[Info-vax] another HP website fubar

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

David Froble skrev den 2015-06-22 17:53:
> 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?

I did not say *my* world. I said in the current IT world as it is.
That is beeing realistic, not short sighted. Haven't used a CD/DVD
player to install *any* software for many years now.

But yes, for some things hard media can still be usefull, such as
for firmware updates of systems. But I also expect to be able do
download the firmware CD as an ISO image and burn it myself.

Now, it is of course not a major problem for VSI to distribute
an CD/DVD, if thay want... :-)