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Preface: That question has been answered by Jeff Albion in comments on an answer to question dba account. Nevertheless, I think it's worthwhile to document it here on its own, in an attempt to protect folks from an unexpected change in the available services... A fictional question: In case I have lost access to my database (say, because of a forgotten DBA password, data corruption or the like) and the data is considered important and I have no backup available (so I would certainly have to take the blame!): Is there a chance to get help from any Sybase professional service that could try to salvage the data? Hint: Until now, we used to tell:
Note: The mentioned second hint would never apply when using a database with strong encryption, and the key gets lost. For such cases, the docs have always contained a very clear warning:
The reader might conclude from this warning that for other cases technical support will be able to help... |
No. To begin, "Sybase Professional Services" no longer exists as an entity. Sybase Technical support (and any associated groups) have now been officially integrated into SAP, along with the standard customer support contracts (which should be nearing migration, if not already). Due to the legal status changes of these various items, there is no longer an opportunity for us to offer this unofficial "salvage contract" to any customer, using the old Sybase contracts.
This is not misleading in the slightest - technical support may indeed be able to still help. The above mention of the loss of the (unofficial) 'salvage contracts' is not to say if you have a corrupt database, not to call support. No - on the contrary - if you need assistance and have a corrupt database, without any backups, please call technical support. We may still be able to help you attempt to try and salvage the data from the database (see: Sybase Article or the SAP Knowledge Base Article), if there is an opportunity to do so.
This is NOT an "unexpected change" in service. This ability for database salvages was never offered as a 'service' to any customer - there was always a "one-off" legal agreement drawn up, above and beyond any technical support agreement, based on resources and availability. Therefore, there is no 'change' to document for technical support plans to all customers as this was never a standard offering to customers. 2
Jeff, you are certainly right from a legal point of view (well, honestly, I don't have enough knowledge to talk about such issues...). Nevertheless, that change is still unexpected for some long-time SA users, methinks, and that's my point here. Besides that, I think there's a discrepancy between your first statement ("No, there is no chance...") and the second paragraph ("Please call tech support"). Do you mean the support as such is still there but the legal base is a different one? And besides that, I want to express a general thanks to you for "digging up that legal stuff"!
(02 Jan '14, 09:56)
Volker Barth
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Okay, how about we compromise - I'll agree to call it a 'change', and you can refer to it as 'unexpected' from your point of view. :) What we should agree upon is that it was never a "service".
There is again no discrepancy in my statements. I answered the first question: "Is there a chance to get help from any Sybase professional service..." with "No.", because Sybase Professional Services doesn't exist anymore, as I clarified. I also extended your question to ask: "Is there a chance to get help from any (group outside of technical support beyond our technical support agreement to perform database salvages)?" and the answer to that is also "No." I answered the second paragraph assuming people may interpret my first statement to say "don't contact tech support for corrupt databases", which is incorrect as there is quite often many things customers can do, without resorting to a 'database salvage' contract, that technical support can still help guide or assist with (the process of which I linked in the two documents above). Since this is a case-by-case basis (with various files involved in various states), we need to directly speak with you in order to determine your best options for recovery.
Which is what I'm trying to highlight in these posts - I do fully understand your "real world" concern surrounding the change, but I need to be clear to you and to other customers that may have different impressions about the previously offered "one-off" contracts versus what they signed up for in their technical support contract, and what the legal status of these various items are.
(02 Jan '14, 10:36)
Jeff Albion
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@Jeff: Thanks, I guess now I have got your point:) In the end, we'll surely both agree that each customer should have a working backup/restore plan to prevent them from the need for any extern data salvage service:)
(02 Jan '14, 11:03)
Volker Barth
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