If you are a MySQL support customer, the recent release of My Oracle Support (MOS) 6.5 has some features which may interest you (if you’re not a customer, this post likely won’t interest you). MOS 6.5 was introduced on 06 April, and with it came the ability to opt in to receive service request (SR) update details via email. This was a feature some MySQL Support customers missed after the migration to MOS. Thanks to feedback from MySQL Support customers and others with similar needs, this feature has now been implemented. Because email is an inherently insecure delivery mechanism, not all customers will wan this, and the feature requires customers to explicitly opt in before SR update content is sent via email.  Coupled with the MOS Mobile interface, Support customers have a number of flexible ways to access and manage SRs.

The second major enhancement is the ability to participate in live chat with support staff via MOS. You can set your availability flag in MOS, and a support engineer can see your status to initiate a chat, if needed. For me, chats are better than emails when interaction is more “conversational”, and better than phone calls when specific instructions or diagnostic information needs to be shared.

If either of these new features interest you, Chris Warticki’s blog post or the actual release notes for MOS 6.5 are good references for more information.

Thanks again to MySQL Support customers who advocated for these features – Oracle is listening, and your efforts improve the support experience for all Oracle support customers.