Open Text Technical Alert 10612010
Hi all -
I have a question from a customer re: a recent Livelink bug and how other companies may be handling it
Open Text Technical Alert 10612010 describes a bug which causes data loss when multiple items are restored from the Recycle Bin. No auditing info is recorded. The bug appears to be due to the autopurge feature in Content Server 9.7.1. Content Server 9.7.0 does not contain the autopurge feature. The Technical Alert indicates that data loss will occur when upgraded to Content 9.7.1
The solution is two patches - one patch for Content Server 9.7.0 and one patch for Content Server 9.7.1. Affymax currently uses Content Server 9.7.0 and will not upgrade until next year. There is reluctance to install a patch due to (1) correct operation of patch cannot be tested in house since the autopurge feature is only with version 9.7.1 and (2) some issues were encountered with a previous patch. IT is following up with Open Text Technical Support for testing info.
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So, what do other people do in this situation?
Hi John
I can't speak to what other people might have done with this specific bug/patch but I can offer the following which might help your customer make up their mind as to the appropriate road forward:
- Virtually all official patches end up being a part of monthly patch bundles which are cumulative, so a decision not to deploy a patch today may mean a lot of extra work down the road as each monthly patch must be checked to see the patch in question isn't included
- The alert isn't just about the autopurge, it also says that currently without the patch there is no audit record of deleted files being restored ... I would think this concerning in a regulated environment
- The alert actually speaks to in semi-veiled terms is that the current database schema is potentially inconsistent; it can state that a Livelink object can both simultaneously exist and be deleted.
- While the current state is a semi-benign problem, an upgrade to 9.7.1 will see this bug cause real data loss with the autopurge option. Thus this patch needs to be applied prior to the upgrade in any case.
- It should be fairly easy to test the results of this patch, without it being applied restored files will see their entries remain in gdcRecycleBin, whereas after the patch a restored file will see it's entry deleted from the gdcRecycleBin table.
I can't say for sure what other customers are doing, I can say that I would advise to apply this patch (after suitable testing).
Hope this helps! kinch
