[Info-vax] Multiple OpenVMS instances on HPVM?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-10-01 17:39:15 +0000, lars.flagan at gmail.com said:

> Hmmm, so if I understand correctly, this is not a recommended setup due 
> to several factors such as maintenance effort, unclear future of HPVM 
> with regards to OpenVMS.

HPE are delivering on their published roadmap to exit the OpenVMS 
business and to migrate customers using OpenVMS to VSI or other 
platforms, and to migrate HP-UX (and thus also HP-VM folks) to other 
platforms, and the next round of Itanium HPE Integrity servers will 
very likely be the last of the Itanium series.   All new OpenVMS work 
is from VSI.

Servers with either the i4-class Poulson processors or the upcoming 
i6-class Kittson processors will only be supported by VSI OpenVMS 
releases.  Not by HPE OpenVMS.

> Your suggested solution would be to acquire cheaper hardware for 
> development and test and spend more on the production and staging 
> environments.

If you're reselling software that you're developing, then seek to join 
either or both the HPE and/or VSI developer programs.

If it's local development and in-house and thus not usually eligible 
for one of the developer programs, then get a couple of low-end used or 
new servers, and license those.

> If investing in migration from Alpha to Integrity I guess we might as 
> well purchase new HW, not get warranty and support.

There's certainly used equipment without warranty, and some 
used-equipment vendors do offer warranties, or you can purchase new and 
get an HPE warranty.

> Any recommendations for what to replace Alpha DS15's with?

If you're coming forward from Alpha, most any rx2660 or later server 
will be faster than the AlphaServer DS15 series.   This due to faster 
processors, faster I/O, etc...

Integrity servers will usually be louder than the DS15-class boxes, 
too.   ~73 dB isn't particularly unusual for the rackmount Integrity 
servers.    If you're working near the server, there are 
office-friendly configurations of some Integrity servers.  Or 
headphones.

You'll likely want to acquire VSI licenses and the VSI OpenVMS V8.4-2L1 
current release, if you're purchasing new OpenVMS licenses now.   I'd 
not usually choose to purchase HPE OpenVMS licenses for this case, as 
those allow use of only V8.4 and prior releases, and would require a 
license repurchase (from VSI) to upgrade to OpenVMS releases after 
V8.4.   If you want or need HPE software support (and not VSI software 
support), you can get support for the VSI versions with the purchase of 
specific HPE Integrity servers; with the i4-class servers.   That'll 
get you HPE support with VSI as escalation support.   The i4 and 
upcoming i6 servers require OpenVMS releases after V8.4 — V8.4-2L1 is 
current and supports i4 — and that's only available from VSI.






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Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC