ITRC Knowledge and Patch Databases - New Architecture Deployed

[Kimberly Ann]

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd let you know that a new architecture for the Technical Knowledge Database and Patch Database was successfully deployed today. The two above mentioned services are the most widely used (very closely followed by forums!), and the intent was to increase the capacity and speed of each. Internal testing indicates the deployment was successful, but in reality, you are the real judges. Can you please let me know what you think of each -- I will feed your input back to the program teams (and they'll be monitoring this thread I'm sure).

Thanks,
Dan
Forums Manager

[Tom Geudens · Accepted solution]

Dan,
It looks fine. I'm a big user of the patch database (I'm not quite sure that was a positive statement :-) and the "download list" together with the option of getting the download zipped is a major improvement !

Always an honour,
Tom :-)

[John Carr_2]

Hi Dan

I just tried the patch database and searched for PHNE_24413 Lan product cumulative patch and it did NOT find it.

can you place the thread for everyone to go straight to on a posting.

cheers
John.

[John Carr_2]

Hi Dan

If I use this thread I dont find the patch

http://europe-support.external.hp.com/emse/bin/doc.pl/sid=c7819c1b066b2f155b?todo=search&searchtext=PHNE_24413&search
criteria=allwords&searchtype=SEARCH_PATCH&search
category=ALL&rn=25&presort=rank&x=42&y=8

but using this route I do

http://support4.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/search.do

Does this mean that the "search the IT centre " is for information only and not links to patches to download ?

cheers
John.

[S.K. Chan]

What can I say, I gave it a test drive, search for patches (800 series, 11.00), keyword search = ifSpeed, came back with a bunch of patches. Look and feel is excellent. I like the "hp rating" stars for each patches. However users might get a bit confused between a recommended 3 star patch vs a most-recent 1 star patch. Or maybe it's just me. I always thought downloading the most-recent (latest) patch should be always rated high. Anyway I particularly like the "auto-patch-dependencies" selection after clicking the "add to download list" button. Generally I think it has improved a lot especially in area of "ease-of-use".

[Michael Tully]

Hi Dan,

That's a real beaut..... Keep up the enhancements ... I'd rather look in here than read the news anyway.......

Have a great weekend!
Michael

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi Dan.
Good improvement.
- better overview
- better download features
- faster downloads

Good job.
Can't always hit poor Dan on the head complaining about the forums ;-)

Kind rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Hi Dan,

Having problems with HPUX 11, March QPK, C3600 + Netscape 4.79.

The forums page attempts to go to www.null.com when I click -> IT resource center home.
(null.com exists too)


The itrc.hp.com site it much better than the forums under hp-ux.


The patch database is a font mess.

All the deselection of pre-requisites is a pain too, other than that, I notice no remarkable difference to before...

Microsoft Internet Explorer for HP-UX doesn't display any text AT ALL, although I consider thats a microsoft problem: (www.microsoft.com doesnt work either)

vocalise:root> /opt/miscrosoft/bin/iexplorer
INFO: The patch level is newer than expected. If you experience problems running the software, review the installation warnings in /var/tmp/IE_host_check
For more information see: /opt/miscrosoft/sms/mwcheck_platform.README
* Updating personal settings...
No need to run mwcolormanager for glubxb03.grenoble.


Later,
Bill

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

I clicked "hp-ux" and was sent to
http://support5.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/search.do?pageContextName=hpux:::

The OS version drop down list shows 2 inch of empty entries, and I cannot enter 11.00 with the keyboard.

This link cannot be used in Opera. I've sent a javascript error in yesterday, which might be related.

Could you *PLEASE* try to be more standard compliant, and not expect all of the world to use M$ crapware?

Mozilla works OK, and I realy /love/ the new interface - which you would have guessed after my recent thread about the ?? evaluation :) - but I would be much more happier if I could realy *USE* it.

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

Here it is from http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x776b7bb04b5cd611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

__________________________
Only a shame that it does not work (at least not with Opera:

Javascript error
--8<---
http://support1.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/search.do?pageContextName=hpux:::

Error:
name: TypeError
message: Value on left hand side of '.' is not convertible to Object: opts[selIndex]
-->8---

Hope they read this
__________________________

[Stefan Schulz]

HI,

i just had a look at the patch database. I like the look and feel.

But there is a little missbehavior on this site.

If you go to search for patches and set your Hardware (eg. 700) and the OS (eg. 10.20). Then folow a link to the explanations (eg. "search or browse the patch list") befor you actually do a search, and use the browser "back" button. This will reset your OS selection to 11.00.

At least with my configuration (HP-UX 10.20, Netscape 4.74) thats the case.

Anyway the new database looks good and seems pretty fast.

Regards Stefan

[John Bolene]

Anyting to help out in the searching and downloading of massive patches is a big help.

Thanks

[Craig Rants]

Dan,
The new patch management interface is definately a more user friendly. I think that it is a good improvement. I also did notice that the results of a patch query I knew would have mulitple dependecies was pretty quick. I think that the deployment looks good so far...


Craig

[George_Dodds]

I like it, found the patch i needed for omniback in no time and the choice of how it is packed is very handy.

Cheers

George

[Helen French]

Hi Dan:

I 've observed these changes yesterday. The updates made on the patch database is so good. Especially the ratings and dependency selections ! I am sure, this will improve the usage of patch downloads and TKB.

Thanks and congrats for the excellent work !

Also, I 've noticed that forum members "country" has been removed from the profiles. Is it part of a forum upgrade ? :))

my $0.02
Shiju

[John Carr_2]

Hi Dan

this is the email I rcieved from Kevin McManus concerning the search being not very good.

Hi John,

Thanks for checking this out. The issue is proving to
be a subtle bug, I think. I thought I had it all figured
out and was writing a reply to you. Then I tried a
few things which disproved my theories -- oh well.

I don't know how this feature used to work, so I can't
determine what changed with the new release. However,
with the current implementation, here's what I got to
work and not work:

o search without logging in never worked

o search with logging in, but without selecting "11.00"
under patches never worked

o search with logging in, selecting "11.00", using
"PHNE_22413" or "phne_22413" always worked

o search with logging in, selecting "11.00", using
"22413" never worked

o selecting the "Patches" checkbox (only possible if
you've logged in) appeared to be irrelevant

So the necessary conditions for this thing to work appear
to be:

1. be logged in
2. select 11.00
3. enter phne_22413 (the full patch id, not just the number)

Is this different than the way that it used to work? How so?

Thanks,

Kevin



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 10:40
Subject: I was logged in when I did the search please see the text
screen dump.



Hi again Kevin

I was logged in and the screen had my name on the left hand side and I have
just done it again to be sure.

http://europe-support.external.hp.com/emse/bin/doc.pl/sid=5a24db660937b317bd
?
todo=search&searchcategory=ALL&rn=25&presort=rank&searchtext=24413&searchcri
teri
a=allwords&searchtype=SEARCH_PATCH&x=26&y=13

and the page dump:






IT resource center

search
online help
contact hp



IT resource center home
my profile
logout



maintenance and support

forums
training and education
planning, design, and implementation





Welcome, John Carr!
(userid#)



search search all of hp.com


search the IT resource center

Search support information, training materials, community discussions, and
news
for multi-vendor multi-platform IT environments.

Search for
Search Criteria: All words Any word Exact Phrase Boolean

Search in
Technical documents
problem fixes, engineer notes, white
papers
Patches
HP-UX: 10.20 11.00 11.11

MPE/iX: 60.00 65.00 70.00

Manuals
manuals at docs.hp.com
Training
classes, seminars, web shops

Community Forums
peers postings, peers issues discussions






Your search for 24413 produced no results!
Note: Please select at least one area before search.




Cheers
John.

[Ravi_8]

Hi,

Better Look!!!!
Patches download rate are improved.


keep it up!

[Martin Johnson]

Downloads have improved! Since I do quarterly upddates, doing 100+ downloads can be time consuming. This will definately speed thing up!


Marty

[PIYUSH D. PATEL]

Hello,

Yes a GREAT LOOK !!!

And the download speed has increased substantially.

EXCELLENT WORK DONE...CONGRATS TO ALL

Piyush

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Dan:

In addition to speed, the abbreviated search specification (e.g. I enter '18543' instead of PHKL_18543), and the collection of patch dependencies in one download (!), I appreciate the appearance of a link to the Patch Database directly from the HP-UX family home page (user "useful links"). Thanks!!! These are grand enhancements, to say the least.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Patrick Wallek]

These new improvements are ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!!! I love the new patch search and download capabilities. The choices for the downloads are wonderful. It is good that there is some flexibility there.

My compliments to all the developers and folks that worked on the interfaces!!!!!