[Info-vax] another HP website fubar

[David Froble]

Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2015-06-21 23:38:18 +0000, David Froble said:
> 
>> The problem I'm having here is a simple one.
>>
>> What if the purchaser has no other computer systems?  None.  Zilch.  
>> Nada.
> 
> Factory Installed Software (FIS) was (is?) traditionally optional, and 
> it required the purchase of a disk with the server.  In years past, the 
> recommendation was the purchase of a media kit, though downloading and 
> burning an OpenVMS disk image is now feasible from most any computer 
> system the end-user has around, with a compatible optical media writer. 
> The need to burn and boot an optical disk image is a little quaint, but 
> it usually works.   Generating and booting USB flash drives would be 
> nicer than recordable or rewritable optical media, but I'm not certain 
> that the USB flash drive boot path is particularly reliable as yet.  
> OpenVMS does not have the ability to download and boot directly from the 
> VSI boot servers — think Internet-remote InfoServer, or Internet-based 
> vKVM — which would be akin to where some of the more advanced vendors 
> are already operating.
> 
> This particular case is more of a hassle, as the disk images and related 
> materials have moved around and are inaccessible at the designated HP 
> URLs.  VSI will eventually have to sort out how they're going to handle 
> these references and maybe how they're going to do URL continuity, as 
> they rework the existing manuals and implement their web site.  But I 
> digress.
> 
>> When you're purchasing something like this, shouldn't it come with 
>> everything you need?  Like "batteries included"?
> 
> Ayup.  I'd expect the default order confirmation process to do that as 
> well as verifying that the configuration will work and can be supported, 
> but vendors do tend to allow their customers to override those checks, 
> and to allow configurations that are more effort for the customer.
> 
> What happened here and what particular configuration was ordered, I do 
> not know.  Though the central gripe here looks to be the lack of URL 
> continuity, and not the FIS process.
> 
> Where I infer you're (David) going with your reply is sometimes called 
> the "out-of-box experience", and — while improvements have been made 
> over the years — neither the HP Integrity servers nor OpenVMS have yet 
> to fully embrace that philosophy.  Pieces such as FIS and InfoServer and 
> vKVM are a good start for single-deployment cases, certainly.   These 
> single-deployment cases also being a subset of the mass deployments and 
> mass management and mass configuration comments I've previously made.  
> These are some of the areas where OpenVMS and the current Integrity 
> servers are comparatively weak.  Not that the single-deployment cases 
> aren't also comparatively weak, too.  Things'll get more interesting if 
> OpenVMS should become fodder for mass deployments and mass VM 
> deployments and such — not that recent smaller cases such as 
> reconfiguring the networking on ~300 OpenVMS servers is at all easy now.
> 
> 

In the case being discussed, everything would be solved with the 
inclusion of one DVD.  You know, like the ones I believe Clair mentioned 
being made for the new VMS release.  These things are dirt cheap, and 
pressed optical disks are much less volitable than those created with 
heat.  Much better than FIS, which depends upon not losing the system disk.

Just another case of HP making things just about as bad as they can. 
I'm hoping VSI realizes this.  The fact that they have commissioned the 
mfg of optical media for the new release is promising.

As for Jan-Erik's comment, "it wouldn't happen in my world so it's not a 
problem" is, to be kind, short sighted.  Not everyone lives in his 
world.  Gasp, can that be?