Fix Current ESU - how to handle special instructions

Hi,
I have downloaded Fix current ESUs for my systems (approx. 2400) using Change Assistant and need to install them. My question is how are the special instructions handled for such a huge batch? Do we have to review each one of them manually or does Change Assistant takes care of it?

Also, is it wiser to apply 400 ESUs at a time or let the entire 2400 ESUs go together?

Regards,

you dont need to open all of the xml files.
most of them are empty and you can tell by looking at the size of the special instruction xml file.

I had the similar situation when upgraded to the 91 from 810 and wanted the system to be code current.
here are the steps i took and it saved me some time:

1, open file explorer and navigate to the folder that has all the ESU unziped files from the left panel where you expand folder
2, create two folder pre package build and post package build
3, go tru the files are more than 4k in size
4 open xmls and read if post package or pre , dump them in the folder you created
5. then when you are done with all start with pre and build the package and then post ones.

i have attached a pitcure that might help.
it took me half a day to finish them all
the worst was one special instruction that was cleaning the category codes for row description and column description

Actually - Change Assistant has a way to extract all the ESU Special Instructions in a single report. You still have to undertake them manually, of course, but it helps to identify them. I use to have a script that used grep and awk to extract the special instructions from the HTML - but Change Assistant does it better now.

As for installing lots of ESU's at a time - I usually split the load by "date range". ie, from 11/1 through 12/1 and then 12/1 through 13/1, etc etc. The reason I do that is because Change Assistant will crash as the Java process exceeds the 32bit restrictions (1.5Gb) in memory. Sometimes you can get 500 ESU's installed, othertimes only about 300 ESU's. Splitting the load up by date helps with the time to restart the process. Also, if an ESU crashes in the midst of the installation - its usually restartable. Getting a fresh 9.1 system "fix current" took a couple of days back in December with the 2000+ ESU's. Of course, getting a 9.2 system fix current is a LOT faster, as there are "only" 250 ESU's currently....

Hi, Jon.

I'd believe there are "only" 250 ESU's for 9.2. The real testers (aka customers) haven't had enough actual usage of 9.2 to find all the bugs.
FYI, we just upgraded to 9.1, Update 2 over this past weekend and were fix-current as of last June, and we still ran into a nasty bug that was just found last fall. And 9.1 has been out for several years!

I have used one of the techniques shared by one of the jdelist member long ago.

You need to basically grab all the *.htm files for all ESU's put them in a folder and run a search for files that contains '======'
A very nice freeware tool to speed up this process is Agent ransack.

It usually allows you to filter down the list of ESU's with Special Instructions and then segregate them into separate folders based on the type of SI .. pre package build, post build pkg build, TC, table generation, DD, UDC, etc...

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for your response. The decision was to do all the baselines and then apply ESUs on case by case basis - so that the SIs don't overwhelm everyone.

ok - I was away for a while, but heres how to correctly get all the Special Instructions into one HTML document without needing to set up gawk, grep or weird HTML scripts and by using just the change assistant !

1. start change assistant, log in and search for the ESU's you want (ie, use date ranges to get "latest" list of ESU's or search with an open range to get them all)
2. Dont forget to click the >> button to get all the results
3. Sort the list by name (click on ESU Name column) to order the list in ascending order
4. Click the "tick" to select ALL ESU's
5. Click the little down-symbol next to the "chart" button - select "Analyze Packages"
6. Deselect ALL of the options - except "special instructions" - leave the output to HTML (or change if you wish !)
7. click the green "tick" to start the process.
8. Go make some coffee. I like mine black with lots of sweetener. Alternatively, go to lunch/bed/the bar.
9. You'll note that the little change assistant logo is moving and that the bar at the bottom is moving relatively slowly. Not to panic, theres a lot of things its doing.
10. Boom. Big HTML document appears in your browser - with just the special instructions....

(sorry, I had to stretch this to 10 steps - just because I like the number 10)....