Microsoft eOpen Site Down For Nearly a Week 133
mauriceh writes "Since Monday Dec. 7, the Microsoft eOpen license website has been mostly 'Down for Maintenance.' When we do not see this message, we still do not see most of the normal functionality. As this is Microsoft's main channel for managing and installing licenses for products such as Server, and for open license products for business, this makes the company effectively 'closed for business!' Attempts to connect to https://eopen.microsoft.com/ are redirected (after a bad certificate warning) to https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/sitemaintenance.html. For those who wish to activate Microsoft Business Solutions software need to obtain Software Registration keys, and these also can not be obtained, as the site http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions/MBSRegistration does not resolve; instead one gets a Microsoft Search page. Telephone calls to their support numbers for the licensing program yield either busy signals, or a message saying one should 'call back later.'"
Time for some free software zealotry... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Time for some free software zealotry... (Score:3, Interesting)
Proprietary software whose functionality requires a given service to be infallible is the problem
and just two stories down is another article [slashdot.org] telling how MS let a cert expire now and it's causing software written in 2003 to lock users out... MS is just flush with examples of this flawed concept today...
One thing which hasn't been mentioned yet (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft are trying to rationalise how their licensing works. Historically, they've had a myriad of different websites you had to use depending on if you have an Open Subscription License, an Open Value License, an MSDN license or a license that you made up yourself with a box of magic markers and a sheet of paper.
They're certainly trying to merge Subscription and Open Value right now - I recently purchased a few licenses on the OVS plan (the website for which is being shut down) and I'm having trouble accessing them on the "new" system.
This isn't another "gosh how fragile everything is" story. This is a bog standard "some f*ckwit decided to go live with the new system without testing it properly" story. The only eyebrow-raising part is that you would expect Microsoft to have a whole brace of plan Bs in place at the drop of a hat for just such an occurrence.
Re:No, all cases without a license server (Score:1, Interesting)
I think you are missing the point to the parent post.... It is all well and good if you have already registered your old software, but if you are trying to install new software you are up shit creek without a paddle.
I am currently stuck in this situation, trying to get a copy of windows 2008 r2, I cannot order media kits from suppliers anymore because M$ is forcing everyone to do it through their site. I cannot register my licence keys with the site to unlock the install keys, which also means I cannot unlock the downloads to get around the missing media problems.
I have spent the past fortnight trying to get someone to respond to an email, only to have to throw my licence and contact details back and forward with some call centre lacky who doesnt seem to want to make any thing easier (first they asked for the details, then I need to fill in a form, then they cant locate the licence numbers and I have to re-supply the info I supplied a few days earlier, then the second form which I am filling in now .. ARG!!!).
Currently I am ordering the media from god knows where, for a delivery time god knows when. So I can install a server which is supposed to be operational before xmas. Now I notice that the licence call centre is apparently non-responsive so god alone knows how I am going to get the licence keys from M$ even if I do manage to get media.
Seriously this is insane. How exactly could M$ get itself in this mess?
Re:Maybe it was running Vista... (Score:4, Interesting)
As it turns out, my comment was premature. The site that is supposed to replace the eOpen site is broken. You can manage agreements or keys, but downloads aren't working.
$64 Moebius Question: Is it broken because of slashdot or slashdotted because it is broken?