator role grants a user the ability to manage an organization's support configuration. The Support Account Administrator is responsible for administering policies for the organization's support account, including:

• Assigning new support users
• Modifying roles for existing support users
• Managing support billing

Note: The Support Account Administrator doesn't automatically have access to support cases. A Support Account Administrator may assign themselves a support role (described below) so that they can view cases, if needed.

To add a Support Account Administrator:

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console IAM & admin page as an organization administrator.
   Go to the Cloud Console IAM & admin page

2. In the IAM Permissions table, find the user, group, or domain you want to assign as a Support Account Administrator and click Edit.

3. In the Edit Permissions window, click + ADD ANOTHER ROLE.

4. In the Select a role drop-down list, select Support > Support Account Administrator.

The Support Account Administrator can now assign roles to support users for the organization in the Support page of Google Cloud.

Support user roles

Users in an organization with Role-Based Support or Enterprise Support enabled can manage support cases for the organization based on their assigned support role. All of the following support roles grant read access to all of the organization's support cases, with specific roles granting the ability to create and modify cases.

Support Role	Access/Response time	Role-Based Support (per user/per month)	Enterprise Support (included with support package)
Basic	Read-only access to support cases	Free	Included
Development	Create P2 cases—response within 4 business hours	$100
Production	Create P1 cases—response within 1 hour	$250
Business Critical	Create P1 cases—response within 15 minutes	n/a

For more information about support availability, see Language Support and Working Hours.

Note: Organizations with Enterprise Support will receive unlimited support users and can elect to assign them all to the Business Critical role, or any of the other support roles.

To assign support roles:

1. Log into Cloud Console as an Organization Administrator.
2. Select the organization that has Role-Based Support or Enterprise Support enabled.
3. Go to the Support page and open Settings.
4. In the Support Roles tab, add, edit, or remove assigned support users.

Any user with an assigned support role can view the list of other support users for the organization under Support > Settings.

Note: Only Enterprise Support users can assign support roles to Google Groups. Otherwise, each Support user must be a named individual with a valid Google account.

Case management

For support case management and how to view known issues with Google Cloud services, see Managing cases.

Contact phone support

Any user can contact phone support with billing or policy violation notification questions. Users with the Production or Business Critical support role assigned can contact phone support with technical questions about projects within their organization.

To contact phone support:

1. Log into Cloud Console.
2. Select the project for which you'd like support.
3. Go to the Support page and open Phone Support.
4. Select your current country and call the phone number provided.
5. When prompted, enter the support PIN.

Billing

Role-Based Support

Any paid support role assignment immediately starts a 30 day minimum commitment. The billing account funding support is billed monthly for each assigned support role at the specified monthly rate.

The support account administrator can change the billing account that funds Role-Based Support in the Cloud Console on Support's Settings page.

Note: The support account administrator must also have the billing.resourceAssociations.create permission (Billing Account Administrator, Billing Account User roles) for the target billing account and billing.resourceAssociations.delete permission (Billing Account Administrator role) for the active billing account.

Enterprise Support

Support is billed on a monthly basis and is calculated as a tiered percentage spend of Google Cloud usage, with a minimum of $15,000, unless a contracted custom pricing arrangement is in place. There is a minimum commitment of 1 year for Enterprise Support.

To change the funding billing account, contact support.

Downgrades and termination (Role-Based Support only)

You can downgrade a user's support role assignment at any time.

Note: For Role-Based Support, if you terminate an assigned role prior to the end of the 30-day period, you will be charged for the entirety of the 30 days.

• If the role has been assigned for more than 30 days, you will begin paying the rate for the newly assigned support role immediately.
• If the role has been assigned for less than 30 days, the role assignment will take effect immediately, but you will continue to pay for the previously assigned role until the 30 day minimum commitment as been met. Once the commitment has been met, you will begin to pay for the newly assigned role at the specified rate.

For general information about closing your support account, see Close Your Cloud Support Account.

Upgrades (Role-Based Support only)

If you upgrade a support role before the end of the 30-day period, you will be billed at the prorated amount for the new role on the day of assignment until the end of the calendar month. The new role will auto-renew at the beginning of the next month.

Access Considerations

When granting roles to users, you should keep in mind the following access considerations.

Organization visibility

To access an organization's support account (and cases), any user with an assigned support role (including Support Account Administrators) must have the resourcemanager.organizations.get permission to view the organization for the associated support account. The resourcemanager.organizations.get permission allows users to see the organization in the Google Cloud Console without having access to view all resources in the organization.

To give users the resourcemanager.organizations.get permission, you can grant them the Organization Viewer (roles/resourcemanager.organizationViewer) role. You can assign the Organization Viewer role to a domain, a group, or a set of users at the organization level using IAM.

Alternatively, you can assign users a role that grants the resourcemanager.organizations.get permission, such as a custom role for your organization.

For steps on granting roles and permissions, see the IAM's documentation on Granting, changing, and revoking access to resources.

Access to an organization's cases is global

You should be aware that any user with permission to view support cases for an organization's support account will be able to view all of the cases for that organization.

Google Cloud Support Center access

For customers that have migrated from Silver, Gold, or Platinum Support, when Role-Based Support or Enterprise Support is enabled for an organization, cases are no longer accessible through the Google Cloud Support Center (GCSC). The migrated support cases will be accessible only in the Google Cloud Console.

Support cases for other Google products in GCSC will remain unchanged.