Developers can help test beta patches
May 11, 2006
Paul Edwards, a director on the board of the OpenMPE advocacy group for the 3000, has suggested another resource to test the enhancements and bug fixes for the system. This work has been sitting in limbo waiting for customers on support to test it. HP won't release the patches to the entire HP community until they are tested.
Edwards suggests that the DSPP developer members who know the 3000 and have systems can help get these 3000 enhancements into the community. DSPP is the latest generation of the HP program to help developers create applications and tools for HP servers.
While there are not a lot of DSPP members with 3000 experience, there are certainly more than the number of beta-testers HP's been able to scratch up. The vendor recently warned users that a deadline for 7.5 PowerPatch was fast approaching, and several key enhancements still hadn't passed test muster. At the moment, HP won't let a non-support customer test a beta patch.
Edwards said, in a comment on our April 24 report about the beta-test logjam
It would help if HP would allow the MPE members of HP's DSPP community to be allowed to have access to these patches from the response center. Currently most of these people don't have support agreements with HP on their DSPP systems.
HP says it's reviewing how to modify its patch testing program to get these enhancements — some requested as far back as 2003 — into the community. All 3000 owners, regardless of their HP support status, can download patches for enhancements and bug fixes from the HP IT Response Center.