Hotfixes: General Question

ta5

Hi
I would like to hear some ideas on how other nsc's are handling hotfixes delivered by microsoft. With hotfixes I mean navision objects or executables.

1) Scenario 1:
How do you hotfix existing customers that suffer from no (visible) symptoms described in the kb articles?

2) Scenario 2:
You have a new customer and want to install Nav 4.03. Do you install the files from the initial download or do you hotfix the installation?

3) How do you find hotfixes as soon as possible?


I'm looking forward to read about your experiences.

Thomas

ara3n

That is a hard question.

1. I don't. I don't have the time and customer do not want to pay. If it's not a problem they see then don't fix it especially if they don't use that functionality.


2. There is no reasonable solution for this.
This is a MS Problem, They should release service pack regularly with all the fixes.
Or at least have an object that you can load with the newest objects.
I hope MS is reading this.



A client recently is implementing 5.0 and I ran into some of the issues. I had to go through all the KB articles for 5.0 and implement them. Granted this is not feasible for 4.0 because there are way too many.

DenSter

The hotfix 'policy' is very confusing.

If it were up to me I would put all hotfixes into one cumulative installer. That way you only have to check one link. For new installations you'd simply install from the product CD and download the current patch that would include all hotfixes up to that date. Or better yet, there should be a link on the help menu that checks the current version. I would also just provide the download on a public ftp, so you don't have to go through a service request

The way it works now you never know what should be included, and sometimes I feel there are even different versions of the same hotfix. And what about the numbering? Why are some numbers skipped?

What some people do is create their own product CD. They copy the product cd onto a hard drive, apply all hotfixes and burn the updated files to a new and improved "product CD". The theory is that because all the files are updated (you hope) it install the right ones right from the CD.

DenSter

So to answer the question.

1:
It depends on how you want to service your customer, and whether your customer is willing to pay for your services. I've heard about solution centers that provide hotfixes for free, that consider it to be included in the service plan for which the customer pays.

I think the most common practice is that hotfixes are not installed until there is a problem. So the customer has a problem => let's check if they are current on their hotfixes.

2:
Install from the product CD, and apply each hotfix separately, in the correct order. Like I said some people apply the hotfixes to the product cd, but I don't know if that is the right way. I personally would not do this anymore.

3:
You check partnersource for hotfixes regularly.

ara3n

By hotfixes, I'm referring also to KB articles that mentions object changes as well.

Nikk

3) How do you find hotfixes as soon as possible?

I dont think the KB area is very effective at the moment . Id be comfortable if they could categorize the fixes by Functional areas as well as Granule.
For instance if I come across a problem with Aging Reports for AR then Id want to do a filter in the knowledge base to see if they have anything on that before attempting to fix it miself...

They are currently posted on a monthly basis(whoever thought of that...) ](*,) [-(

DenSter

There's a page on partnersource that lists all KB articles for the version: https://mbs.microsoft.com/knowledgebase ... -us;934011
I'm sure there is a similar page for other versions as well. Still it's no guarantee that all of them are actually listed there, but it's as good a place to look as any. If anything, you can honestly tell your customer you tried.

Waldo

We're doing this:
1) No, there is no money. Customers don't want to pay, and partners don't have the capacity to do it for free. If customers suffer from the issue ... off course we merge the hotfix right into it.

2) We have a modified cronus db which we keep up-to-date. New customers always start with the all hotfixes included.

3) Very simple: a PABS contract. We get notified about them. Also the partnersource is useful, but it'll be a daily effort.

Since we have our PABS contract .. we have our hotfix before it comes out. Why? When the customers suffers from some issue which I think is due to MIcrosoft .. I use the support .. and usually they come up with a solutions which is later included in the hotfix.

Luc_VanDyck

DenSter wrote:

2:
Install from the product CD, and apply each hotfix separately, in the correct order.

The BIG problem is that one hotfix can fix something, but a later hotfix does not necesarry include the previous hotfix.

For Dynamics 5.0 there exists several hotfixes. One hotfix solves the "You do not have permissions to modify the TempBLOB-table" issue when converting a db to 5.0. But when you apply all hotfixes to the Navision client directory, and you want to convert a db to 5.0, you still get that error message. Solution is to apply only the hotfix which fixes this issue, convert the db to 5.0, and then apply all later hotfixes.

Very confusing to say the least.

DenSter

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

Very confusing to say the least.

Which is exactly why I would have just one patch file. Every time a fix is made, it should be incorporated into that patch. That way you'd only have the product CD and one patch in one central public download.

Waldo

And why not incorperate it into a modified "default database" right away?

DenSter

The thread is about 'hotfixes', so I've been talking about exe updates only.

Of course the best thing to do for new objects is to incorporate them into your own starter database right away. That's the same principle though. You apply the object changes to the standard database, which makes it a cumulative database, with all the object changes in it, so you don't have to do 12 things when you start with a new one.