I have been having it out with support regularly this year, especially over idiotic recommendations and faulty "fixes" (often to code that never should have left the developer's workstation in the first place), some of which would have had significant unintended consequences had I been foolish enough to implement them in production. I too have trashed a development server with at least one of them. It is all part of the new "improved" BMC support structure, and is prevalent in _some_ support areas (SLM, DSL) or if you don't get past the first-line folks overseas. I am actually surprised that you got something so stupid on a mid-tier problem, but I may have been lucky on who got my tickets. I see wild variations between teams - ITSM 7 and RKM tickets have been getting immediate and accurate responses this year so far, as have the ARS / mid-tier / migratory issues so far. Some of the overseas techs have displayed remarkably little understanding of how data, workflow, and forms reside in the database structure when they propose a "workaround," and that is probably what you got from someone.
If you look at your notifications from support, most of them now include the direct email of the manager for that support team. Write them. If they do not respond, or if no manager reference is included in any of the transactions for your issue, only then could you consider a napalm-laden reply to the support tech. I guarantee that you will get attention with that - unwanted attention, perhaps, but attention. The current support situation will bring out the worst in the most patient person - and I have NEVER been accused of being a patient individual, especially when faced with gross incompetence. My advice is to get to the manager of the specific support person if you can; they need to take action to preclude similar instances of unwise recommendations in the future. Christopher Strauss, Ph.D. Call Tracking Administration Manager University of North Texas Computing & IT Center http://itsm.unt.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Blasquez Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 1:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Midtier Issues Turn Into Gross BMC Incompetence Hello, I'm a little upset here, as I have received instructions from BMC, that had I carried them out blindly on my production server, would have completely wiped out any workflow and data I had not backed up, and with no warning from BMC. I would like to share these instructions here, and get opinions as to whether I am totally misunderstanding the instructions, or if I was given incomplete and dangerous instructions by an incompetent BMC tech. The problem was, originally, that when my form was called from the midtier via a table or results list, the browser would display the form as blank even though a specific request id was requested. So, double click the ticket, window opens, form is blank instead of filled in with that ticket's contents. All workflow works fine in the user client. So, after minor troubleshooting with BMC they finally request the .def file, I send it. They get back to me with the following instructions (object name replaced by <FORM>): 1. Go to the Admin tool and open that form <FORM> and Save as that form with the different name e.g. <FORM>-new 2. Rename original form <FORM> to <FORM>-old 3. Now rename <FORM>-new to <FORM>. 4. Delete the form <FORM> 5. Rename <FORM>-old to <FORM> 6. Verify all the Active Links/Filters point to <FORM> 7. Export the *.def file of <FORM> 8. Delete the form <FORM> 9. Create new form & name it <FORM> 10. Verify all the Active Links/Filter point to <FORM> Now the issue with this, and thank goodness I did this on my development server first, is that at step 8, YOU DESTROY ALL YOUR DATA AND WORKFLOW. Making steps 9 and 10 irrelevant. Even given the fact that I could have implied that at step 7 I should have exported the entire workflow for that form, there is still no step that says back up your data, and there are no steps explaining importing back your workflow and data. Please give me your points of view on this situation because I am trying to not write a scathing email or make a hostile phone call right now. ____________ Paul Blasquez Senior Network Engineer/Remedy Developer | Desk - 408.360.5220 | Cell - 408.627.5714 ________________________________________________________________________ _______ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"
