[c-nsp] IOS XR 4.3.0 or 4.3.1

[Jared Mauch]

On May 26, 2013, at 9:06 PM, Reuben Farrelly <reuben-cisco-nsp at reub.net> wrote:

> On 27/05/2013 10:37 AM, Jared Mauch wrote:
>> Basically all the images go through EFT with almost no exceptions.
>> Problem most vendors have is getting good feedback from the sites
>> with that early code. Seen that for over a decade with many vendors.
>> 
>> Jared Mauch
> 
> Valuing good feedback hasn't been my experience, although to be fair I'm dealing with IOS space rather than IOS-XR so it may be different.  It is typically taking me upwards of 2 months and sometimes nearer a year of TAC case time to have reproducible defects confirmed and bug reports filed.
> 
> I'm too small to have a Cisco AM or deal direct, so I don't have that avenue open to me either and it's unlikely the reseller who has sold me gear will want to spend time chasing Cisco for this sort of thing. However the fact that I'm a small player also means I'm able to test and offer feedback a lot easier than say, a big customer with a 24x7 operation where there is no option for downtime or testing.
> 
> There must be a better way to submit feedback and log bug reports, but I'm baffled as to how/where.  TAC certainly don't seem to want to deal with them and I'm losing interest in spending lots of my time debugging Cisco's products to be left feeling like they've done /me/ a favour by opening a bug report and fixing it.
> 
> So, the question is, are there any better ways to submit engineering type feedback than simply opening TAC cases all the time?

I've not found a good way aside from going to development directly.  Going to TAC is an exercise in frustration for many people when it's a software defect.  First they don't have lab resources, or they can't reproduce the bug.  They don't want to debug in a production environment.  Development and TAC aren't directly accountable to each other.

TAC isn't built to report bugs.  When they find bugs, they always say "confidental/found-in: internal-use" vs found-in: customer.  Even when we have reported the bugs, then open a case to track the bug, they go "hey, where did you get this, it's an internal defect" vs one that has been impacting our network for months.

I've tried to find someone at Cisco TAC that cares about this and can make a change, but haven't had any results.  Each time I tell this to someone at Cisco, they go away to think about how to correct it and never return.

I don't see this challenge with other vendors.

- Jared