ASM notice sent February 2011 to SPL customers:
"In the not too distant future, HP will
discontinue sending OpenVMS Software Product Library (SPL) and
Online Documentation Library (ODL) CD sets for the Alpha and
Integrity platforms. The VAX distributions have already been
discontinued. There are two primary reasons for this
change: reduce cost and, more importantly, reduce
pollution of the environment.
The go-forward method of installing software products
that are currently included on the CDs will be via download
from the Software Update Manager on the
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support Center website.
As with OpenVMS patches, this will require an Hewlett Packard
Enterprise Passport (one
per individual that would need to download patches or software
products) and a valid SAID must be associated with each
persons Passport. In addition, you will only be able to
access software products that are listed on your
SAID(s)/contract.
If your goal is to install a new layered OpenVMS product, you will first need to have sales add it to
your SAID/contract by purchasing the product's license. It
may take a few days after this before you will have access to
the software download.
You can, however, opt out of this
change. If you want to continue receiving the CD sets,
you must specify this choice in the Software Update Manager as
described in the following link, which give a lot of
information on this change, by platform, see:
Software Updates Service and Download Information
It appears that only products that are
updated in the quarter will be available for download or
included on a CD. This differs from the method that has been
used for years, which is to provide every product (and
sometimes multiple versions of a product) even if there is no
update to the software since the previous SPL quarterly
distribution.
If you or your support staff are not
set up to access ITRC, this would be a good time to get this
done. With ITRC, you can also manage your support contracts,
log calls for non-critical problems, download patches, and
more.
"