tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74102744091328175012023-11-16T10:32:08.570-08:00End of SupportMatt Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17975039074220496861noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7410274409132817501.post-66811618810750038102015-10-18T02:53:00.000-07:002015-10-18T12:18:25.665-07:00How to Use the End-of-Support.com SiteThis article is a quick guide on how to use the end-of-support.com web application to create reports on the support status of products you're using. There are a few steps:
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<ol>
<li>Register or log-in to the site so you can save your list of products.</li>
<li>Search for the products you're using.</li>
<li>Add them all to your product list.</li>
<li>Download the report.</li>
</ol>
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In this case I am working on a web application that my company has purchased, the supplier requirements are that it runs on Windows Server 2008 with SQL server 2008 Workgroup. To get it online it's using some Cisco switches and a Cisco ASA Firewall. In this example I'll generate a support roadmap for the system.</div>
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1. Register or log-in to the site.</h3>
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Click the "Register" or "Login" buttons in the top-right of the site and follow the prompts. </div>
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2. Search for the products you're using.</h3>
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My preferred way of doing this is to click the "All Products" link in the menu and search by typing part of the product name into the search box. You can also browse to products based on their vendor or the category.</div>
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The first product is a Cisco 3750G switch so fire up the products page and type "Cisco 3750" into the search bar, several matching products are found and the top one is what I'm looking for so click that link.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2M0eYAQcIG2eI22N1Cy_gtfsM-4vGQiyJgfS2CLtJiJFdaF6f8aIhFgPDzfQNcIcunlKwdKoE-wIq5rF2lNqN5jfk_nfTCN4WMm2Z7aYW3APmLvwzPHuHHdrYra69z1vxeXZ5mM63Pcqq/s1600/1-search3750.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2M0eYAQcIG2eI22N1Cy_gtfsM-4vGQiyJgfS2CLtJiJFdaF6f8aIhFgPDzfQNcIcunlKwdKoE-wIq5rF2lNqN5jfk_nfTCN4WMm2Z7aYW3APmLvwzPHuHHdrYra69z1vxeXZ5mM63Pcqq/s400/1-search3750.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Searching for Cisco 3750 network switches</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This takes me to a page showing more detailed information on this product, use the button "Add to My Product List".</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjRi2HkfqZl-nnMBkqwSL7xWTAM8HXoSOfDits05VAne8Zb8_zoPZMAMkvbeDtXjuFFonPrRSEa2qAtPYnqHg3thTpCYJrkYLis15xvXA6mbtwDsLVfce7GfDXbKEu5yjN5dYAbLUDYd2/s1600/2-3750-details.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjRi2HkfqZl-nnMBkqwSL7xWTAM8HXoSOfDits05VAne8Zb8_zoPZMAMkvbeDtXjuFFonPrRSEa2qAtPYnqHg3thTpCYJrkYLis15xvXA6mbtwDsLVfce7GfDXbKEu5yjN5dYAbLUDYd2/s400/2-3750-details.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cisco 3750G details</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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3. Add them to Product List</h3>
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Clicking "Add to My Product List" gives the page showing the product list, which currently only has one item in. You can get to this page using the "My Product List" menu item.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBSdlE1GxfKZfvaH37EkBUkRUoUWWKBne6nZ8N2h-t1HhY3-LnqsOl3unJVsBOsZps7oCAQAkGwKAj44vMewWJc8IPrm6jU89ufzudGFejyeuaOq5LbGid4IKwLScT7ohR2xvicOQYY-2/s1600/3-productlist.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBSdlE1GxfKZfvaH37EkBUkRUoUWWKBne6nZ8N2h-t1HhY3-LnqsOl3unJVsBOsZps7oCAQAkGwKAj44vMewWJc8IPrm6jU89ufzudGFejyeuaOq5LbGid4IKwLScT7ohR2xvicOQYY-2/s400/3-productlist.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Product List with just one item</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I'll add some more products, the system also uses Windows 2008 server so I'll click the "All Products" link in the menu and use the search again.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQOc33ezLN7a3gGcd9SlT1OeDzGKm-PSu1PCLbujHReLahxjyMzNtWsd62n4KzDAN0Ds_NC61V6doyV1rDRWtYF_VnDa0Zuph6JXhBejQooluaEtzy31w8N1LUjvOa1P3Oo6BAkhOSpc4/s1600/3-svr2008-search.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHQOc33ezLN7a3gGcd9SlT1OeDzGKm-PSu1PCLbujHReLahxjyMzNtWsd62n4KzDAN0Ds_NC61V6doyV1rDRWtYF_VnDa0Zuph6JXhBejQooluaEtzy31w8N1LUjvOa1P3Oo6BAkhOSpc4/s400/3-svr2008-search.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Searching for Microsoft Windows Server 2008</td></tr>
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Clicking the link in the search result gives me detailed information on Server 2008, including the "Add to My Product List" button which I'll click again, the product list now has both products in:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT2_WWjOqb8lKvRkrxhmbEJRZ1xccrONk7iYrYMisFT5lZSPtIdpKynqTll1aEHNahTQ0hlqlHrlVoaVljAzA8eKQF5HPH5hSPQivlUtUGwbcF8UYmYQPjwug9Od_7ZiZFQCg4KMfxbg_f/s1600/5-report.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT2_WWjOqb8lKvRkrxhmbEJRZ1xccrONk7iYrYMisFT5lZSPtIdpKynqTll1aEHNahTQ0hlqlHrlVoaVljAzA8eKQF5HPH5hSPQivlUtUGwbcF8UYmYQPjwug9Od_7ZiZFQCg4KMfxbg_f/s400/5-report.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Product list with two products shown</td></tr>
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You can see on the page the support roadmap graph is starting to appear at the bottom. You can also see a few blue windows on the screen with the title "Information". These are providing online help, but they also take up a bit of space so I'll turn them off. This can be done in my profile settings, or by clicking the spanner in one of the boxes titled "settings" and clicking the option to "off" as shown below, then hit "save changes".</div>
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They can be turned back on in your user profile, available by clicking your username in the top right and selecting "My Profile".</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXu1q3XClvwey-Skt7CgpDwoG3p6o24LjTJTFIyZhluCs5HWBmnxVrZt2vjD96Bfa04WayhifK1mgbOpqCCCqDWNxFmJJgAOyCIahX1ZLE8ie6BzItq0I45JUkmbL3U2OK1ORTnXy_KW1/s1600/6-info-windows-off.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXu1q3XClvwey-Skt7CgpDwoG3p6o24LjTJTFIyZhluCs5HWBmnxVrZt2vjD96Bfa04WayhifK1mgbOpqCCCqDWNxFmJJgAOyCIahX1ZLE8ie6BzItq0I45JUkmbL3U2OK1ORTnXy_KW1/s400/6-info-windows-off.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disabling the help text</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Now I've got a bit of screen back and can see everything on the one page, at the bottom is a box titled "Upgrades Needed During System Lifetime" which can be ignored for now as that's the topic of another article. You can see the product list at the top and the report graph below, hovering the mouse over the graph provides more information.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwu2qjcwch4_EqP2VD73VE9WQpijxhLI4Ao-fgMok-QqcPRdRn7deBtUeFEN-xkTiHUS5I20lTqffLXgD3i4nt0lbSG1mxCQ1DNdm5eUJnBLSmmtne6SHCYlpBi97rB8kRldvDkBWD5prE/s1600/6-report-no-infowindows.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwu2qjcwch4_EqP2VD73VE9WQpijxhLI4Ao-fgMok-QqcPRdRn7deBtUeFEN-xkTiHUS5I20lTqffLXgD3i4nt0lbSG1mxCQ1DNdm5eUJnBLSmmtne6SHCYlpBi97rB8kRldvDkBWD5prE/s400/6-report-no-infowindows.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Report with help boxes turned off to re-gain some screen space</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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4 . Download the Report</h3>
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Now I've got a few more products to add, which I'll do in the same way. The "My Product List" page now looks as below. The report can be exported by clicking the download arrow and selecting "Download As", then picking a format. This is also shown below.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJUYaI0tOLVaK9vRFx5Q0RHHldJD0u1_-Sa9SI7cfP1QEd9_tlY0EA-gAQFaDpjSJDPJ7IOw3ErheUWYvGHjbPAlGLIkX8Zal25kuQKP5Mc9u1WhLY-_sFtNRW_kevCN8qqrJUoxiSIxJ/s1600/8-dl.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJUYaI0tOLVaK9vRFx5Q0RHHldJD0u1_-Sa9SI7cfP1QEd9_tlY0EA-gAQFaDpjSJDPJ7IOw3ErheUWYvGHjbPAlGLIkX8Zal25kuQKP5Mc9u1WhLY-_sFtNRW_kevCN8qqrJUoxiSIxJ/s400/8-dl.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Completed Product List, about to download the report</td></tr>
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This gives me the final report showing the support status for my system. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnzf7XrJkaqq4UzvAhdH5EeHYlNVMpwrXep96xvi6O8wRXrnwBBI9UYgahR_G0MwzhgEkgr3L21IfH90zgeJJByJ5LxE9hXS9-wkROA5e-DZ7fZHuvvY1k-0x65nD5mqN7mGiZZwgAfDnn/s1600/9-amchart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnzf7XrJkaqq4UzvAhdH5EeHYlNVMpwrXep96xvi6O8wRXrnwBBI9UYgahR_G0MwzhgEkgr3L21IfH90zgeJJByJ5LxE9hXS9-wkROA5e-DZ7fZHuvvY1k-0x65nD5mqN7mGiZZwgAfDnn/s400/9-amchart.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final Product Support Report</td></tr>
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Now you can do what you like with this file, I tend to include it in any designs I'm producing to show the future support status. </div>
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There are several conclusions drawn for this particular system:</div>
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<ul>
<li>The Cisco 2960G access switches will go out of support in mid-2017, which is only a year away. So I probably ought to use a different model of switch.</li>
<li>The Cisco 3750G switch and ASA5550 firewall are also going out of spuport in 2018 so if I want to keep using the system past that date then I need to see if I can afford a more modern device, to refresh them before 2018 or to accept the risk of them going out of support. The option and implications are discussed in a separate article.</li>
<li>The Microsoft products are already in extended support, I need to investigate what that means and whether it's a problem. If it is then I might ask the vendor if they can make their code work on a newer platform, but I suspect they'll want money for that!</li>
</ul>
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Conclusion</h4>
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This article has walked you through creating a report. There are a few additional functions which may come in useful:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Creating and saving multiple reports to track multiple systems.</li>
<li>Creating custom products if they aren't listed in the database.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Matt Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17975039074220496861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7410274409132817501.post-86424684703997290462015-05-22T10:36:00.002-07:002015-05-22T10:36:27.449-07:00End of Support RoadmapAs you can see the site is still under development!<br /><br />
You are welcome to sign up and have a play, feel free to send any feedback to contact@end-of-support.com or leave a comment here. If you have any suggestions, find any bugs or would like any particular features considered then please get in touch.<br /><br />
The current roadmap plans are:
<ul>
<li>In the next few weeks upload a newer code release with a few less bugs and more features.</li>
<li>Add lots more products to the database!</li>
<li>Improve the front end.</li>
<li>Improve the searching of products.</li>
<li>Add the ability to link a product to suggested replacements.</li>
<li>Map out a roadmap for your product list showing what needs replacing, when and what products will be used.</li>
<li>Allow users to submit their own products</li>
<li>Add a help file and some videos showing how best to use the application.</li>
<li>Add some links to suppliers to see prices.</li>
</ul>Matt Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17975039074220496861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7410274409132817501.post-14897704014106380082015-05-22T10:22:00.001-07:002015-05-22T10:24:18.582-07:00What is end-of-support.com for?This site is for tracking hardware and software going out of support. Anyone is welcome to use it but the target audience would be managers and architects planning the future of their IT systems.<br /><br />
<strong>Web Application</strong>
I'm aiming to build a web application that can provide several bits of info:
<ul>
<li>Searchable database of products (software, hardware, etc).</li>
<li>Dates for those products going end of sale and support.</li>
<li>What the options are for replacements, with community input into this part.</li>
<li>What the issues are when migrating between certain systems, hopefully based on users experiences.</li>
<li>Ability for users to keep a list of products they are interested in.</li>
<li>Reporting and alerting of users products</li>
</ul>
Links to:
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<li>Where can I buy those products and how much do they cost?</li>
<li>Who can provide training on those products.</li>
<li>Who can come and install them for me.</li>
</ul>
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<strong>Blog Articles</strong><br /><br />
The site blog will also contain some articles on various aspects of building the app, discussions on support issues, obsolescence issues and anything else that comes to mind. I'm tempted to put up a forum but don't want to spend my life fighting off spam bots, so will see how things go.<br /><br />
<strong>Suggestions</strong><br /><br />
Feel free to drop us a note with your views, you can contact us via comments on this blog or alternately:<br /><br />
email - <a href="mailto:contact@end-of-support.com">contact@end-of-support.com</a><br />
Twitter - <a href="https://twitter.com/endofsupport">@EndOfSupport</a><br />
Facebook - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/endofsupport">https://www.facebook.com/endofsupport</a><br />
Linkedin - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/end-of-support">https://www.linkedin.com/company/end-of-support</a><br />
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Thanks for visiting and hopefully you'll find this a useful resource.Matt Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17975039074220496861noreply@blogger.com0