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NetBackup Support knowledge management change

Updated: 29 Aug 2011 | 31 comments
MKT's picture
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Hi Everyone,

As some of you have noticed, the NetBackup Support site has recently migrated to a knowledge management and search solution featuring InQuira's technology.  There's a few things we are working on, version filter for example, but wanted to open a thread for customers to provide feedback/comments on what they see for issues.  Any and all feedback welcome,

Regards,

Matt

Comments

Stuart Green's picture
21
Sep
2010
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Is there an equivalent of the

Is there an equivalent of the 40 day DIGEST

that used to be at this URL:
http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/NBUESVR_digest.htm

I notice the full Index of Docs still exists but will that be going too?

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/NBUESVR_index.htm

This is getting longer and longer to load

I submitted an IDEA last year about using the current social networks to publish new techdocs or more specifically what about an RSS Feed for new technotes published that InQuira can provide into my RSS Feeder?

VMware as another vendor I use provide this and works very well, and I am readily aware of docs published via this route.

Regards

Stuart

Tip: Get overview/document your NBU environment. Run 'nbsu' and review the output.

• If this provides help, please vote or mark appropriate solution.

CRZ's picture
21
Sep
2010
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Should be links to email/RSS feed already

I subscribed to "NetBackup Enterprise Server," but haven't received any emails yet - no, wait,  I've cleverly pre-filtered them.  I AM getting digest emails from "noreply@symantec.com".

Hop onto http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag... and look for the "Subscribe" links - there should be one for email and one for RSS.

I just checked and the RSS feed looks to only contain the 10 most recently edited documents, so I'm not sure how useful that is unless you have a really smart RSS reader that keeps old entries.

You MAY need to be logged into the system with your SymAccount to see these links?

It's not GREAT, but it is SOMETHING, and that's a step.  :)

 

Ed Wilts's picture
27
Sep
2010
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Digest equivalent

This is the closest I've come up with so far (for NetBackup 7):

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

It's ugly compared to what we used to have but at least you can add this to your favorite RSS reader.

If this post helps you, please add a vote.

If this post answers your question, please mark it as a solution.  Thanks!
 

Andy Welburn's picture
21
Sep
2010
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Thanks Matt. I'll be the first with a few "gripes" then

  1. Wasted real-estate. Everything's squeezed down the middle of the page.
  2. No page numbers on a search, just previous/next.
  3. Some links are a bit vague e.g. how do we know what it relates to without going into it? (just for info one's NB7 the other NB6 ;) ):

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

bbahnmiller's picture
21
Sep
2010
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Redundant and unnecessary side bars

I agree with Andy - wasted space. I have already drilled down to NetBackup. I don't need to see BackupExec, Cluster Server, etc, on the left hand side. And the right hand side points to other things that I don't need either.

And filtering is absolutely necessary. Having to wade through Japanese or Chinese results, or v. 7.x when there's still a lot of 6.x out there is very annoying.

The last time you changed the search site, you had an option to still use the old site. This was handy when you needed to get immediate results and you knew how to get the results with the old search.

    Bryan

Andy Welburn's picture
23
Sep
2010
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"Having to wade through Japanese or Chinese results"

& the rest!

Can we get this tidied up/filtered out?

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
22
Sep
2010
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bcblake's picture
22
Sep
2010
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And today the NetBackup Enterprise Server ISN'T EVEN WORKING

Tried this today:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

 

And got:

Landing configuration could not be found for 15143.

 

See my comment in the forums about quality control.

Andy Welburn's picture
22
Sep
2010
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Got the same

but noted it on Swathis blog - get the same sort of response for other products.

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
22
Sep
2010
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"Landing configuration could not be found for 15143."

I forgot to mention a "workaround" (get it while it does work!)

If you go to the T/N that lists all exit codes

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

& then select any of the codes you are presented with a search box which just happens to be in the format of the 'old' KB!!

 

Happy hunting!

 

***EDIT***

You may have to try a few times as, believe it or not, the page does not always open successfully!

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Marie Coon's picture
22
Sep
2010
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Landing Pages

Can you try this again and post your results?  There was an issue that was resolved around or just after the time you were seeing this.

Marie C. Coon

Sr. Knowledge Engineer

Symantec US KM Team

Andy Welburn's picture
22
Sep
2010
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Can confirm

landing page resolved. Thnx.

And then an hour later:

Internal Server Error - Read

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Reference #3.1df18fa8.1285226672.4ead5b

***EDIT***

However, I think this is due to a shortcut (mine) referencing the "old" URL? Why no forwarding?

This is especially an issue for the links in the Status Code "chart"

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

 

***EDIT #2***

Apparently the latter is now working again.

***EDIT #3***

& now it's not. I give up! angry

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

MKT's picture
22
Sep
2010
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offline for a bit but back up now

Thanks all for the feedback so far, there's a lot of improvement to make and having actual customer comments helps.

I've addressed the 'vague' titles and submitted the rest of the feedback for a response which is pending.  I'll respond back to the thread in the next couple days with where we are on improvements. 

To Bryan's request of making the older version available, that's not possible this time around. 

Marianne van den Berg's picture
24
Sep
2010
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Change just for the sake of

Change just for the sake of change?

WHY break something that wasn't broken??? angry Was there no 'Beta testing' done similar to Symantec Connect beta testing for a couple of weeks?

Supporting Storage Foundation and VCS on Unix and Windows as well as NetBackup on Unix and Windows.
Handy NBU links

Andy Welburn's picture
27
Sep
2010
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I'm sorry, but

the more I use it the less I like it.

The filters don't work - tell me there are 2000 matches to a search, but only show me three pages worth or tell me there's nothing when there was a minute ago?

I'm not convinced that this was a step forwards by any stretch of the imagination.

***EDIT***

Found today that all pdf's found through this route are "Forbidden" - nice!

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
01
Oct
2010
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Any news anywhere?

Broken links

Filter out language

More than 3 pages of results in a search

Pagination

Forbidden

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Stefanos Monovasios's picture
09
Oct
2010
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HI, as Stuart Green said, It

HI, as Stuart Green said,

It will be useful to restore or somehow give us the functionality of the digest ling for all products.  (RSS or a new page with all new technotes will be a good idea)

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/NBUESVR_digest.htm

Althow I have register to all mail notifications I'm not sure that I get all the new technotes.

stefanos

Andy Welburn's picture
13
Oct
2010
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It's been rather quiet

does that mean you're still fixing stuff or .... ?

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

bbahnmiller's picture
15
Oct
2010
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What is happening now? "Forbidden" when I click on support links

The last couple of days, I'll be searching, then all of a sudden I start getting "Forbidden" when I click on links. Just now, I did a search for "Opscenter Security" and clicked on the following link - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

and got the Forbidden message. This has been happening routinely for the last several days.

------------------------------

Forbidden

Your client is not allowed to access this object or our servers may be momentarily busy. Please try again later.

If you receive this message and would like to report this to Symantec, you may contact the Webmaster.

Thank you for your assistance and patience.

------------------------------
Thanks,
 Bryan
Andy Welburn's picture
15
Oct
2010
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Yeah I got that a lot

& mentioned it earlier either on this discussion or on  Swathi's blog.

Thought it'd been sorted as I hadn't seen it for a while, but got it again yesterday.....

Still waiting for any updates to this discussion from 'the powers that be'.

Sorry to say but personally I feel it's a total mess now.

***EDIT***

"Broken" links - not necessarily come across these per se, BUT sometimes clicking on a link will just re-direct you to some home page and will re-direct correctly if you try a second time.......

Still rather quiet 'part from us 'users'........

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
03
Nov
2010
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"Forbidden"

Apparently there's a workaround for this (?) until it's fixed:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/es/forums/...

Would've nice to have had this discussion updated - thought that's why it was here?

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
21
Oct
2010
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Another anomaly:

Is this a Connect or KB issue:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/bpd...

Basically, the same URL in two posts on the same discussion has different results!

***EDIT #1***
Found that second URL was posted with a space at the end - hence errored out. (18/01/11)
***end of EDIT #1***

 

Also, whilst I'm here again, have also noticed that sometimes clicking on a link may just send you to a KB 'landing page' & yet if you click on it again you get sent to the correct T/N.

Reason? Explanation?

***EDIT #2***
This is still prevalent - 18th January 2011.
***end of EDIT #2***

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Andy Welburn's picture
11
Jan
2011
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Any progress updates or

is the KB deemed to be working as designed now?!! frown

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Marianne van den Berg's picture
11
Jan
2011
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All I know is that I'm

All I know is that I'm battling to find info these days - Google does not seem to find Symantec TN's as before, and searching the Symantec site comes up with the biggest load of garbage that I've ever seen in my life. Try this: Go to: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...

type in the 'Knowledge Base Search' : Decommission 6.0 media server

.........

Do you see TECH52021 anywhere in the list?

 

Well, even while battling with Google finding TN's these, days, typing the exact same line in Google, TECH52021 was the first in the list....

Supporting Storage Foundation and VCS on Unix and Windows as well as NetBackup on Unix and Windows.
Handy NBU links

Andy Welburn's picture
11
Jan
2011
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It's probably on page 4!

It's probably on page 4 of the "results"! wink

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

stephanie_oelkers's picture
17
Jan
2011
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Hi Marianne, We are currently

Hi Marianne,

We are currently working to see why this is the case.  I will update when we have a resolution.

Thanks,

Stephanie

J.Hinchcliffe's picture
15
Feb
2011
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Manuals

when I do a search and then click on documentation on the right side why does it only show Japanese Guides?  Looking for the English ones.  I have the hardest time finding ANY thing I am really looking for.  So I figure I will go with the manual and search in there, but have a hard time finding them!  I so miss the old search site!  I now search google more then the Symantec site.

I don't have to know how to spell....I work on Unix.
NetBackup 7.0.1 - AIX & Windows

Ed Wilts's picture
15
Feb
2011
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"I now search google more then the Symantec site."

This is (unfortunately) true with many vendor sites.  HP's site has historically sucked and even HP reps use Google with a "site:hp.com" parameter and recommend customers do the same.  NetApp's search sucks and they finally posted that they're rolling out a Google Search Appliance to the NOW site.

It's absolutely amazing how many vendors think they can write their own search tools and get it so wrong.  It's like they have no clue how customers use their sites at all.  There's a reason Google is still around :)

If this post helps you, please add a vote.

If this post answers your question, please mark it as a solution.  Thanks!
 

Marianne van den Berg's picture
15
Feb
2011
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Judy - please bookmark these

Judy - please bookmark these two links:

NBU7 Manuals: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH126327

NBU6.5 Manuals: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH52878

The 6.5 page also contains links to older NBU versions.

In the meantime, Stephanie Oelkers promised us on 17 Jan that they're 'working on it'. I guess Ed is right about them 'not knowing......'crying

Supporting Storage Foundation and VCS on Unix and Windows as well as NetBackup on Unix and Windows.
Handy NBU links

Andy Welburn's picture
15
Feb
2011
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I gave up a month back!

I even went so far as to create a new discussion in the "SymWise Knowledge Management" forum pulling this discussion & Swathi's blog together in the naive hope that it may get a little attention there too - I'd just seen a post get resolved rather quickly there & got over-excited I think - unfortunately I just ended up with a bit of a monologue!

You never know, we may come back tomorrow & all will be right with the world....

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."