Missing software update notifications

[Sebastian Bazley]

A colleague and I are signed up to receive VMS software update notices. However, these stopped arriving some months ago, and no matter what I do, I don't seem to be able to resubscribe successfully. [I even tried creating a new login] I've raised a call with HP, but so far nothing they have tried seems to work.

So I thought I'd ask here:

Is anyone getting software update notices or is everyone else having the same problems?

[John Abbott_2]

No problems for me. Received two fresh update emails yesterday morning.

Here are the email addrs to subscribe. Are these the ones you're using ?

You are subscribed to: alerts@openvms.org
To subscribe: alerts-on@openvms.org
To unsubscribe: alerts-off@openvms.org
Questions/Comments: kfarmer@openvms.org

web site www.openvms.org

Regards
John.

[Ian Miller.]

If you mean the hp ones I have not seen one for a while.

[Sebastian Bazley]

I was referring to the mailings from HP, which are headed:

HP Technology At Work alerts
Your source for HP drivers, firmware, patches, security bulletins
and support

and are sent from us-news@your.hp.com

But thanks for the pointer - I will sign up for the openvms.org postings.

[Sebastian Bazley]

I wonder how one gets added to:

"TO: Customer Interest List"

which seems to be how openvms.org gets the notifications ...

[John Abbott_2]

The openvms.org emails are very reliable. They sometimes arrive before the patches are up!

I gave up with the hp ones, they became infrequent, haven't seen one since 17-MAR-2004

Kind Regards
John.

[John Abbott_2]

For openvms.org, take the link provided below and pop your email addr into the subscribe box provided.

http://www.openvms.org/pages.php?page=Alerts

[Sebastian Bazley]

It's a bit worrying that one cannot rely on the alerts direct from HP.

I'm happy to get alerts via openvms.org - for one thing, it seems to be a lot easier to manage the subscriptions.

But what happens when HP stop sending alerts to openvms.org?

[John Abbott_2]

Best let Ken F or Ian M jump in here... suspect all their combined love of VMS will not let that happen ! :-)

[Ian Miller. · Accepted solution]

As part of the hp patch release process then the emails are sent to Ken at openvms.org and to encompassus. Ken sends them to the Alerts list. At encompass they are processed resulting in updates to the following
http://www.encompasserve.org/conferences/ECO_new_1.html

Of course hp could choose to stop sending these but if they did there would be questions asked!

Recent editions of the openvms.org newsletter have included the attached information (and much else besides :-)

[Ian Miller.]

Note that in the openvms.org newsletter there is a list of patches released since the last newsletter.

[Sebastian Bazley]

There seems to be at least one alert that did not make it to openvms.org.

According to the MASTER document, VMS732_INSTAL-V0100 was "Placed on Hold" 16-FEB-2006

I would have expected that to be published via the same route as the original patch notification, and possibly elsewhere as well.

[Ian Miller.]

hp send the emails to openvms.org and encompass as a service to the vms community - I don't think its guaranteed.

I have contacted hp to about the lack of patch emails.

[Jess Goodman]

I also haven't been getting the emails from HP when any VMS patches were released. It's been 6 months at least. I checked my subscrber settings on the HP site yesterday, before I even saw this thread, and my profile had VMS 7.x Alpha checked.

I just signed up for the alerts from VMS.ORG. Thanks for the tip.

[Kip Ladd]

Hi Sebastian,

I manage the HP Alerts service and am looking into this issue to see why there is a discrepancy between the HP OpenVMS support information available on openvms.org (referenced by one of the Forum respondents to this string) and what we send out through our alerts service. Please email hpfeedback.bulletins@hp.com with any questions or reply directly to future alerts emails when you have questions or issues.

Regards,

Kip Ladd
HP Driver and Support Alerts Program Manager

[Sebastian Bazley]

I am now getting some alerts which are sent from us-news@your.hp.com

However, they seem to be a bit confused - they don't seem to be in any kind of date order, and I got one message with details of:

VMS732_DCL-V0500
VMS732_DCL-V0600
VMS732_DCL-V0700

and

VMS732_INSTAL-V0100
VMS732_INSTAL-V0200

This seems silly.

[John Abbott_2]

Hi Sebastian,

(as suggested) It might be best to email hpfeedback.bulletins@hp.com

For an official investigation/response

Regards
John.

[Sebastian Bazley]

Thanks - indeed I have also done this.

I should have made it clear that the posting was informational (FYI).

[Willem Grooters]

I may have missed some, but more annoying is that sometimes I get alerts AFTER I have actuallu downloaded and installed the ECO's, that I bacame aware of accessing OpenVMS.ORG - it's more up-to-date than HP's ALERT (!) service.

I must say that this hasn't been very different up to now

Willem

[Sebastian Bazley]

Seems to be a bit better now - I'm starting to get relevant e-mails again.

But OpenVMS.org and checking the ftp directory are probably still more reliable