Is June 18 the new EBF end date?

[Breck_Carter]

Today is June 1, and downloads.sybase.com/swd/detail.do now displays

"In 17 days you will lose access to private EBF/Patches."

[VolkerBarth]

Besides Breck's accepted answer: The original question seems still unanswered, and the EBF page EOL date should be well-known beforehand...

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Hm, I do not see such a hint on the according page...

I'm reading "end of June 2014":

Please Note
With the transition to SAP support plans and infrastructure you will lose access to the Sybase EBF and Maintenance download site. SAP Service Marketplace does NOT contain patches for older End of Lifed product versions. Should you wish to retain copies of such patches for future use we strongly encourage you to download copies BEFORE you are migrated to SAP support plans and infrastructure. The Sybase EBF and Maintenance download site will be decommissioned at the end of June 2014 after which time no further access will be possible to download such patches.

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

Ahhhh, perhaps I am a Special Person since I see an additional exhortation above the "Please Note" (which I also see):

"WARNING! You are under a grace period. Your support plan has been migrated to SAP. In 16 days you will lose access to private EBF/Patches. Please use SAP website: http://service.sap.com/sybase/support for restricted patches.".

The more words SAP uses, the less clear everything becomes 🙂

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Well, then I am just another Special Person 'cos that's the hint I get:

"WARNING! You are only seeing public EBFs as your support account has been migrated to the SAP Service Marketplace. Please click HERE. for restricted patches.".

My so-far failed attempts to create a SAP Marketplace login are another sad SAP neglect migration story... - hopefully we don't fall out of SAP's grace...

[former_SQLA_member1694878 · Accepted solution]

You'll see this message if your MySybase account is tied to a technical support plan, and that plan is marked as migrated to the SAP support systems. After the 30 day grace period you'll lose access to anything non-public (that's tied to your support plan). All the recent SQLA EBFs are public so you should have access to them until the final shutdown (but make sure you download everything from the SPDC). If you can't logon to SAP service marketplace, you can go to https://service.sap.com/sybase/support and click 'Use our online form' to request help.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

make sure you download everything from the SPDC

Ah, is that going to be closed, as well? That's (bad) news for me - a while ago, Jeff has stated that differently, see that quote:

Current customers retain their SPDC access. I haven't heard any direct plans or announcements about the future plans for the SPDC, but we will certainly share any news as far and wide as we can if that status is planned to change.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

So what's the difference between "Your support plan has been migrated" (from Breck's quote) and "your support account has been migrated" (from mine)? Do I need a laywer to understand all that?

---

@Mikel: I really appreciate all your attempts to clarify that for us customers, however, it's difficult to not get confused...

[former_SQLA_member1694878 · Accepted solution]

Now that all customer have been migrated, yes it appears SPDC will be completely shutdown. Your existing 12 and 16 licenses should be migrated over to SAP support systems but older EOL products will not be. I don't believe the timeline/plan was in place in January as some customers were still in the process of migrating.

As noted on the main sybase.com page, I'd recommend you download all EOL products that you may need in the future. This applies to EBFs as well. AFAIK, EBFs for versions 11 and prior are not available on SAP service marketplace.

[former_SQLA_member1694878 · Accepted solution]

I think these are just two different messages with slightly different wording. When an account is migrated, it is given a 30 day 'grace period' with limited access to the old Sybase support systems (Breck's message). After the grace period has expired, this access is lost. In your case it appears this grace period has expired, however your still able to access the SQLA EBFs because they are marked as public. You should continue to have that access until the entire EBF site is shutdown at the end of June. Can you still login to SPDC?

Hopefully things will be a little more clear once you have access to SMP, the Sybase Support page has a relatively simple layout and tries to explain most of the new terminology. If not, keep asking questions, you are probably not the only one.

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

> you are probably not the only one

Strike the "probably".

For a preview of what MIGHT be in store for us, check out this post (and the comments) in SCN's Software Support and Maintenance area: Are you there, SAP? It's me, Jelena

[g_g_99 · Accepted solution]

for developers without maintenance contract, where can one go get any new ebf or update?

[justin_willey · Accepted solution]

I'm sure someone will correct this if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that after June, if you don't have a maintenance contract (standard or OEM) then you won't get ebfs or updates.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

@Mikel:

Can you still login to SPDC?

Yep, that's still possible.