How To Find Documents?

[Dennis Handly]

I've reported the problem and here is what I got:
=================
We started archiving the migrated docs on docs.hp.com about two weeks ago.
This will be ongoing until end of this month. This means people can't access these docs on docs.hp.com anymore. As for google still detecting docs on docs.hp.com, it may take a while for the cache to clear up.

The only docs that are on docs.hp.com should be the "html-only" docs. These don't have equivalent pdfs so they'll be on docs.hp.com until we can convert them and move them over to BSC.
=================

Here is a statement about the changes:
=================
Most of the manuals on www.docs.hp.com have been
migrated over to the Business Support Center (BSC) site: http://www.hp.com/bizsupport . This is the central site for all HP's technical documentation as well as other support features. All the redirection pointers to equivalent documentation locations on BSC are listed on the
http://www.docs.hp.com homepage. Also, there are two documents that list all the "go links" to BSC based on documentation collections (e.g., HP-UX Core Docs, NonStop Technical Library, HP-UX I/O Cards, High Availability, Insight Dynamics, Virtualization Software, etc) as well documentation sets (e.g., HP-UX Core Docs: Manpages, Logical Volume Managers, etc.) You can find these two documents under the "What's new" section of the http://www.docs.hp.com homepage (highlighted in yellow below). There is also a slide set that talks about the migration status (highlighted in blue below).

What's new
> What's new http://docs.hp.com/en/new.html

Documentation moving to HP Business Support Center (BSC) - See current status (BLUE)
http://docs.hp.com/en/moving.pdf

Quick References to Accessing Documentation on BSC:
(YELLOW)
Accessing HP-UX Documentation on BSC
http://docs.hp.com/en/Locating-HPUX-Docs-on-BSC-Guide.pdf
Accessing HP Enterprise Servers Documentation on BSC
http://docs.hp.com/en/Locating-HP-HW-Docs-on-BSC-Guide.pdf
(/YELLOW)
Thank you.
HP ESSN Tech Docs
=================

>Bill: Every existing link needs to refer to the new location and not a 404 error

I don't think that was ever the goal. There was an assumption that a search engine would be used and would have no problems finding it again.

Both of these seem to have let down users.

>I don't know which manuals have the EFI information so I have to search each one, one at a time.

That's where google was suppose to help.

[Torsten.]

How did I find it:

http://www.hp.com/go/bsc -> Manuals

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/ProductRoot.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64255&taskId=101

-> Software -> Unix Operating Systems

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Product.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=10008&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64255&prodTypeId=18964&prodCatId=391525&prodSubCatId=3197900

-> HP-UX 11i Volume Management (LVM/VxVM) Software

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=10008&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64255&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=4296010

White Papers Section (last entry)

[Michael Leu]

IMHO it's a good thing they finally moved to the BSC. For ProLiants, EVAs etc you had to use it anyway, so now everything is in one place - and I like that! :-)

And they don't have to maintain docs.hp.com anymore, so I expect HP to put some effort into improving the BSC. It has been left to rot for too long.

[Pete Randall]

Michael,

I don't think anyone here feels that it's a bad idea - just a VERY poorly executed one!


Pete

[Michael Leu]

Sorry about the misinterpretation Pete... also I couldn't resist giving my 2c. ;-)

Duncan, BSC search finds 102 manuals mistitled 'Meet the HP Superdome servers'. It's because the title of the PDF is set to a wrong value (as seen with Ctrl+D in Adobe Reader). It would be nice if HP could fix those PDF titles.

[Maureen Rakel]

Another source of information is my HP_UX_Docs Twitter account. I announce all HP-UX newly posted documentation that I know about. You can find the account at http://www.twitter.com/HP_UX_Docs. I know that's not the same as searching for information, but if you send me a direct message, I can help find information for you.

[Pete Randall]

Maureen,

What source do you have that tells you about all this "newly posted documentation"? Are you connected with HP?


Pete

[Maureen Rakel]

Hi Pete - I am. I'm forwarding this thread to our doc team for their information.

[Pete Randall]

Thanks, Maureen.

[Bill Hassell]

So the question remains: what about the thousands of links hardcoded into ITRC responses? Will there be an effort to either translate the text in the postings to a working document URL or perhaps replace the missing document with a forwarding link?

[Michael Leu]

HP could use mod_rewrite...

1) create a map.txt
# old PN new BSC id
5992-3818 c01941057 # LVM Release Notes
5992-3385 c02023734 # LVM Admin Guide
6054 c01914836 # LVM Limits
5991-1236 c01911837 # LVM when good disks go bad
[and so on...]

2) put this in the apache config on docs.hp.com:
RewriteMap bscmap txt:/path/to/file/map.txt
RewriteRule ^/en/(.*)/.* http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/${bscmap:$1}/${bscmap:$1}.pdf

[cnb]

"That's where google was suppose to help."

IMHO After all these months it is still a nightmare. This is the first site that I ever seen several "HOW-TO" documents for locating documents. With all of the effort HP put into the "locating documents" manuals and moving.pdf, etc, etc, etc... you'd think THAT ALONE WOULD SPEAK VOLUMES about the problem.

Sorry, but Google can't even help me find something I need to locate quickly.

I waste more time searching for docs that used to be on docs.hp.com and now supposedly on BSC than I do at home for lost socks...


-cnb