Conference orarep::nomahs::rdb_business

~~     <<< Note 146.0 by NOMAHS::SECRIST "Rdb WWS; [email protected]" >>>
~~             -< Official source of all latest-version releases ? >-

~~    	What is the official, central, and UP-TO-DATE source of
~~    	Rdb product family version releases ?

Well, I don't know what your definition of "official" is and it only covers 
Rdb but check out...

	http://nehost.us.oracle.com:2080/mce/mup_eco_info.html

It lists all the ECOs and MUPs as well as hot links to most of the Release 
Notes.  This page is typically updated with a few days of when the release 
becomes available.
    

    
    	Thanks.  Your page is one of the best resources -- sorry I forgot
    	to mention it.  Since you had that covered it was more the rest
    	of the brood I was concerned with since I didn't know what level
    	of frequency is anticipated out of the matrix.  In all honesty
    	the matrix is kept fairly up to date to, but not as quick on the
    	draw as you are.  People are starting to eye 7.0 more seriously
    	so it is becoming more of an issue, so I thought I'd check into
    	it.
    
    	Regards,
    	rcs
    
    	P.S. -- Weaverville, NC now has a home page.  I had to nuke my
    	machine since then and didn't save the pointer to it.  It took
    	all year for it to come up last time.  I found it through
    	AltaVista.
    

~~     <<< Note 146.2 by NOMAHS::SECRIST "Rdb WWS; [email protected]" >>>
~~                         -< Sorry for the oversight ! >-

~~    	Thanks.  Your page is one of the best resources -- sorry I forgot

No, thank you!  Nice to know that someone uses it :)

~~    	to mention it.  Since you had that covered it was more the rest
~~    	of the brood I was concerned with since I didn't know what level

As for the coverage - we cheat ;)  We maintain both the system and the page 
which lets us get updates in pretty quickly where some other groups may be 
pretty busy with other tasks and, in some cases, also have to deal with 
other groups.

I can't take all the credit myself either ;)  The rest of the crowd (Norm 
particularily) reminds me when there is a new update and makes the HTMLs 
for the Release Notes for me :)

    Are the html versions of the release notes available to customers,
    anywhere on the web?
    
    Peter

WWS is supposed to be handling this.  I'm told that Mary Morman (MEMORMAN@US)
is responsible.

    
    	Release notes, installation guides, and ECO kits are maintained 
    	on the internal and external web on the Metalink support service.
    	The system is accessible to any OracleMetals (bronze, silver,
    	gold) customer without additional charge as well as Oracle
    	employees (see below; ask your manager about employee access).
    
    	Note that full binary kits (e.g. 7.0) or binary MUPs (e.g. 6.1A)
    	are *not* available on Metalink, only ECO kits (e.g. 6.1 eco 5)
    	and the ODBC drivers are available, as well as the release notes 
    	and installation guides for all recent versions.  A limited
    	amount of product documentation and technical articles are
    	also presently available.  We are in the process of bringing 
    	everything completely up to date and expanding what is available
    	now.
    
    	Regards,
    	rcs
    
    	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
    
    [public article follows]
    
    
OracleMetaLink Support Service

To further expand access to Oracle Worldwide Customer Support for 
our OracleMetals  customers, Oracle Worldwide Customer Support now 
offers OracleMetaLink-a powerful, new, web-based support service.  
If you are an OracleMetals (BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD) customer, this 
service is FREE of charge.

To register for OracleMetaLink, please navigate to 
http://support.oracle.com/metalink and select the "register" link.  
You will need your metals-supported CSI in order to register.  
Please fill out the form, and click on the "Register!" button.  
Once you have completed this, you will be prompted to create your 
username.  You will then receive a message on-line indicating 
which technical libraries you are able to access based on your 
CSI.  For security reasons, your MetaLink password will be emailed 
to the email address filled in on the registration form.  You 
should receive this within 24 hours.  If you do not, please email 
[email protected].

We are excited to offer you this new service and hope you find it 
very helpful with your support needs.  For further information on 
the service, please see http://support.oracle.com/metalink and see 
the service description below.  Thank you for your interest in 
OracleMetaLink.  Please give us your feedback so we can 
continually enhance the service based on your requests.  Feedback 
can be submitted to the Service Forum (link from 
http://support.oracle.com/metalink).
 
OracleMetaLink offers the following core components: 
 
1. Hot Topics 

   Latest product versions
   Product-specific alerts 
   Desupport notices 
   Top product articles

2. Installation Assistance

   Step-by-step installation instructions
   Installation manuals 
   Release notes 
   README files 
   Latest product versions
 
3. Technical Support Knowledge Base allows full text query against: 

   Technical-support bulletins
   Problem/solution articles 
   Bug/solution cases 
   Alerts  
   README files  
   White papers  
   Release notes  
   Step-by-step installation instructions  

4. Product Reference 

   Product documentation
   Lists of supported product versions  
   Technical-support bulletins  
   White papers  

5. Technical Forums

   Oracle technical analysts and Oracle customers post and
   respond to technical questions.  Users in the Oracle 
   community can share information in these forums.
    

>    	Release notes, installation guides, and ECO kits are maintained 
>    	on the internal and external web on the Metalink support service.
>    	The system is accessible to any OracleMetals (bronze, silver,
>    	gold) customer without additional charge as well as Oracle
>    	employees (see below; ask your manager about employee access).
    
    This is not quite correct. UK customers at least do not have access to
    Metalink currently. We are using OCIS. I believe it is planned that it
    should be replaced by Metalink eventually, but I am trying to get the
    information into our current system.
        
    Peter

    
    	Thanks for the correction Peter -- good point.  I didn't think
    	about each region doing it their own way.  Does anybody know
    	what the policy in Asia Pacific is ?
    
    	Does the whole planet use www.oracle.com, or is that broken up
    	by geography too ?  Does it make any difference if internal
    	people get internal access from other geographies, or is it
    	frowned upon ?
    
    	Regards,
    	rcs
    

    Everyone can access www.oracle.com. I believe it is only the support
    facilities that require authorization that are split - probably so that
    granting authorization can be done locally. The UK location is
    www.oracle.co.uk. To get authorized call the UK support centre.
    
    I checked with my manager and we are supposed to be going to Metalink
    "soon". First we would need to give our customers CIS numbers.
    
    Peter 

    Trying to acess  http://nehost.us.oracle.com:2080/mce/mup_eco_info.html
    
    got...
    
     DNS Domain 'nehost.us.oracle.com' is invalid: Host not found
    (authoritative).
    
    
    -dave

    I'm not surprised.  This system is on the Oracle network and you appear
    to be on the Digital network.  I'd recommend that you call oracle
    support for this information.

    
    We will be supplying this same information on the MetaLink service
    in the near future.  Please watch MetaLink for further details.  I
    can post more specific information later.
    
    Regards,
    rcs