[Info-vax] Using VMS for a web server

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-06-05 21:14:47 +0000, David Froble said:

> Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> 
>> Seems you're following the one-box one-architecture model, and that was 
>> something familiar, comfortable and common back in the 1990s and 2000s, 
>> but most places are now dealing with heterogeneous server 
>> installations, or with their own existing and installed web front-ends. 
>> OpenVMS isn't at the center of nearly as many business configurations.  
>> While there are some web-facing OpenVMS boxes at businesses — running 
>> Apache, BTW — there are more than a few folks that are running tools 
>> and content management and the rest that are predicated on other 
>> platforms.  Until and unless those front-ends and tools are available 
>> on OpenVMS, moving OpenVMS into the roll of a web host is going to be a 
>> tough sell.  Then there's the question of whether you want to have your 
>> production OpenVMS boxes in your DMZ.
>> 
>> It's possible to be your own hosting organization, BTW.  Makes for a 
>> handy way to quickly increase the scale of your hosting by either 
>> rolling in a rack or two of servers — something OpenVMS is not very 
>> good at — and/or by temporarily adding outside hosting for some tasks.
> 
> If I was still installing new systems I have the opinion that I could 
> roll in that rack or two of new systems and have them up and running 
> without a lot of fuss.
> 
> What you're talking about is whether knowledge and capability are 
> required, or whether any old dummy that can figure out a mouse can do 
> so.

One of the features of boxes is that they self configure — you roll in 
the rack, screw down the legs, connect the network, power it up, and 
the box announces itself and configures itself, using the the 
infrastructure that was set up from some centralized IT management 
center.
<http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/solutions/integrated-dell-remote-access-controller-idrac> 

<https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/remote-configuration-for-intel-amt>

(From what I can find, HPE iLO trails in terms of its support for 
provisioning and profiles — most of what I see seems to involve 
pressing F10 in POST.)

> Maybe there are systems where any old dummy can set them up, but I have 
> to wonder, how well are they actually set up, and is this type of thing 
> where some of today's security and other problems might be coming from? 
>  You get what you pay for.  Pay for the dummy, if that's all you want.

Are you mapping your experience with setting up and managing OpenVMS 
servers over to other systems, and without — as I've been suggesting in 
this thread — having tried some of those other systems?  Newer systems 
increasingly self-manage, and self-patch, and increasingly 
self-configure.

This patching does mean that you can need to become part of the vendor 
field-test process, rather than the older model were the ISV rolled out 
the updates.  Yes, that older model is still possible.  Some ISVs and 
some organizations do stage patches and do roll out their patches and 
their own deployments, but they're increasingly using vendor-provided 
tools and services to do that.

Also ponder how many under-patched OpenVMS systems are around.  The 
much-vaunted uptime statistic that some folks like to quote is the 
measure for how down-revision the box is, after all.


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