[Info-vax] Using VMS for a web server

[Dirk Munk]

Dirk Munk wrote:
> bill at server3.cs.scranton.edu (Bill Gunshannon) wrote:
>> In article <5b4d3$5572eb23$5ed4324a$44010 at news.ziggo.nl>,
>>     Dirk Munk <munk at home.nl> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>> I applied for a VMS job several months ago. During the job interview I
>>> was asked about my knowledge on all kind of other things, but not on
>>> VMS. I wasn't an expert on those areas, so they said that would be a
>>> problem. When I replied that they were asking for a VMS expert, they
>>> never mentioned those other areas of expertise. Well, that was true, but
>>> the VMS system had the habit of doing what it was suppose to do, and it
>>> had been doing that for years. It never needed any human assistance or
>>> intervention. In fact I would have almost nothing to do if my only work
>>> would be maintaining the VMS system.
>>
>> Not surprising.  A few years ago (the first time I retired from the
>> University :-) I applied for a job as a COBOL programmer for the Navy
>> down in GA.  Same thing.  After the interview when they asked if I had
>> any questions I said the same thing.  "This is supposed to be a COBOL
>> Programmer job but you asked no questions about COBOL."  They just kinda
>> shrugged it off with a comment of, "I guess you're right."  About four
>> months into the jb they started scheduling me to go to courses opn PL/SQL
>> and Crystal Reports and other non-COBOL stuff.  And when I asked about it
>> the answer was, "Oh, we're getting rid of the COBOL.  We're going to re-
>> write it all in PL/SQL and Crystal Reports."  Two months later I left.
>> So, did you take the job?  :-)
>
> No, I was over-experienced, I had to much knowledge they told me.

Sorry, the right comment at the wrong place :-)

>
>>
>>>
>>> To be fair, other systems can be made to run very reliable as well, but
>>> quite often systems are set up to run, not to run reliable. The drive to
>>> build reliable systems often just isn't there.
>>
>> The only place I hear that is here.  My VMS system (more than a decade
>> ago)
>> was more reliable than the one's run by the University data center.  My
>> Unix and Windows servers today are v ery reliable.  Moreso than the
>> affore-
>> mentioned University data center VMS systems.
>>
>
> Let me give you an example. I once was confronted with a cluster of
> three Alpha 8400 systems. Big boys for the time, they had 4GB of memory
> each, and that was a lot in those days. The whole configuration must
> have cost millions. There was group of 10 people running the
> application, solving problems, talking with the customers etc.
>
> They had performance problems with this cluster, I did some basic checks
> and found that the disk cache was still at the default 3MB. They had
> important batch runs that were limited to 2.5MB memory usage. When I
> asked them why on earth they had these ridiculous settings, they didn't
> know.
>
> We moved that application to a much smaller cluster of two ES40's, fixed
> all kind of small problems and stupid settings, and then these 10 people
> could be relocated to other work.
>
> Or that wonderful story of a Solaris server. I walked into a room, and
> saw they were monitoring a system. I asked if there was a problem. Yes
> there was a problem, the performance. They didn't know what to do to
> improve it. They had meetings with the supplier, and the supplier didn't
> know either what to do. So I watched the screen, and saw that only 4GB
> of the 8GB of memory was in use. So I asked about the size of the
> database cache. 350MB they told me. I cursed, and told them to increase
> it to 3GB. Problem solved.
>
> I can go on and on with these stories. People setting up raid 1 sets on
> two partitions of the same disk drive is also a nice one.
>
> Quite often staff doesn't have a clue about how to properly set up a
> system or a database.
>