The New HP Support Center

[Michael Steele_2]

Today I received an email announcing the new HP Support Center and I am concerned about losing the ‘once’ best source of research in the name of something 'new'. The ITRC is going away and its time to get ready for "..The NEW HP Support Center..".

RAH!!!!

(* Yeah, right. *)

QUESTION: Does anybody know what it will be like? Better yet, does it work? I mean this with all sincerity: I'm afraid it won't work.

As a long time member of the HPUX forums I have seen what was once an ultra superior UNIX Technical website that started with a fantastic search engine (* 10 -15 years ago the ITRC search engine was the best in the business *) and watched it slowly degrade into just an average UNIX Technical Forum that usually worked but often not. And every time a new version of the ITRC search engine was released it provided less and less for clearly there was a cost to storage of information problem.

Now I more often google 'for profit' and private UNIX forums instead of coming first to the ITRC because "...you just can't get here anymore..." "...even for HP solutions...".

(* Truly, its a said note when you have to go to toolbox.com for an HPUX solution. *)

In the last decade 'new' has never been better for the ITRC and its only meant 'loss'.

In addition there are now multiple HP sources”.. all from HP..” and all having different solutions to the same problem. Once I tried getting the latest and greatest HBA firmware patches for a Superdome and spent over a week getting redirected. I was bouncing around and collecting different solutions to the same question. All with different answers and all stating to ignore the others!!!

Answers from the HP have become subjective. Meaning what one person at HP sees another HP person will see differently. And heuristic. Mmeaning you’re only get their best guess instead of an absolute answer.

New software products HP Service Center which is a trouble ticket application and HP Server Automation which is a windows based GUI replacement for Ignite, appear more like college freshmen projects submitted for a grade than a professionally developed piece of software because neither work.

I feel only foreboding at this new HP Support Center for the reasons listed above.

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

docs.hp.com was the first strike, itrc will be the next ...


I think the "replacement" will look like this:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/


:-(

[Michael Steele_2]

For example:

http://docstore.mik.ua/cgi-bin/search

[Stephan._1]

In my opinion everybody that is here around for a longer time does not understand these moves of a so many useful information.

They told us for the move of docs.hp.com that the links inside the ITRC will be fixed, but if I search for a problem my most seen website is "Document moved to BSC".

What about the links in every documentation?

Same will happen here ... I just hope that all the well known guys that contribute a lot more then i ever had the time for will move as well. Otherwise this move will even hit harder.

My 2 cent ...
Stephan

[Doug Burton]

I feel the same way. I hope I'm wrong. Hope it doesn't go the direction HP-UX support (has) seems to be going (I'm trying to be nice):

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1060955

[Jan van den Ende]

Michael,

you fears are carried broader than only HPUX.

The OpenVMS experience is not any better, sad to say.

:-(

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Dennis Handly]

>Torsten: I think the "replacement" will look like this: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/

Yes, that's the new format for the old BSC forum.

One problem I've seen (at least in firefox) is that you need a wider window. And the big issue is there is no horizontal scroll bar giving you a hint the right side is truncated!

[Ismail Azad]

Hi Michael,

Apart from the knowledge base and patch database, considering the forum part , I did read that there would be some enhanced capabilities to the forumers which would include links to images/videos, private messaging, spell check etc. Well that does sound promising. Well I am staying positive and hoping for the best and with the "fast forward" happening as it is termed, let us hope that we see a revival of the "ultra superior UNIX technical website" you saw a decade back.

Well I do know that the vast majority would miss the "ITRC". And so will I.

Regards
Ismail Azad

[Michael Steele_2]

I really can't imagine a situation where I would want to spend the time making a video just to answer a technical question. I mean, what kind of video am I going to shoot? A screen dump of the problem as I scroll along? Possibly. Possibly. But I doubt it.

Am I going to use my cell phone to make this video? Seems logical.

Question: How long are they going to keep these video attachments? Seems like they have a problem now just keeping text attachments.

Also seems like a lot of disk to spend on when an ascii text answer uses so much less disk and still gets the point across at a huge fraction.

Hurrah for video attachments!!! RAH!!! (* NOT *)

[Michael Leu]

I am also very curious about the new Support Center. Hopefully something that HP invented themselves for a change...

What I really like about the ITRC is it's simplicity to access certain areas:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/postanswer.do?threadid=
http://itrc.hp.com/service/mcmItrc/homePageViewCallReq.do?callID=
http://itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchTree.do?patchid=
http://itrc.hp.com/service/entitlementsadmin/viewSupportAgreementDetails.do?contractID=
(And of course you stay authenticated the whole time, bloody HP Passport session timeout!)


The new Lithium forums (especially the Enterprise Business one) still need a lot of improvement... But hey, to look on the bright side, in those forums you can create sections so if you finally find that post, it should be more readable :-)