Support Central

BMC Software wants you to have the opportunity to be at our current generally available maintenance levels for all products.

Maintenance delivery falls into two broad categories:

• Preventive
  Preventive maintenance comprises Cumulative Service and Preventive Service
• Corrective
  Corrective maintenance uses HIPER/Flash Service

BMC Software maintenance is available on tape and through electronic software distribution (ESD).

Cumulative Service (CUM tape) - for SMP/E product upgrades to existing SMP/E installations and SMP/E installations

One logical CUM tape is used for all BMC Software SMP/E functions. The CUM tape contains recent, generally available fixes that must be installed with associated base functions. The CUM tape is not intended to be used with a Standard installation because maintenance already has been applied and accepted. The CUM tape is updated at the following times:

• When BMC Software products become generally available
• When a BMC Software PUT becomes generally available
• When BMC Software HIPER (Flash) maintenance becomes available

When will you use the CUM tape?
When installing one or more products by using an SMP/E installation tape set.

What will you apply?
All PTFs on the tape.

Preventive Service (PUT)

New Periodic Update Tapes (PUTs) are available every two to three months. To apply preventive maintenance, you must apply a PUT to BMC Software products that have operational SMP/E environments (Standard installations and full SMP/E installations) PUTs are not applicable to IEBCOPY environments.

A new product installation (or reinstallation of an existing product) updates products to within at least 60 days of current maintenance.

When will you use preventive service?
When upgrading your BMC Software product maintenance without reinstalling your products

If you are more than six months behind applying maintenance, more than one PUT may be required.

What will you APPLY?
All PTFs on the PUT.

BMC Software recommends this action.

HIPER (Flash) Service

Occasionally BMC Software discovers an especially harmful problem in one of our products. As soon as we have tested a fix for such a problem, we notify you of the problem circumstances and provide the fix.

When you register for Proactive Alerts from BMC Software, you automatically receive Flash information for every product for which you have registered. To retrieve fixes immediately, you can use the specified APAR, Zap, or PTF as a search argument in the BMC Software eFix application.