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Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

 
Ian Miller.
Honored Contributor

Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

If you jump straight to this forum you may not have seen the important note on the itrc front page.

I reproduce it here for your information. I have no answers.

Important note: As of September 18 (or shortly thereafter), HP will institute a change in the way that Patch services are accessed. Beginning at that time, Patch access will be through the ITRC support portal. You need to have a valid ITRC user ID and password and will now also need an active HP support agreement that includes Software Updates linked to your ITRC profile to access Patch content and services. We urge you to review your current support coverage now to ensure you have valid coverage and can maintain uninterrupted access to Patch. To obtain support coverage, please contact your local HP office or representative or visit http://www.hp.com/go/contacthp access HP via Chat or phone. For more information, please read the FAQs at this link.
http://www.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c02476621
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Purely Personal Opinion
92 REPLIES 92
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

Hi Ian,

If you subscribe to HP's "Technology at Work Alerts" this information was also emailed out early this morning...

My initial reaction was, along the lines of "understandable", but I then got thinking about how long it takes HP to sort out support agreements.

In my experience this is usually a protracted experience that takes months, because few people within HP actually understand their own support offerings.

I suspect only giving people a month is somewhat shortsighted...

Regards,

Rob
Jan van den Ende
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

Hi Ian,

Any ideas (or info) what that means for the Hobbyist Program? Is that somehow considered as a support contract, or are we simply F**d?

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe
Don't rust yours pelled jacker to fine doll missed aches.
Ian Miller.
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

Patch access for hobbyists is one of the as yet unresolved questions.
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Purely Personal Opinion
Brian Reiter
Valued Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

Its going to be less than fun for those of us without support contracts. Don't ask me why we don't have a support contract, its out of my hands.
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

> Patch access for hobbyists is one of the as
> yet unresolved questions.

If it stays unresolved, then I expect to
begin migrating my primary computing
environment away from VMS fairly soon.

I sent a query into an "HP AllianceONE
Partner Program" (DSPP?) Web form, asking if
that program had anything to offer to a
lowly non-commercial peon like me. No reply
yet, but it hasn't been a whole day. Past
experience along those lines doesn't lead me
to expect much, but I'm always open to a
pleasant surprise.
Rob Leadbeater
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

@Brian: Don't ask me why we don't have a support contract

You won't be alone.

When we went through our last renewal, the base price had gone up by around 15%, which is a substantial chunk of cash on a 6 figure contract.

For the yearly maintenance price (sw and hw) of a GS160 I reckon I could buy two second user boxes for spares - and why should I bother paying for software support, when I've not logged a support call in years...

Cheers,

Rob
Brad McCusker
Respected Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

We're also going to be asking DSPP (or whatever it's called these days). We get our licenses for our development machines through DSPP, I hope they have a way to allow us to stay current with patches.

If anyone sees/hears what DSPP will do, please share with this forum.

Brad McCusker
Software Concepts International
www.sciinc.com
Brad McCusker
Software Concepts International
David R. Lennon
Valued Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

Hi,

I'm really ticked off at this for several reasons.

I'm one of those described in the "faq" for this change that devoted considerable effort to develop a "script" DCL command procedure that compares the patches on the current system with what is on the ftp site and downloads the ones needed, etc. How about a supported way to automate this natively on OpenVMS? This is even easy on MS Windows with Microsoft Update.

So now we have to login (most likely using another operating system's web browser) and individually download each patch then transfer them to our VMS system.

I'm also a hobbyist at home, so I have those access issues as well.

It seems to me if there is a defect (bug) in an operating system they sold, any patches to that o/s should be free. The LMF is there to make sure the o/s is "legal" right?

This can't be costing them much to maintain files on a ftp site. Maybe I don't understand their real reason for doing this, other than inconveniencing their customers...

I've asked our company's CIO to complain to our HP salesperson about this. Does anyone know a more direct person at HP to contact about this issue?

Thanks,
Dave
John Gillings
Honored Contributor

Re: Change to Patch services effective September 18, 2010

No doubt about it, HP hasn't changed ;-)

Decree from on high "do this NOW!". Act immediately, and then discover all the unanticipated fallout, and leave it to the worker bees to clean up the mess.

More than 17 levels of management to insulate those who make the decisions from having the slightest clue about what happens down where the real action occurs. More often than not it would only have taken a 5 minute conversation which someone familiar with the mechanisms (maybe even, shock horror, with a *customer*!?, what a concept!) to realise the flaws in the plan, such as those immediately raised here.

The only saving grace is that the people at the bottom level who have to actually DO all this stuff are exceptionally good at insulating customers from ill-conceived bozo decisions from on high.

It will be sorted out in the end, but it may take a while.

Aren't giant multinational corporations fun?
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