DSNlink vs. ITRC

[Aaron Sakovich]

I just received my April Fools letter regarding the demise of DSNlink on the 26th of this month. I dutifully went to the ITRC to research my latest problem for one of my developers: programming mailboxes in COBOL.

My first attempt was to search the ITRC for $CREMBX. Surprisingly, I got zero hits. I then searched for "mailbox". Lots of UNIX and Exchange solutions. I tried to apply a filter to the search, but OpenVMS was *not* listed as an available filter option! As a work-around, I changed the search to "OpenVMS mailbox". This came up with 50 solutions, but most appeared to be patches, not exactly what I was looking for. I modified the search again to "OpenVMS mailbox programming example", and voila, 9 hits! Unfortunately, none were programming examples, all were patches. I added "Manuals" to the list, but got the same results -- I soon discovered that OpenVMS manuals were not included in the manuals provided at docs.hp.com!!!

I went to DSNlink ITS, opened the OpenVMS database, typed in "mailbox programming example" and got 93 pertinent results, including real sample code for programming mailboxes.

Needless to say, I am very distressed at the prospect of losing this great resource, and getting a not-quite-ready replacement. If this is the best replacement that HP can provide, I will immediately have our purchasing department cancel the order that I recently requested for additional layered product services to support our COBOL programming staff, and will instead rely on C.O.V. and Google for support.

I hope someone here can point me in the correct direction for either finding the proper website for REAL OpenVMS support, or will help me in elevating this to the officials that need to know that the ITRC tools that are to replace DSNlink simply are not adequate and are not worth the money we spend for support services.

Sincerest regards,
Aaron

[labadie_1]

hello

I think you shoud go to

ask.compaq.com

then in
high performance system
you click
symtom and solution article

you search for
cobol mailbox

this leads you to
http://j1hp.jeevessolutions.com/hp/match.asp?query=cobol+mailbox&source=0&origin=0&chkHighPerfThree=on

which seems to have valid examples.

Regards

Gerard

[Willem Grooters]

Aaron,

I wasn't aware of this site, nor of it's demise, but I absolutely agree with your concern. I (and no doubt, most on the forum) cannot agree more on your last statements.

However:

ITRC is a source of information and an exchange of knowledge, not a database of examples like DSNLink.

No matter whether DSNLink is HP-owned or not, HP should take complaints of it's VMS customer-base serious. But I'm afraid the level takiong decisions do't know (of don't want to know) about anything else than Unix (in whatever flavour) and Windows.

Sad, Sad, Sad.

It will be even worse for thos that Hhave to rely on these types of information.

Willem

[labadie_1]

sorry, there was a typo

askq.compaq.com

[Aaron Sakovich]

I should have mentioned that also -- I did try askq.compaq.com, but was quickly discouraged when I got over 10,000 results for the "OpenVMS mailbox programming example" query.

I don't think it's an efficient use of my time to search through 10,000+ articles, manuals, notes, and other items -- that is, after all, why I tried using a search engine in the first place, to pare DOWN the amount of info available to me to something a human can manage. The computer is my tool, I am not its slave.

As a reference, Google's web search returned 2,840 results on that same query. Google Groups returned 148. Quantity does not equal quality, but fewer is easier for a human to digest; I could handle 148, or 93 -- 10,000 is out of the question.

As an Enterprise-class customer, I've come to expect a certain level of service. Based on my experience described above, I currently do not think that the facilities listed as replacements for DSNlink provide that same level of quality.

Hoping that someone can show me the error in my ways,
Aaron

[Ian Miller.]

I'm told the askq site does have all the articles that are on DSNlink and if I haved been told an exact article title I can get it. However I agree it is much harder to find stuff than on DSNlink.

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Aaron,

as you found out ITRC is mainly about two things:

1.) Patches
2.) The forums

hp researched answers are in the "Ask the wizard" area at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/index.html

Documentation is at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/

If you use ITRC for what it is made it is quite ok.

HTH,

Martin

[Aaron Sakovich]

Hi Martin,

I appreciate your input, but I'm a paying customer with a support contract. It used to be that all the facilities of DSNlink plus telephone support were the value that I bought with my service dollars. Are you saying that I must now resort to "Asking the wizard" or "Ask Q" when I have a critical situation that needs priority resolution?

I tried the web-based support case manager, but it doesn't list any of my contracted items -- not even OpenVMS.

I've been away from my desk, but have had a chance to further examine the AskQ tool -- it does look like it can find the stuff I'm looking for as long as the query is formed and boxes checked as labadie described. I'm not now sure how I managed to get it to return 10,000+ results, but 1625 is better! Is there any way to do a "subsearch" (a la DSNlink ITS) on the results returned from such a search?

Hopeful,
Aaron

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Aaron,

we do have a service contract in the company I work for and I am not aware that ITRC is meant to be a replacement for opening service calls. If anybody told you so I would think they have been misguided and I would follow up on this with hp if I were you. OTOH the forums can be very useful if you want to get unfiltered input from peers about issues (or if you do not have a service contract).

Greetings, Martin

[Ian Miller.]

for logging VMS calls I use ESR
https://ww4.ccc.emea.compaq.com/HomePage.asp