The issue is running an X-Windows emulator - there is literally no way I can install this patch as things sit today. I do not have one. I do not know of one that can be installed. We are checking on what we have to do to get one that is approved - rumor has it there may be one buried somewhere in the approved software list. If that is true we may be okay in the long term BUT it will still take weeks to get it approved and installed. The worst case scenario means a LONG process to procure the client software, have it reviewed for security, have it approved, make the change request for the install on the local PCs, get the actual install done, and then actually DO the upgrade. That could easily take months. OS patches, etc are all done by the sys admins for us of course. That stuff is fairly normal. We never see it - but as far as I know they are not using any X-Windows emulator. If that is true we may be okay. If not it means a LONG process to procure the client software, have it reviewed for security, have it approved, make the change request for the install on the local PCs, get the actual install done, and then actually DO the upgrade.
That process alone could be months.....there are 37 days left in the budget for my time here with the customer.....so....... The larger issue is of course that BMC made this change without really advertising it. And the documentation is horrid. The patch 7 docs for example literally only say what I originally quoted. They do not mention emulators, etc, which are of course the only way to do this on the vast majority of Unix servers. It simply says (paraphrasing) "Run the binary and the splash screen comes up". Furthermore later in the P7 docs it is referring to the install directory and does so exclusively in Windows terms (with Windows screenshots). This is not acceptable. If BMC is really going to cater to enterprise customers they are going to have to at LEAST make the documentation reflect how things actually work in Unix environments. I work with BMC PS quite regularly and I'm going to run this up the chain. I am a fan of BMC and their product lines but there is certainly room for improvement at the moment. ________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 12:04 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: IM Patch 7 Installer? ** William, someone must be able to run programs on the server, or OS patches wouldn't get installed, the DBMS would never get there, etc. Is there a SysAdmin who is cleared to do it for you, with you directing the answers to the prompts? Rick On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 9:36 AM, William Rentfrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ** I probably sound like I'm whining about this but here's the thing. This system has potentially millions of pieces of data covered by the Privacy act (SSN's, etc). There simply is no excuse for me to take shortcuts around the security rules. As I said to another person in an off-line discussion I don't want to be the person in the national news story that starts "Government agency 'X' announced today a security violation where 1,000,000 SSN's were leaked by a contractor who etc etc etc etc". This really is a big deal - these systems are secure for a reason. BMC has a large number of customers who are Federal Agencies, military, or even commercial finance where security is very important. This change has a substantial impact. ________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tony Worthington Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:50 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: IM Patch 7 Installer? ** Exceed should work if open source won't -- I would think it would already have been approved. (or not) http://connectivity.hummingbird.com/products/nc/exceed/index.html?cks=y The trick will be getting the X server on the box. -- Tony Worthington Sr. Technical Analyst Kohl's Department Stores [EMAIL PROTECTED] 262-703-5911 William Rentfrow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)" <arslist@ARSLIST.ORG> 05/05/2008 10:46 AM Please respond to arslist@ARSLIST.ORG To arslist@ARSLIST.ORG cc Subject Re: IM Patch 7 Installer? All are good suggestions. We are not going to be allowed to install anything on the server. And we are not going to be allowed to install anything on the desktop unless it is on the approved application list and has been through a security review. None of the free apps will qualify security-wise. -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Grooms, Frederick W Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:38 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: IM Patch 7 Installer? Another X terminal (free) is Cygwin http://www.cygwin.com/ Fred -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of J.T. Shyman Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: IM Patch 7 Installer? Do you have SSH access to the servers? If so, you can use an ssh client package such as Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/%7Esgtatham/putty/> ) along with an X terminal such as xming (http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/) to run X applications on your desktop over SSH. --- J.T. Shyman -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of William Rentfrow Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 11:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: IM Patch 7 Installer? The IM 7.03 Patch 7 Release notes say: ------------------------------------- Starting with Patch 005, the process of installing patches for the BMC Remedy ITSM suite of applications has been automated through the introduction of a GUI driven patch installation wizard. For all platforms, you must run the patch installer from the same system that is running the AR System server. ------------------------------------- And later on it says: ------------------------------------- Run the patch installer. ! Windows.patch007.exe ! UNIX.patch007.bin A splash screen appears while the installer initializes. After initialization, the BMC Remedy ITSM Patch Installer window appears. ------------------------------------- I do not have any sort of access to these systems except command line/terminal access via Putty. The vast majority of my customers are using Sun/Unix enterprise servers. Naturally we have no access beyond command line. We have no x-windows or emulators. Given the security level of things I work on (relatively low in the government scale) we are NOT unique at all in this configuration. Am I missing something here? Did BMC just make it impossible for us to install the patches? William Rentfrow, Principal Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] C 701-306-6157 O 952-432-0227 ________________________________________________________________________ ____ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" ________________________________________________________________________ _______ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" ________________________________________________________________________ _______ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" ________________________________________________________________________ _______ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" __Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" html___ __Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" html___ __Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" html___ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"
