ITRC Patch Download FAQ for OpenVMS users
From: George Pagliarulo (georgepag_at_adelphia.net)
Date: 10/02/03
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Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2003 18:52:25 GMT
I've compiled the questions and comments I've received from users about
the new ITRC patch download site into an FAQ. Hopefully this will help the
transition to the new site go smoother and answer a lot of lingering
questions.
George Pagliarulo
Hewlett-Packard Company
george.pagliarulo@hp.com
ITRC Patch Download FAQ for OpenVMS Users
1.0 Access to the ITRC Patch Download Site
----------------------------------------------
1.1 Why is the old patch download site going away?
As a result of the HP - Compaq merger the various patch distribution
processes used in the two companies were evaluated with the goal to move to
a single, unified solution. That evaluation showed that the existing HP
patch distribution process (IT Resource Center or ITRC) included many useful
features lacking in the Compaq OpenVMS patch distribution process and could
be modified to provide additional features that VMS users required. Based on
that, the decision was made to migrate the OpenVMS patch distribution
process to the ITRC.
1.2 When will the old site be shut down?
The old patch distribution site (http://www.support.compaq.com/patches/ or
ftp://ftp.support.compaq.com/public/) is scheduled to be shut down October
31, 2003. Customers who attempt to access the old site after it is shutdown
will be redirected to the new patch download site at www.itrc.hp.com
1.3 What is the URL for the new patch download site?
The URL for the new ITRC site is http://www.itrc.hp.com. Users should update
their bookmarks to point to this web site for patch retrieval of OpenVMS
patches. Users are encouraged to begin familiarizing themselves with the HP
ITRC patch web site before the existing patch server is shutdown, to
minimize any disruption to online patch retrieval.
1.4 Can I still use FTP to access OpenVMS patches?
Yes, FTP access is NOT going away when the old site is discontinued. You can
still access kits via anonymous FTP on the ITRC site by connecting to
ftp.itrc.hp.com or to ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com from your browser. ITRC
registration is not required to use FTP access. Internal users behind the HP
firewall may need to set PASSIVE mode ON when using FTP to access the ITRC
FTP directories.
1.5 Do I have to use a PC to access the ITRC patch site?
No, there are two ways to access the ITRC via your OpenVMS system. You can
use FTP ftp.itrc.hp.com or you can use the Mozilla browser.
1.6 Where can I get a browser to use on my VMS system to access the ITRC web
site?
You can download any of the browsers for VMS at:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/ebusiness/technology.html
Browsers are also available at:
1.7 Why do I have to register for ITRC access?
Registering for an HP ITRC login is required to find and retrieve patches
via the HP ITRC web interface. This ensures that we can contact anyone who
may have downloaded a patch for which a serious problem is later discovered.
Registration is unrestricted and open to all users.
1.8 Why doesn't my Americas ITRC registration work for the European ITRC
site?
The Americas ITRC site assigns and expects user IDs that start with "CA",
the European site assigns and expects user IDs that start with "BR". The two
ITRC logins are not transferable between the Americas and European sites.
Customers who want to access both sites need to register at each site and
receive the unique CA and BR login IDs.
1.9 Why isn't my contract number accepted?
When you register for the ITRC you will see an option to link Support
Contracts with your HP ITRC login. This does NOT work for pre-merger Compaq
contract numbers. The way this is being handled is that as Compaq contracts
expire and are re-issued with HP contracts, those new contract numbers will
be accepted by ITRC registration. You can access all patch content and most
other HP ITRC services without a linked support contract. Support Contracts
are only necessary for a few HP ITRC services related to some pre-merger HP
products only.
2.0 Locating Kits
------------------
2.1 Why are the old and new FTP directory structures different?
The ITRC FTP site has general version directories such as V7.3x and V7.2x.
This structure matches that used for other HP operating systems. However, it
does not accommodate VMS users' needs. This structure is changing and these
directories will be replaced by specific OpenVMS V7.3-1, V7.3, V7.2-1H1 etc.
directories. The Alpha V6.2x directory will not be changed since the kits in
this directory apply to all V6.2 variants. These changes will occur before
the old server is shutdown. Note that the advanced patch searching
features - patch dependency relationships and multiple patch downloads - are
not available from the HP ITRC FTP site.
2.2 Where are the UPDATE kits?
When you access the new site via FTP you will not see the UPDATE kits in the
various version directories. Instead, the UPDATE kits are located in the
patch_bundles/openvms directory structure. This is changing and the UPDATE
kits will be moved to the specific VMS version directories, e.g., V7.3-1,
V7.3. This change is scheduled to be done in the October timeframe.
2.3 I only want to see the most recent, installation rating 1 patches. How
can I search for
only those?
To search by date you can use wildcard characters with the "Search by
Keyword" option. Use a question mark (?) to match any single character, and
an asterisk (*) to match multiple characters. Using wildcards, it is
possible to search for all patches posted within a given month by including
a date string in the keyword field. Since the patch post date is always
recorded in yyyymmdd format, entering "200308*" in the keyword field will
return all patches posted in August 2003.
Currently there is no reliable way to search by rating. New patches issued
have INSTALL_1, INSTALL_2, INSTALL_3 keywords in the documentation but older
patches do not have those keywords. We will soon be adding those keywords to
the patch documents for all the patches listed. When that happens, you will
be able to search using those rating as keywords in the keyword field.
Keywords can also be combined using the Boolean search criteria for more
advanced searches. For example, entering "INSTALL_1 AND (200308* OR
200309*)" will return all patches posted during the past 2 months with an
install rating of 1.
In a future release of the ITRC GUI, the post date of each patch will be
displayed in the notes area for each patch, and the search results will be
sorted by Installation rating and post date from newest to oldest. These
changes are expected in the January ITRC release.
2.4 Can I search by patch ID?
The "Search by Patch IDs" option was designed to quickly search for specific
patches when the patch IDs are already known. Wildcard characters ("*", "?")
are not recognized with the "Search by Patch IDs" option, and are
interpreted literally. More than one patch ID can be entered in the "Search
by Patch IDs" field (separated by spaces or commas) to search for more than
one patch at a time. Although it is possible to only enter a portion of a
patch ID in the "Search by Patch IDs" field (e.g. LINKER), only the first
matching patch will be returned for each "word" entered. Since the
corresponding patch ID is included in each patch document, you can
workaround this by using the "Search by Keyword" option to find all patches
by product or facility. The ability to return multiple search results when
searching by patch ID is under investigation, and may be included in a
future ITRC release.
2.5 Why do the search results display multiple columns with the same patch
IDs?
When you browse or do a keyword search for patches, the search results list
two patch ID columns - "Recommended" and "Most Recent". If you do a search
by Patch ID, three columns are returned - "Recommended", "Most Recent" and
""Specified". These columns have meaning for other HP operating systems but
are not relevant to the way OpenVMS distributes patches. The ITRC GUI is
being updated to reflect the needs of OpenVMS patch searches. In the future,
a search for OpenVMS patches by keyword or browsing patches will return only
the "Most Recent" column of results. A search by Patch ID will return the
"Specified" and Most Recent" columns. The Patch ID search will return two
columns because users may enter superseded patch IDs. Note that only the
"Most Recent" patch will be able to be downloaded. These changes are
expected in the January ITRC release.
2.7 Where are the patches for older versions of VMS?
The ITRC site will have two sides. An "active" side that contains patches
for supported versions of VMS and an "archive" side that will contain
patches for older versions of VMS. The Active part of the site is currently
up. The Archive side of the site is not yet available. It will be available
before the October shutdown of the old site and will have a directory
structure similar to the old FTP site. Note that the advanced patch
searching features, patch dependency relationships and multiple patch
downloads are not available from the HP ITRC FTP site.
2.8 Why aren't all kits on the active site?
The old patch download site allowed multiple binary files to be listed for
one kit, e.g. multiple VMSINSTAL savesets. The ITRC site only allows one
binary file per kit. This meant that any kit with multiple binaries had to
be repackaged into a single binary file. In addition, because of differences
in the naming convention used for VMS kit documents and the requirements on
the ITRC site, the text file for each kit that was moved to the active side
of the ITRC site had to be re-processed. It was decided to not expend
valuable resources to do this work for older, unsupported versions of the
operating system.
3.0 Downloading Patches
--------------------------
3.1 Why does the download page require me to select a download format?
You only need to select a download format if you have multiple kits in your
shopping cart and want to download them with one operation. The kits need to
be repackaged into one downloadable file, so, under the heading "download
items in one operation", you are asked to select the format desired. For VMS
kits, the format selected should be ZIP. Note that if you download multiple
kits in a package, you will need to expand that package on your system to
get the individual kits. Since kits on the ITRC site are stored as
self-extracting executables (as they were on the old site), you will then
need to expand each of those self-extracting files to arrive at the final
installable kit file.
If you are downloading a single kit there is no need to select a format. You
can simply elect an HTTP or FTP download under the section heading "download
items individually".
3.2 How do I know what the dependencies are for a kit?
VMS patches have two types of dependencies, required dependencies which are
kits that must be installed first, before the target kit gets installed, and
optional dependencies, kits that should be installed with the target kit but
are at the discretion of the user. For new kits being issued, both types of
dependencies will be listed at the top of the kit document, in a kit
information header, as well as the usual spots in the body of the document.
When you select a kit for download, if it has required dependencies, those
kits will also be added to your "shopping cart". The user has the option to
remove them from the cart (e.g. if the dependent kits have already been
downloaded). Optional dependencies will not automatically be added to the
shopping cart. The user will have to select them.
3.3 How can I download the kit .TXT files?
The .TXT files are included in the self-extracting binary file. Once the kit
is expanded, the document (called the Release Notes) can be extracted from
the binary file or will be placed in the system help directory during kit
installation. FTP can also be used to download the .TXT file from the FTP
directories.
3.0 Patch Notifications
-----------------------
3.1 How can I get notified of new patches when the old site goes away?
Digests are the way you get notified of new kits. You need to register for
them but registration is open and does NOT require a contact number. Digests
are issued weekly. There is a known problem with the digests in that they
pick up all or almost all the ECO's that are released rather than just the
ECO's released since the last digest was issued. The problem is fixed but
unfortunately the fix can not be implemented until there is a new release of
the ITRC GUI. That will happen in October. When it does, you should not see
more than 5 to 8 ECOs in a VMS digest, probably a lot less most of the time.
If no ECO's have been released for the week, no digest will be issued.
3.2 Why aren't digests available for versions besides V7.x?
Earlier versions are not fully supported and will not have any future,
generally available kits issued against them.
3.3 How can I get immediate notice of critical patches for issues like
security problems?
If there is a critical patch that customers need to know about immediately,
a Customer Advisory is issued that details the problem and what the
corrective action is - usually a pointer to the applicable kit. The Customer
Advisories go out through a completely different process than the ITRC and
have no time restrictions. They will go to customers as soon as they are
released.
3.3 Why aren't checksums listed on the ITRC site?
The VMS kitting process never issued checksums. Those were added as a post
processing step by the process that loaded the kits onto the distribution
site, once the kits were released by VMS. To make up for the loss of that
function when the old process does go away, VMS kits now include the
checksum in the documentation. The .TXT files for new kits now have a header
at the top that lists critical information like installation rating, reboot
requirement, kit size, and the checksum value. This has already been
implemented.
We are looking at how to get the checksums moved over for the older kits but
that may not be possible. At most, efforts will be concentrated on getting
checksums added to the documentation for the most recent OpenVMS versions.
4.0 Getting Help
-----------------
4.1 Why don't ITRC help pages and other documentation talk about OpenVMS?
The ITRC patch site is a pre-merger application. As part of the work to
update this site to handle OpenVMS needs, all online help documentation is
being reviewed to identify updates necessary to make the documentation be
more inclusive of OpenVMS. Although OpenVMS is not specifically mentioned in
the ITRC documentation pertaining to patches, the patch information is still
applicable to OpenVMS
4.2 Who do I contact for help or to report problems with the ITRC?
Select the "contact hp" link in the upper left corner of any HP ITRC web
page and select "ask a question about using the IT resource center" link
under the "e-mail hp" heading on the following page.
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