RE: Oracle Support Services

On 8 Jun 2000, at 16:56, Linda Hagedorn scribbled with alacrity and cogency:

Date sent:      	Thu, 08 Jun 2000 16:56:00 -0800
To:             	Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
Send reply to:  	ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com
From:           	Linda Hagedorn <Linda_at_pets.com>
Subject:        	RE: Oracle Support Services

...
>
> APAR = Approved problem analysis report, if memory serves. When a problem
> is reported in IBM software, a PMR (Problem record, also known as an ETR
> (Electronic Report)) is opened with Level 1. If Level 1 can't resolve it,
> it's kicked upstairs to Level 2 (L2) who have detailed product knowledge and
> access to the source code. If L2 determines the report identifies a real
> problem (as opposed to user error/doc issue/etc.) they open an APAR to send
> the problem to change team and/or development to fix. When the code is
> corrected, the PTF (program temporary fix) is made available.

Linda,

Thanks for the info. IBM's APAR/PTF sounds more or less like Oracle's "bug database".

FWIW, whenever I've done Oracle upgrades (this is strictly on PC server platforms), I do ask for "hand holding" in the sense that after reading the install docs and release notes, I contact Oracle support, and ask for any/all documents they can unearth that might be relevant to the the platform I'm dealing with (many of them are "internal" support documents that I guess are only provided to customers *on request*). Every time, I've gotten more info than was available in the install docs/release notes, and in a few cases, it was actually technically important (patches)! In other cases, just knowing that Oracle was "supportive" in providing additional documentation, even though it turned out I didn't need it, made me *feel* more informed, and therefore relaxed/confident, going into the upgrade/install. I'm assuming that Oracle's "business model" accounts for that kind of customer need, but at the same time, I recognize that if I didn't have it up front, it probably wouldn't matter since any thing that broke in an install/upgrade could be resolved later (although probably taking more time/aggravation).

Anyway, how is the "culture shock" going from being a DB2 DBA to Oracle so far? :)

regards,
ep

>
> There are some technical variations on the APAR/PTF stuff, methods of
> packaging, etc. I can answer these if you have further questions. Since
> this is off-topic, feel free to send a note to me directly.
>
> Linda Hagedorn
> Former IBM DB2 L2 :)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 4:14 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Received on Fri Jun 09 2000 - 12:20:53 CDT