[Info-vax] OT: HP restricts firmware upgrades to only those on warranty.

[BillPedersen]

On Saturday, February 8, 2014 3:12:20 PM UTC-5, JF Mezei wrote:
> > http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Technical-Support-Services-Blog/Customers-for-life/ba-p/154423#.UvaOcPam-tU
> 
> ##
> This week, HP announced that effective February 19, 2014, we will
> provide firmware updates through the HP Support Center only to customers
> with a valid warranty, Care Pack Service or support agreement.
> ##
> 
> Remember when HP restricted access to patches ? Well they keep on
> expanding the bonehead move. And that means it os less likely they would
> revert their decision on access to VMS patches.
> 
> In fairness, would it be fair to state that servers rarely get firmware
> upgrades after the first year when they have already been replaced by
> new models ?

Well interestingly it is supposedly only Proliant:

The firmware access changes we are making on February 19, 2014 apply to HP ProLiant servers only.   Specifically, within ProLiant, we are not putting entitlement requirements on iLO, I/O, or controller firmware; we are only entitling ProLiant system ROM and complex programming logic devices (CPLD) firmware.  

This is from:

    http://bit.ly/1dEDAYx

Now, knowing how well the Services organization executed the last changes to their access methods I am sure there is the potential for some fallout here due to coding errors or inappropriate assumptions made by the implementers...

Bill.