How to get access to the HP Support Center - legally!

As you all know Hewlett Packard Services changed the access to patches some time ago. Well, then there was a second change this last October where they broke the patch access for HP AllianceONE Partners. Well, the most recent problem has been fixed by HP Services and AllianceONE but this only helps if you are an AllianceONE Partner.

So, how can you need a licensed operating system (you see OpenVMS, Tru-64 and HP-UX fall into this category). Windows and Linux are handled separately - different patching model. And NonStop is handled differently as well - but I suspect it too is not "free". The pricing model for NonStop is very different than that of the other systems. We will come back to how to get a license - if you do not already have one or need one (more on that later, too).

So once you have the license you then need to have the necessary contracts to be able to use the HP Support Center. And in this case the contracts will give you access to patches AND access to submit software support cases. And the pricing is not too bad at least not on an Alpha DS10L. But I will give you some figures so you can project your potential costs.

So you need a license, who do you call? I would recommend you contact one of your local resellers or refurbished equipment sellers. Two who seem most likely to be able to help are Len Whitwer of Puget Sound Data Systems (len@psds.com) and Dave Turner of Island Computer (dturner@islandco.com).

The following are approximate costs for licenses on "new" systems:

QL-MT1AE-6Y
OVMS/ALPHA 21066AB BASE LIC (DS10/DS10L)
500.00

QL-005AP-6Z
OVMS/MVAX 3110e BASE LIC
1,095.00

BA991AC
OVMS IA64 for SC rx26xx Series Integrity Servers
695.00

So, first row is model number. Second is description. Third is approximate cost of the license. The licenses for Alpha and VAX vary by model number. These are the cheapest licenses for these architectures - notice the VAX license has not decreased in price while the new more powerful system have become available. This is sort of historic - DEC never reduced prices on systems, licenses, and services - just came out with other models or offered discounts when they "wanted/needed" so as to be able to get the business. Compaq and HP have pretty much maintained that approach.

The IA64 license cost goes up by multiples of number of cores.

So now you have your license.

Now, how to get that support contract.

You need to purchase the following to items:

HA108AC Software Support
HA156AC Update Support

As associated with your licensed system. HP will look for proof of purchase of the license to confirm. Now this is important. So if you have a long out of support system they use this to charge the "Return to Support" fee. This fee grows by the number of months you have been out of support... So, if you have been out of support for YEARS, it might (most likely IS) be cheaper to buy a new license for your system.

Total cost for annual support on a DS10L (QL-MT1AE-6Y) is less than $150. I would expect the IA64 annual cost to be on something less than $200 and the VAX annual cost to be less than $300. I do not have exact figures for these last two options as I only needed the Alpha access.

These prices are all United States prices, your mileage will vary... BUT this give the PROCESS anyone can use to get access to PATCHES and SUBMIT a SOFTWARE SUPPORT CASE.

Make sure they ONLY sell you the above contracts. The folks when I started this seemed to think you needed to have the system under hardware support (not my reseller but HP) - that got corrected REAL FAST!