Support

Product Support Lifecycle Policy

This policy explains Actian Corporation's product support lifecycle policy. Whether purchased directly from Actian, or from Actian partners or resellers, these policies are designed to standardize product lifecycle expectancies and assist you in developing your internal release implementation and migration plans. Actian Corporation strives to provide the best quality Software and Support Services. In order to provide best-in-class software solutions, Actian has defined a predictable Product Support Lifecycle Policy to give you plenty of lead time to plan and manage your upgrade and release processes. The detailed product support lifecycle policies can be found at our support policy.

Right to Accelerate Product Support Lifecycle

Actian may shorten the term of Enterprise support for certain products and versions at its discretion. Actian will make commercially reasonable efforts to announce any change in lifecycle length at least 12 months in advance. These notices are subject to change, and will be updated as necessary.

DBMS Versioning Policy

Actian follows a general versioning methodology for the creation and management of our software which drives our Lifecycle methodology.

Current Planned Dates

• Actian X Hybrid Database (Ingres)
• Actian OpenROAD
• Actian NoSQL Object Database (Versant)
• Actian Zen Embedded Database (PSQL)
• Other Products

• Actian DataConnect

• Actian Vector
• Actian Vector in Hadoop
• Actian DataFlow and Actian DataFlow for Hadoop

To ease the transition to 11.x Ingres has prepared a Upgrade Guide to assist you in the planning and execution of a successful upgrade of Ingres.

*NOTE: The reason for the varying and shorter Lifecycle date is we are working to bring OpenROAD releases current to Actian X. The Lifecycle dates will re-align with the 11.2 release in 2021.

*Correlates with End of Life of Adobe Flash, a UI component for DataConnect v10.5, v10.6

Other Products

*NOTE: The reason for the varying and shorter Lifecycle date is we are working to bring Enterprise Access releases current to Actian X. The Lifecycle dates will re-align with the 11.2 release in 2021.

Thank you for choosing Actian Support. This document is here to help our customers to better understand the Actian Support Policies and better utilize Actian Support. These policies apply to all Actian product lines, unless otherwise noted.

Please Note: Each one of the ‘green highlighted’ text sections below are Hyperlinks. The first section is the general policy terms and details for all products. If you are looking for specific product details then ‘click’ on the hyperlink for the product your are interested in to review the additional terms.

General Support Policy Details (Applicable to all Actian Products)

License Terms
Support Policy Terms
Avalanche Services Agreement
Scope of Hot Standby/DR, Test and Developer Licenses
Actian and Dealing with Multi-Vendor Support

Severity and Priority Definitions and Response Times
Information Customers Should Gather Before Requesting Support
Contact Information
Updates and Changes

Actian Database Management

Actian Data Integration

Actian Data Analytics

License Terms

Subscription

An active subscription includes the use of the licensed product and Enterprise Support during the term. A subscription that is not renewed at the end of the term will be considered expired, and customer will discontinue all use of the software and Support Services.

Perpetual Licenses

A perpetual license is a software license for a term that does not have a specified end date.

Flex Licenses

A flex license is a software license which allows the maximum number of cores be counted across multiple servers or nodes.

Enterprise Licenses

An enterprise license is a software license which provides the full feature set on a single server or node within a cluster.

Universal Licenses

A universal license is a software license which allows a maximum number of 2 cores enabled on a single server

Professional Licenses

A professional license is a software license which allows a maximum number of 1 cores enabled on a single server.

Support Policy Terms

Support Fees

Support Fees are due and payable annually in advance of a support term, unless otherwise stated in the relevant ordering document.

Support Period

Support is effective upon the signature of your Order unless stated otherwise in your Order. Once ordered, all Support Services, and Support Fees, are non-cancelable and non-refundable. Actian is not obligated to provide Support Services beyond the end of the term indicated in your Order unless agreed by the parties in a signed agreement or Order.

Support for Perpetual Licenses

When acquiring Support Services for a perpetual license, all licenses of the same product(irrespective of version) must be supported under an active Actian Support contract. You may not support only a subset of licenses of the same product; those licenses left unsupported must be terminated. With respect to Actian Support Services in relation to perpetual licenses, you hereby represent that you have the appropriate licenses to the Software that is subject to the Support Services. A product may not be deployed in any environment in which a community version of the Product is deployed. Additionally, Actian will not support the use of the OpenROAD software product with the community version of Ingres software.

Support for Subscription Licenses

When acquiring Support Services for a subscription license, all licenses of the same product (irrespective of version) must be supported under an active Actian Support contract. You may not support only a subset of licenses of the same product; those licenses left unsupported must be terminated. With respect to Actian Support Services in relation to subscription licenses, you hereby represent that you have the appropriate licenses to the Software that is subject to the Support Services. An Actian product may not be deployed in any environment in which a community version of the Actian product is deployed. Additionally, Actian will not support the use of the OpenROAD software product with the community version of Ingres software.

Support Not Covered

Support services do not cover services for any failure or defect in the licensed product caused by (i) alteration or modification of the licensed product other than by Actian unless such alteration or modification was made under the direction of Actian; (ii) negligence, computer or electrical malfunction; or (iii) use, adjustment, installation or operation other than in accordance with the licensed documentation or with any application or in an environment other than as specified in the licensed documentation, or if you are using a version of the licensed product released more than one year prior to the then current version. Actian does not provide support for any community versions of the products nor do we provide onsite support as part of the normal enterprise support. Onsite services are available as part of a paid for services engagement.

Support Indemnification

We shall have no support obligations to the extent a support issue could be avoided by use of the latest released Updates or version of the Products.

Reinstatement of Actian Support for Perpetual Licenses

When Support Services lapse on a perpetual license, it may be reinstated by paying a Lapsed Service Fee, if the maintenance contract on your product has expired. You will be required to pay a Lapsed Service Fee of 1.5X to reinstate support for the lapsed service period in addition to purchasing and activating a one-year service maintenance renewal contract, unless agreed otherwise between Actian and you. The renewal contract's start date will also be backdated to begin coverage from the product's original expiration date. Unsupported licenses are not eligible for Updates, Enterprise Support, or any other Actian services.

Product Updates

"Update" means any update to the Software which Actian generally makes available to its supported customers, bug fixes, patches, service packs and new releases.

Right to Accelerate Product Support Lifecycle

Actian may shorten the term of Enterprise support for certain products and versions at its discretion. Actian will make commercially reasonable efforts to announce any change in lifecycle length at least 12 months in advance. These notices are subject to change, and will be updated as necessary.

User

As used in Actian's price list, "User" is an individual with the appropriate license right, and authorized by customer, to use a single copy of the Actian products which is installed on a single server, regardless of whether the individual is actively using the products at any given time. i.e., a license to a copy of the Actian product must be purchased for each User for each server or device. In addition, deployment of the Actian product on a server will require the purchase of an additional User in addition to the number of individuals.

Processor

As used in Actian's price list, "Processor" means the individual processor (whether it has one core or multiple cores) within a particular socket. All processors on or with which the Actian Software is running or installed must be licensed. A Server license allows you to use the licensed program on a single specified computer.

Core

As used in Actian's price list, "Core" means the number of individual physical processor cores within a single system or node. In an environment having multi-core processors, as determined by counting the number of individual physical processor cores within a single Processor, those systems will be priced on a per-core basis. Cores that are in single-core per processor configuration are not eligible for multi-core pricing. Core count is based on the total number of cores and processors in the particular hardware system.

Socket

Means the equivalent of one CPU having 10 or less cores contained in such CPU.

Machine/Server

As used in Actian's price list, a "Machine" or “Server” shall mean the Software is licensed to (a) the entire physical computer or server which has a single unique serial number with no limitations placed on the number of Processors; or (b) an instance of a virtual machine or container.

Node

As used in Actian's price list, a "Node" shall mean the Software is licensed to a Node where Vector has the DataNode service, x100_server and iidbms processes running.

Avalanche Unit

Avalanche Unit (AU) is a logical measure of the computing cluster capacity that is made available for running queries in Avalanche. A compute cluster can be provisioned on-demand in sizes ranging from 1 AU (smallest cluster) to 128 AU (largest cluster). Generally speaking, the larger the cluster (more AUs), the faster your data loading and analytical query jobs will run.

Avalanche Compute AU-Hours is the unit of consumption of compute capacity on Avalanche Enterprise edition. Each AU-Hour provides 1 AU of compute capacity for an hour. Consumption of AU-Hours is measured on a per-second basis and is the direct product of the size of computing cluster and the time it was kept running. For example, an 8 AU cluster running for 1 hour would consume 8AU-Hours.

Avalanche storage (TB) is the measure of storage capacity reserved for a year. Avalanche stores data in a compressed format (typically 4 – 6x compression from raw data). Storage sizing should also include space for backup copies.

Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine is an environment where a Virtual Machine has been implemented either by Software emulation or Hardware virtualization.

Virtual Processor

In a Virtual Machine environment, "Virtual Processor" means an individual virtual processor (whether it has access to one core or multiple cores) within a particular Virtual Machine configuration. All Virtual Processors on or with which the Actian Software is running or installed must be licensed. Where the Virtual Processor count exceeds the physical machine processor count, all additional Virtual Processors must be individually licensed.

Virtual Core

In a Virtual Machine environment, the Virtual Core count is the number of virtual cores that are designated or able to run the Actian Software within the Virtual Machine. In an environment having multiple Virtual Cores per Virtual Processor those systems will be priced on a per Virtual Core basis (and if such Virtual Core count is an odd number, it will be rounded up to the next multiple of 2). Virtual Cores that are in single Virtual Core per Virtual Processor configuration are not eligible for multi-core pricing. Where the Virtual Core count exceeds the physical machine core count, all additional Virtual Cores must be individually licensed (and if such Virtual Core count is an odd number, it will be rounded up to the next multiple of 2).

Hyper Threading and Virtual Processors / Cores

Hyper Threading and/or Virtual Processors / Cores, the Core Count required to be licensed is the greatest number of hyper threads, virtual processors or virtual cores, on the physical host(s) or Virtual Machine instances on the hardware on which the Actian Software is installed or able to run. Actian software sees each thread as being a CPU core therefore each thread must be individually licensed on the same basis as CPU cores (either physical or virtual depending on the deployment model, with a minimum count of two (2) cores per physical host or virtual machine instance).

Source System Data

Is the total size of uncompressed text files containing all data extracted out of the source system(s) to represent the current data in a Vectorwise database.

Scope of Hot Standby/DR, Test and Developer Licenses

If we have granted to you in writing a Hot Standby/DR, Test or Developer license, the following definitions apply to those licenses:

Cold and Hot Standby/DR Licenses

For Hot and Cold Standby/DR licenses, the scope is limited to testing and installation of the software ("Standby Software") on a backup system for disaster-recovery purposes (i.e., where the primary installation of the software becomes unavailable for use), and the Standby Software cannot be used for production purposes, unless and only for so long as the primary production copy of the software is unavailable and not in use. For Cold Standby/DR licenses, Standby Software must be inactive when the primary production copy of the software is in use. Hot or Cold Standby/DR license rights are valid only if you have a concurrent full production use license for the identical software product, product version, and duration as the Standby Software license, and such production software is deployed on and licensed for a system with equal quantity and at least as many cores as the Standby Software.

Test Licenses

For Test licenses, the software may be used only for purposes reasonably associated with testing of a software application in a non-production environment (such as, but not limited to, recreating problems affecting a production environment, creation of test cases, testing new releases or applications that are planned for migration into the production environment), and not for production use, normal operations, processing transactions, handling workloads for business purposes, or for any other purpose.

Developer Licenses

For Developer licenses, the scope is limited to use of the software only for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping and demonstrating your applications that interact with the software, and not for commercial or production use or any other purpose. You may not use the application developed under this license with the software for any internal data processing or for any commercial or production purposes, without obtaining a production license to the software.

Actian and Dealing with Multi-Vendor Support

Actian is dedicated to providing the highest level of support to its customers. Where other products may be involved in an Actian solution, Actian support utilizes the industry organization of Technical Support Alliance Network (TSANet) to collaborate with other partners. TSANet is a Not-For-Profit worldwide alliance with over 500 members dedicated to working together to solve mutual customer, multi-vendor issues.

Actian participates at the highest membership level of Global Premium and has been a member since 2009. Actian is very active in the organization and continues to participate in multiple levels of leadership to drive the organization to better providing a better multi-vendor experience for customers. Actian is an elected member of the Board of Directors and has served both in Board and Officer positions.

Severity and Priority Definitions and Response Times

Severity Definitions

Support issues may be submitted either electronically or via telephone. To ensure that we treat your issue with the appropriate level of significance, when raising an issue, you are responsible to accurately assign a severity level. The following table provides some guidance as to how the severity should be defined.

Severity 1: Critical Business Impact - Any unscheduled, total loss of a production system, application or service, or any loss of a major business function.

Severity 2: Major Business Impact - Any failure which causes a partial loss or degradation of a production system or service, or has the potential to escalate to a Severity 1 if left unresolved.

Severity 3: Minimal Business Impact - Any non-critical system error or minor service loss which has minimal business impact or risk.

Severity 4: No Business Impact - Any incident which causes no loss of a production service, and which has no business impact.

When you have a Severity 1 incident, we want to work on your Severity 1 incident until it is resolved and also requires your technical team be available 24 hours a day to work with us so that any further documentation required to continue work can be obtained, and to provide further information and assistance. If your technical team is not available to provide the required documentation, information or assistance, the severity of the incident may be downgraded to a Severity 2, and shall remain downgraded until all required documentation, information, and assistance is provided. Actian's assistance with resolution of an incident is contingent on your team's cooperation and assistance.

*Developer and Silver Support does not include 24 hour commitment and response guidelines for Severity 1 incident requests.

Priority Definitions

Blocker - HIPER Classifications (High Impact and Pervasive Errors) requiring a formal notification to all customers in the base. Includes items that are: Data Integrity Issues (Existing Customer Data is being deleted/duplicated/altered incorrectly), Security Vulnerabilities, performance that causes a severe impact to throughput, a defect that prevents the use of the product (component/connector/design tool/engine), defect halts customer's production, any of the major applications will not run, install or operate, Any of the major tools cause irreparable damage to the user's system, problems that could affect all customers negatively and no workaround available.

Critical – Includes items that are: Case has no work around, product will not install and implementation cannot begin or move forward, a defect that causes the product to crash or result in the loss of data, the application fails during execution (e.g. GPF or Automation error), to the degree that it is unusable, the application has failures that cause the loss of significant amounts of work (e.g., can't save designs or corrupts the database).

Major - Includes items that are: Have a difficult and/or manual work around that is not business sustainable, expected functionality is implemented incorrectly, production is partially down, application productivity is slowed down to the point that it delays the customer's production.

Normal - Includes items that are: May have a reasonable work around and expected functionality is partially working (or not at all for non-critical features), production is up, but functionality or performance through workarounds is unacceptable, the software executes, but errors persist, the software does not work in certain environments due to issues with system configuration or resources.

Minor – Includes items that are: Graphical User Interface defects that do not effect production, functional error or defect that has a simple work around, a normal error with a non-major product or component, and major documentation defects.

Trivial – Includes items that are: Minor documentation defects, a defect that would, in all likelihood, not affect any customers, a defect that is only related to a very specific minor outlying case.

Support Response Times by Severity

Severity 1: 1 hour 24X7*

Severity 2: 2 hours during business hours

Severity 3: 4 hours during business hours

Severity 4: End of business day

*This response level is only available to customers with Gold or higher support services.

Information Customers Should Gather Before Requesting Support

• Your company name and seven-character site ID for Enterprise Support or Extended Support program:
  • Name of the product
  • Release of the product
  • Service Pack (SP) of the product (e.g. maintenance level)
  • Fixes applied above the base product or Service Pack
• Operating system (OS):
  • OS release and SP
  • Language of the OS (if applicable)
  • Fixes applied to the OS or SP
• What is the severity, priority and business impact of the problem?
• Which environment is affected (e.g. production, test, or development)?
• Describe the incident in detail by product as follows:
  • Collecting Information for Actian X Cases
  • Collecting Information for Actian X Query Cases
  • Collecting Information for Vector Cases
  • Collecting Information for DataFlow Cases
  • Collecting Information for Avalanche Cases
  • Collecting Information for Actian OpenROAD Cases
  • Collecting Information for NoSQL Object Database (VOD) and Actian JPA Cases
  • Collecting Information for Actian DataConnect
  • Collecting Information for Actian DataCloud
  • Collecting Information for Actian Zen

Contact Information

Contact information by country can be found on our support contacts page.

Updates and Changes

The Actian Support Policies may be updated from time to time and are subject to change at Actian's discretion; provided however, Actian's service commitments per its Support Policies will not be materially reduced as compared to the Actian Support Policies in effect at the start of your support term (typically one year) during the then-current support term.