OTRE: Regression Testing at Oracle???

Supports my personal theory (no peer-reviewed work, yet, sorry Eric! :) that large corporations routinely get away
with lots of things that you and I
would get killed, sued, beat up, and/or
besmirched for.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 1:57 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

This seems to be standard practice any more... SIGH! But Oracle must be one of the worst offenders.

I once was looking to implement Oracle Financials as a "paying beta customer" (Shouldn't this be a contradiction in terms?). Oracle was the alpha and Sequent Computer in Oregon was the original beta (Oracle and Sequent had a pretty tight relationship back then). The Sequent implementation was on their own servers running "Dynix," a Unix derivative. Our implementation was to be a port to VAX/VMS. What a mess! Bug city and Oracle still wanted to charge us big bucks for beta software!! Oracle eventually dropped the VMS port and I believe the first commercial version of the Oracle Apps did not ship for another 2-3 years. I wonder, how many companies paid for Oracle's development costs?

Steve Orr

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 9:29 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

regression testing?, heck we are the alpha/beta/regression testers :)

joe

>>> MGogala_at_oxhp.com 07/26/01 10:35AM >>> This makes me wonder: what kind of regression testing is implemented by oracle?
Trial and error? It makes me wonder, oh it makes me wander ("Stairway to Heaven")

> -----Original Message-----
> From: A. Bardeen [mailto:abardeen1_at_yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 6:15 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: FYI: new alert regarding 8.1.7.2 patchset
>
>
> Note: 153172.1 "ALERT: Do NOT Install 8.1.7.2.0 Patch
> Set on top of 8.1.7.1"
>
>
> 8.1.7.2.0 Patch Set Does Not Install Correctly Over
> 8.1.7.1/8.1.7.1B
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> This alert will be updated to indicate the current
> status of
> this problem. The modification history is shown at
> the END of the
> alert.
>
> Versions Affected
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This problem affects the installation of the
> 8.1.7.2.0 Patch Set.
>
>
> Platforms Affected
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This problem affects the following platforms only:
> HPUX (Oracle 32 bit release)
> HPUX (Oracle 64 bit release)
> Compaq Tru64
> Intel Solaris
>
> This problem does NOT affect the following
> platform:
> Sun Sparc Solaris (Oracle 32 bit release)
>
> 8.1.7.2 has not been released on any other
> platform yet.
> Other platforms will have this problem
> corrected prior
> to their 8.1.7.2 Patch Set being released.
>
>
> Description
> ~~~~~~~~~~~
> If the 8.1.7.2.0 Patch Set is installed on top of
> either 8.1.7.1 or
> 8.1.7.1B then the patch set does not install
> correctly. No errors
> are reported during the installation but the
> Oracle version banner still
> shows the version to be 8.1.7.1.
>
>
> Likelihood of Occurrence
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> You will encounter this problem if you install the
> 8.1.7.2.0 patch set
> on top of either 8.1.7.1 or 8.1.7.1B on any of the
> platforms listed above.
>
> You are STRONGLY advised NOT to install 8.1.7.2.0
> on top of 8.1.7.1
> releases until this issue is addressed.
>
>
> Possible Symptoms
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The main visible symptoms of this issue are:
> a. The Oracle version banner still shows the
> RDBMS release to be
> 8.1.7.1
> b. SELECT * FROM V$VERSION shows the release
> to be 8.1.7.1
> c. Bugs fixed in 8.1.7.2 may still be
> encountered
>
> There may be additional symptoms not yet
> discovered as the resulting
> installation contains an untested combination of
> modules.
>
>
> Workaround
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> The only workaround to this problem is to install
> 8.1.7.2.0 on top of
> an 8.1.7.0 Oracle installation.
> ie: If the current installation is at release
> 8.1.7.1, then you must
> reinstall 8.1.7.0 and then apply the 8.1.7.2
> patch set.
>
> If you have already installed 8.1.7.2 on top of
> 8.1.7.1 then it is
> advisable to reinstall the base release (8.1.7.0)
> and then apply
> the patch set on top of this to get a proper
> 8.1.7.2 release
> installed.
>
>
> Patches
> ~~~~~~~
> The affected patch sets will be re-released
> shortly with the
> version number 8.1.7.2.1. These updated patch sets
> will install
> on top of 8.1.7.1, 8.1.7.1B or 8.1.7.0. If
> possible please
> avoid upgrading until the revised patch sets are
> released.
>
>
> References
> ~~~~~~~~~~
> Base bug reporting the install problem
> [BUG:1898001]
>
>
> Modification History:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 26-Jul-2001 Initial alert that 8.1.7.2 does not
> install over 8.1.7.1
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ________________
>
> Oracle Support Services
> .
>
>

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