SECTION 7 -- INGRES/ADVISOR AND TECH SUPPORT
<> 07.001 What is INGRES/Advisor?
INGRES/Advisor is an on-line technical support service. It is
gradually being replaced by the web-based tool CA-TCC (see item 07.008),
available from the Computer Associates web site (www.cai.com).
CA-TCC is now the primary on-line technical support service.
INGRES/Advisor includes tools for accessing the
so-called Knowledge Base, for viewing technical notes, for
accessing the comp.databases.ingres newsgroup, and for monitoring
the progress of a technical support call. Virtually all of the above
functions are now set up in read-only mode; no updates or new items
can be created.
See the Advisor User Guide for detailed descriptions and instructions.
<> 07.002 How can I access INGRES/Advisor?
It is available to users on the Internet by
telnet advisor.cai.com
and (at no charge) through CompuServe (host name is ADVISOR).
Note that if you post to the comp.databases.ingres newsgroup using
INGRES/Advisor, your posting really will get out into the Usenet.
You must be a CA-INGRES customer with a support agreement in order
to access the system. You will be prompted for your site ID and PIN
number, and a password. Initially, until you change it, the password
will be your last name in lowercase; eg hann.
INGRES/Advisor is available to all North American INGRES customers,
but it may not be available to customers elsewhere. Contact your
local CA office or your CA-Ingres distributor if you have trouble
accessing Advisor.
<> 07.003 What is ProAlert?
ProAlert is a service of INGRES/Advisor which provides access to documents
describing SIRs and known INGRES bugs and anomalies. Where possible, the
documents describe work-arounds. [IMO some of the workarounds sound
not quite right though--use your own good judgement, or call tech
support to confirm. --Roy Hann]
A VERY valuable but underused feature of ProAlert is the ability to
locate and vote on System Improvement Requests (SIRs). This allows you
to see a logged request for an enhancement to the product and to see
how much support there is for it.
On the basis that there are some SIRs for features which repeatedly
crop up as requests on comp.databases.ingres but which have only a
handful of votes, it seems reasonable to say that we don't make as much
use of this valuable opportunity as we should.
Note: Since CA-TCC has replaced INGRES/Advisor as the current online
tech support tool, there are no new documents being added to ProAlert.
If you wish to see recent documents from the Knowledge Base, you must
use CA-TCC and select the "Search CA Knowledge Base" link.
<> 07.004 How do I log trouble calls?
OpenIngres users who have support agreements will have designated
technical support contacts who are authorized to place trouble calls.
Trouble calls can be placed by calling Technical Support at
(516)342-5500, or through the "Open A New Issue" link on CA-TCC (see
item 07.008).
At this time it is not possible to start a call via email, but Technical
Support hopes to restore this capability at some time in the future.
<> 07.006 How do I vote on a SIR?
Until a few months ago, it was possible to do this via the ProAlert
function of INGRES/Advisor. This is no longer possible.
At the moment, the best mechanism available is to contact your local
Ingres users group, or even better, your national users group.
They should have access to the current SIRs, and on occasion they
will solicit votes on the most popular/needed SIRs and forward that
vote on to Computer Associates management. A request from a users
group to implement a SIR has considerable clout, since the users
group represents many customers.
The NAIUA hopes to establish a page on their web site where SIRs can
be listed and voted on. This may be limited to NAIUA members only.
Watch the web site or comp.databases.ingres for any news on if and
when this capability is implemented.
If you have any questions concerning SIRs, you can contact the chair
of the NAIUA Product Directions Committee. See section 99.001 for details.
<> 07.007 Tech support is useless, what do I do now?
This seems to be a favorite carp, and to be sure, there have been some
problems with tech support in the past, but CA and the NAIUA are
making great strides in this area.
Here are a few tips to help get the best out of tech support (if you
haven't tried all of these then the problem is not just with tech
support...):
1. If you have a production system down (Rank 1 call), MAKE THAT
CLEAR TO THE DISPATCHER so that your call goes straight to the
level 2 support team.
2. If you think you have identified a bug, try to find the simplest
recipe that re-creates it before calling tech support.
3. If you don't think your problem is being resolved quickly enough,
or you don't think the analyst handling the call is knowledgeable
enough, or if you can't make the suggested remedies work, take the
initiative and TELL the support analyst to escalate the call.
It will be promoted to a Rank 1 call, no questions asked. This
is your most powerful option--use it.
4. If you want to escalate a call, or change support analyst for ANY
reason, feel free to call Brian Dempster, Level 1 Support Manager,
at (516) 342-2192.
5. Don't close the call till you're satisfied. Especially don't
close the call and immediately open it again as a new one; that
just skews the response time statistics and conceals the problem.
Use option 3 above.
6. If all else fails, and you are an NAIUA member, contact one of the
NAIUA Members-at-Large (see section 99.001 for details), who will
attempt to get some sort of resolution for you. Be ready to
provide your call reference number and a history of the call.
7. If you are not satisfied with the handling of your call, make
sure someone at CA knows about it. Complete your satisfaction
survey that is sent to you when you close the call, and tell them
EXACTLY what wasn't right. It is in everyone's interests to
make sure problems are identified and resolved. For the sake of
all of us, don't just go away angry.
<> 07.008 What is CA-TCC?
CA-TCC (Total Client Care) is now the on-line technical support service
for OpenIngres. It provides access to the Computer Associates
centralized client support database via the World Wide Web. This
service allows the user to: open new issues; browse existing issues to
check on current status and send in additional information; search through
CA's "Knowledge Base" for problems, solutions, issues.
In order to use CA-TCC you must use a web browser that supports the HTML
specification 2.0 or above, such as Netscape Navigator 2.0 or higher or
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher. This is necessary because
the CA-TCC web pages support several advanced functions: secure sockets
layer (SSL) for encrypting transaction traffic (you may need to make
changes to your browser's options before accessing CA-TCC for the first
time); "Cookies", or encrypted data records requred by CA-TCC; and
HTML tables.
All first-time users of CA-TCC must register. Begin by going to the
following web page - http://www.cai.com/catotalclientcare.htm .
Click on the link for CA-TCC Registration, then enter all requested
information, including your site id, pin number, and desired password.
Once you have submitted the form, your registration will be verified
and you should be notified of this by CA (by email) within 24 hours.
Issues opened via CA-TCC should get a response just as fast, if not
faster, than one opened via phone. Also, once an issue is open, use of
CA-TCC to check on progress and send messages can help alleviate the
problems of time-zone difference and phone tag that frequently occurs
when dealing with Tech Support.
While CA-TCC is working pretty well so far, it is still a young product,
and is missing features that users have grown accustomed to with
INGRES/Advisor. CA personnel have stated that they have plans to make
a number of improvements to CA-TCC. If you have suggestions, there is
a mechanism within CA-TCC for submitting these. Select the link to
Open a New Issue, then select the option for "Enhancement Request" rather
than the usual "Issue", and within the Product pull-down select "WEBTRK".
Fill in all other required fields, put your suggestion in the Issue
Activity Text area, and then click on the "Create Issue" button.
<> 07.009 How do I find out about patches?
The best and most reliable way to find out what patches apply for the
OS platform and Ingres version you are using is to talk to Tech Support,
either by phone (516-342-5500) or via CA-TCC on CA's web site. If you
need a patch sent to you, normally they can arrange to have it arrive
at your site within a day or two.
There is now another method available, via the Internet. CA has an ftp
site where you can check for (and download, if needed) patches which
may apply to your installation. This site is still a work in progress:
currently there are only a few patches available there, and only for
Windows operating systems. Hopefully more patches, and more platforms,
will be available soon.
The address of CA's ftp site is: mf.cai.com
If you are accessing this site via the web, you can go straight to the
start of the Ingres patches by entering the following URL:
ftp://mf.cai.com/CAproducts/ingres
If you are accessing this site via anonymous ftp, then move to the start
of the Ingres patches by typing "cd CAproducts/ingres" once you have
logged on.