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End of Life (EOL)/End of Support (EOS) Process

End of Life and Program Management

The EOL program is managed by Fahiza Hussain in Product Operations. (Up until August 31, 2021, that person is Chris Lee in Program Management handled it.) As part of this process, Fahiza creates an EOL announcement document and sends it to all those included in the EOL - Internal Announcement email alias. The announcement indicates that the item has entered the EOL track and includes such dates as End of Maintenance and End of Support.

Just prior this announcement being sent to customers, the Fahiza adds this EOL item (for example, a product/version or a component/version) to the Genesys EOL Life Cycle Table: Genesys™ Products and Components EOL Life Cycle Table. This online document was set up for Program Management at the end of 2020 for them to maintain/update.


Important
The EOL Life Cycle Table is referenced in three locations: the Systems page (https://all.docs.genesys.com/System), the System Level Guides page (https://docs.genesys.com/Documentation/System), and the Genesys Care/Support Managing Software page (https://docs.genesys.com/Documentation/ST/current/Premise/ManagingSoftware). If the link/reference needs to be updated, be sure to do so in these locations.

Add Notices to product landing pages

Starting in January 2022, writers will add the notices to the landing page or revise the existing per the process described. Previously, Kate handled adding these notices.

Suggest process for tracking, adding or revising notices

As writers take this on, go to your product doc landing pages to see if any or all versions of your product is on the end of life track. If it is, review the date that the product/version reaches end of support and add an appointment in your Outlook calendar to update the notice to reflect that the product reached end of support.

Add the notice when the product/component/version first enters the EOL track

  1. The IX Contact, Monique, will forward you the email from the EOL - Internal Announcement email alias that contains a document identifying that your product/version is entering the EOL track.
  2. Review the document for the dates.
  3. To the respective product landing page, add a Important note using the NoteFormat wiki coding. Use the format in this example:
    Important! Genesys App Automation Platform (GAAP) 3.5 entered End of Life (EOL) on July 31, 2020. It enters End of Maintenance on December 31, 2021, and reaches End of Support on July 31, 2022. If you have questions, contact your account representative.
  4. Comment out the text until the date that the product enters EOL is reached. (Suggestion: You might add a reminder to your Outlook calendar on the EOL date to "uncomment" it out.)
  5. When the EOL date is reached, remove the commenting out coding so that the notice appears.
  6. Alert the sender of the EOL - Internal Announcement email that you've added the notice.

On rare occasions, you may see a Product Technical Advisory that only includes the end of support date. For example, once came in in 2021 for GCXI versions 9.0.009 and below. For that, the wording you use different wording. Use the following example as a model: "As of May 15th, 2021, Genesys is announcing the immediate End of Support of GCXI versions 9.0.009 and below. Genesys recommends current GCXI customers to update to the latest release, version 9.0.019.00. Updates are available via Software Download Center from the My Support portal.

Revise the EOL on your product page when EOS is reached by your product

  1. When the End of Support (EOS) date is reached, revise the notice that you previously added using the format in these examples:
    • Interaction Workspace 8.0 reached End of Support (EOS) on May 31, 2021. It previously entered End of Life (EOL) on May 31, 2019 and End of Maintenance on November 30, 2020. If you have questions, contact your account representative.
    • All versions of Genesys Express reached End of Support (EOS) on November 19, 2019. They previously entered End of Life (EOL) on November 19, 2017, and End of Maintenance on May 19, 2019. If you have questions, contact your account representative.
    • Genesys Voice Platform 7.6 and Genesys Studio 7.6 reached End of Support on May 31, 2021. They previously entered End of Life (EOL) on May 31, 2019 and End of Maintenance on November 30, 2020. If you have questions, contact your account representative.

At this point, do not remove the associated documentation. In working with Chris Doyle in Customer Care, we agreed to keep the documents available for customers on our site for at least 12 months from the date that end of support is reached.

Remove documentation for our docs site

Per guidance from Chris Doyle in Customer Care, the documentation for products/versions that reached end of support should remain available to customers on our site for at least 12 months after the end of support date.

Before starting to remove documentation, confirm that your product/version has met the following criteria:

  • Your product/component/version reached EOS.
  • 12 months has passed since your product/version reached EOS.
  • Ask Monique Gionet, the IX contact, to confirm with Chris Doyle, in Customer Care if it's OK to remove the documents You should also let your Product Manager know about this, as the Product Manager may be aware of a reason not to remove the content.

If these criteria are met, you can remove the content from our docs site. The process for doing so varies with the situation, as described below.

Important
  • Prior to starting to remove content, send an email to Multicloud Writers informing them that you will be removing content in case they have links to any of the content you are removing.
  • Email RN Admins using the Pubs RN Admin email alias when you are preparing to remove content, as one of them will remove the RNs and related files on the Genesys Engage on-premises Release Notes pages.
  • Some content may be a combination of online-content and non-online content.

Remove non-online formatted documents

For documents that are HTML (including HTML Release Notes), PDF, Help (chm for example), and the like, do the following:

  1. Go to the MC IX Global SharePoint site.
  2. In the Documents folder, go to the Genesys Public folder and navigate to the folder in which your documents are located.
  3. Download any associated non-online documents from Genesys Public.
  4. Upload the same documents to the associated product folder in the EOS Docs folder in MC IX Global SharePoint. If the folder does not exist in the EOS Docs folder, create it using the same naming convention that exists in Genesys Public.
  5. Delete the files from the Genesys Public folder in MC IX Global SharePoint that you just added to the EOS Docs folder.
  6. Go back to your product landing pages and remove the text/sections for the documents you removed.
  7. If your documentation included HTML files for Release Notes, Release Advisories, Wizard Advisories, or Deployment Procedures, contact email Pubs RN Admin and ask one of them to remove the coding for the associated HTML files from the Genesys Multicloud on-premises Release Notes page (https://docs.genesys.com/Documentation/RN). For releases 8.5 and earlier, those Pubs RN Admin folks will also go to the Other Resources section on the right of the RN page to get to the RAs WAs, and Deployment Procedures pages, to see if there are any HTML files for the associated product/version that reached EOS and remove them.
  8. Alert someone in Pubs Editors to ask them to move the files from the Public folder in the repository (https://docs.genesys.com/Special:RepositoryUtils) to the respective folder in the endofsupport folder. Writers do not have the rights to do that. If the folder is not created in the endofsupport folder, the Pubs Editor should create it. Then, the Pubs Editor needs to Refresh the Map.

Online documents

Remove one or more online documents for a particular version but not all documents

This process is for the scenario where one or more manuals can be removed for a particular version but other documents for the same version need to be retained.

  1. Check to see in any other document or page links to the document you want to remove. Use the WhatLinks feature on the Special pages to determine that. If any pages link to it outside of the associated product pages, notify the writer of the page impacted to tell them that the content is being removed and that they need to remove the link.
  2. Generate a PDF of the manual(s) that are no longer needed.
  3. Place the PDFs in MC IX Global SharePoint > EOS Docs > [PRODUCT] > [version]. If the version folder doesn’t exist, create it. If the folder exists, create a folder within it called Online docs.
  4. In your manual, go to Helpful links > Manage [PRODUCT]> Versions.
  5. Add a new version called Archive (unreleased). For example: {{#version:Archive|unreleased}}
    • If more than one version needs to be archived distinctly, create an archive version for each of them.
    • If only the latest released version needs to be archived, generate PDFs of the earlier versions for which you are not creating an online archive version.
  6. For each manual for which you are creating an online archive, publish the entire X.X.X manual to the Archive version, per the usual process (see Publishing Content).
  7. Manually delete all released pages for each EOS document. When you delete each page, add an explanation in the Summary field. For example: “Deleting because the page reached EOS.”

This Archive approach enables us to handle a scenario if we ever need to republish the archived version so that it’s available, since the coding is all there and it’s a simple task or republishing.

Remove an entire version for a product

This process is for the scenario where an entire version of a product reaches EOS and the documentation the documentation removal was approved.

  1. Check to see in any other document or page links to the documents you want to remove. Use https://docs.genesys.com/Special:WhatLinks. If any pages link to it outside of the product pages, notify the writer of the page impacted to tell them that the content is being removed and that they need to remove the link.
  2. Generate a PDF of the manual(s) that are no longer needed.
  3. Place the PDFs in MC IX Global SharePoint > EOS Docs > [PRODUCT] > [version]. If the version folder doesn’t exist, create it. If the folder exists, create a folder within it called Online docs.
  4. In your manual, go to Helpful links > Manage [PRODUCT]> Versions.
  5. For the version that reached EOS support and can be removed, change “(released)” to "(unreleased)". If you have a preview version for the same EOS version, change that text to unreleased too.
  6. On your product landing page, with the exception of the EOL notice, remove all other text. Unless instructed by your PM, leave the version tab for a little while longer.

When an entire product reaches EOS and can be removed

This process is for the scenario where an entire product (all versions) reaches EOS and the documentation can be removed.

  1. Check to see in any other document or page links to the documents you want to remove. Use https://docs.genesys.com/Special:WhatLinks. If any pages link to it outside of the product pages, notify the writer of the page impacted to tell them that the content is being removed and that they need to remove the link.
  2. Generate a PDF of the manual(s) that are no longer needed.
  3. Place the PDFs in MC IX Global SharePoint > EOS Docs > [PRODUCT] > [version]. If the version folder doesn’t exist, create it. If the folder exists, create a folder within it called Online docs.
  4. In your manual, go to Helpful links > Manage [PRODUCT]> Versions.
  5. For all versions, change “(released)” to "(unreleased)". If you have a preview versions, change that text to unreleased too.
  6. On the product landing page, delete all content but the EOL notice that you previously revised.
  7. Go to the following page: https://docs.genesys.com/Documentation. Remove the product name from the list.
  8. Under Helpful links > Manage content, click Update quick links in the header, and remove the product name from the section in which it appears.

Videos for products/versions that reached EOS

Videos are already stored in Vimeo, there is no need to archive them elsewhere. Forward any queries regarding videos to the IX Global Video email alias.

End of Platform Support

When a third-party or partner platform reaches End of Support, Fahiza Hussain (or someone from Program Management) will provide an EOPS announcement.

  1. Review the announcement to determine what products are affected. If it’s unclear, check with Fahiza.
  2. Once it’s clear what products are impacted, determine where the notice should appear within the respective documentation.
  3. The writer then adds appropriate wording to their product documentation, with a link to the announcement. For example, see the Apple Notification (deprecated as of March 31, 2021) section of https://docs.genesys.com/Documentation/GMS/8.5.2/API/PushNotificationService. The result may be that the writer will have to add a notice, with a link to the announcement on specific pages.
  4. Separately, for a non-product specific notice:
    • An IX Manager will use standard wording on affected documentation pages, like a landing page and/or the welcome page of a book. Although the exact wording may vary depending on the item reaching end of support, here is an example of wording:
      • As of March 31, 2021, Genesys announced the End of Platform Support for Skype for Business Online. It will reach End of Platform Support on July 31, 2021. This impacts Multimedia Connector for Skype for Business 8.5 and 9.0. If you have questions, contact your account representative.
    • An IX Manager adds the wording on the respective pages, but comments it out, until the date indicated in the announcement.


(Pubs RN Admin only) Removing RNs and related files from Genesys Engage on-premises RN page

This RN page contains links to all Genesys Engage on-premises Release Notes for product/component/versions that are still supported and/or reached end of support but have not yet been approved for removal from our site. It is laid out with tabs for each two-digit version from 9.1 down to 5.x with an Other tab that includes versions that didn’t merit a tab on its own.

Tip
Igor’s Production team adds a link to this RN page in the IP Readme for on-premises customers seeking the associated RN. As on-premises customers are used to this location for Release Notes, a link was added to the Premise Edition Release Notes.

Looking at each tab, you see the following:

  • The RNs are presented in columns.
  • RNs are grouped under the product heading. To be consistent, even those products that only have one RN have a heading.
  • You’ll have two types of updates.
    • Adding a link to a new RN, with the possibility of having to add a new section. Although, this is probably not likely.
    • Removing a link to an RN or related HTML files, like RA, WA…
  • Click Edit source to edit the page. It’s all wiki markup. And if you scroll through you will see that it uses the tabber coding to create the tabs.
  • At the top, you see that there’s coding for an old video I created about how to navigate through these pages.
  • For the wiki coding Julie set up templates – looking at 9.0, see
    • <div class=”three-columns-rn”> - this wraps all items in this tab to fit into columns. You will note that there more than 3 columns. So, Julie must have changed the template definition after she created it. Some years back, I had to manually create the columns.
    • For each section you see <div class="group-rn"> - the template Julie set up for this page
      ====Billing Data Server==== - the section heading
    • </div> - closing the div template.
  • This same structure is used for all RNs.

Adding a new RN

This should be rare but in October 2021, Joe added an Outbound Contact Server Lite RN to the Outbound Contact section under the 8.1 tab. If a new RN needs to be added, Joe suggests adding it after it's first released, as opposed to adding it before it's released and commenting it out. What you do is:

  1. If you are adding a new RN under to an existing section, simply add a bullet to that section and the link to the RN. Place it where it would go alphabetically.
    • If it’s online, use the standard link formatting for RNs on the docs site, like the BDS example.
    • If the RN is in the HTML format, get the link from the Repository tool.
  2. Then save the page.

If you need to add a new section, say a new 9.1 product was released with one or more RNs, you add a new section, following the BDS example. You add the section where it would be alphabetically.

Removing RNs and associated HTML files

Per the EOL process, when a product/version reaches end of support, it’s more than a year past the EOS date, and Customer Care has okayed removal the content from the page, the writer follows the documented process to follow to remove the content. For this work, you need to remove the links from these pages either at the same time or after the writer has done so to the product landing page.

Do the following:

  • For a particular product version, if all components for that version are passed eos, remove that section including the RNs. And save the page.
  • For the tabs 9.0, 8.5, 8.1, 8.0, 7.6, 7.5, 7.2, 6.x, and Other, you will note that at the far right there is an Other Resources section. (Note: Be aware that in reviewing some of the Other Resource pages, tabber was not working correctly for Genesys Release Advisories, Wizard Advisories, and International Release Notes. As a result, Joe change the sections to level 3 headings.)
    • For 8.0 and below, before we moved RNs online, the links are to pages for Release Advisories, Wizard Advisories, Deployment Procedures, and International Release Notes.
    • From 8.1 onward, there may be links to those pages but also there are links to associated files on the RN page. Updating these pages became a lower priority. That meant the Resource section and pages were only updated if a customer complained. That never happened.
    • Looking at the pages, you will see they are also set up with tabs. Some have more tabs than others.
    • So, after you removed the section/RNs for the product, look to this section and the associated Resources pages to see if there are links to related resources there. If so, remove them too.
  • Another note, about the International Release Notes page. That page is no longer updated, thankfully as it took a lot of manual work to create. However, if something reaches EOS, per what I described, you can delete the associated entries under both columns.
  • When you’re done, alert the writer that you have removed their files from this page.

Notes

  • If after removing everything from a tab, there are no sections/links on the page, you can add a notice to the tab about those versions reaching EOS support. And sometime later, you can just delete that empty tab.
  • Be aware of product name changes. In some cases, a product might be called something else in previous versions. For example, Pulse Advisors was the new name used for Performance Management Advisors starting in 9.0. So, previous tabs use the old name because that’s what the product and IPs were called for that version.


End of Support and SOE-type information

Until August 31, 2021, Chris Lee manages End of Support for SOE-type information. Previously, it was Sunil Shah. As such, Chris creates the associated announcements and provides them to various folks Ginger Alford (Program Manager) via the EOL - Internal Announcement email alias. From an email on 1/27/20, it seems that Chris places the announcements in Genie and My Support. Ginger, in turn, adds the links to the NewsCenter, CX Insider, and Partner Newsletter so people and presumably customers are notified.

This page was last edited on May 26, 2022, at 12:39.
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