Software Maintenance

Overview

As part of the quality commitment to customers, Novell’s software maintenance program proactively improves software releases by providing updates and fixes for recognized issues.

General Support

During the General Support phase, Novell will make available to eligible customers software maintenance in the form of support packs, patches, or field test files. A maintenance fee payment may be required. Software maintenance requests are evaluated and prioritized to ensure the most critical issues are remedied. During the General support phase, customers may also request new or enhanced product features.

Extended Support

During the Extended Support phase, Novell will continue to provide security related software maintenance for customers who have purchased an Extended Support agreement. Non-security related software maintenance may be provided if Novell deems appropriate and strategic. Additional software maintenance may also be available on a fee-basis. During Extended Support phase, Novell will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes, new or enhanced product features.

As a product moves through its lifecycle, customers should expect Novell to be significantly more discriminating when evaluating software maintenance requests.

Definitions

Support Packs

Support Packs are a collection of patches or fixes to a Novell product that are tested and delivered together. Support packs contain primarily defect fixes rather than new product enhancements. A support pack install mechanism is used to implement the complete set of patches and fixes into the previously configured product environment. Consolidated Support Packs are a collection of support packs for multiple Novell products that are tested together and released simultaneously at regular intervals.

Patches

Patches are a modification to one or more files (source code, script, binary executable, configuration etc.) to fix one or more program defects.

Field Test Files

Field Test Files are delivered with a "beta" status until a certain level of confidence is achieved (usually determined by a sufficient number of customers having deployed it without problems), at which time it moves to a "public" status. Field test files are later collected and delivered through formal release mechanisms such as support packs, and future product releases.