[Info-vax] Autogen

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <p5t0rg$ndk$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman
<seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes: 

> On the other hand.... what?  You've spent years hacking around in 
> various spots of that cluster, had massive and repeated problems with 
> getting basic functions working not the least of which has been 
> shadowing, and you've repeatedly avoided maintaining and upgrading to 
> current versions of software due to various local issues.     You've 
> made repeated passes at getting shadowing to work over the years, and 
> RAID is a pretty basic server function all things considered.

Yes, I've had some problems, but I think that the ratio of work done to 
time wasted on problems is higher than for the typical user of other 
OSs.  I discuss only the problems here, of course, so that there is a 
huge selection effect.

I don't recall any major issues with shadowing, nor with clustering.  
OK, depends on the definition of "major".  :-|

> So... yeah, many of us have worked with and have watched you and many 
> other folks here and elsewhere --- and many of us have dealt with our own 
> systems --- sorting through and puzzling with the complexity, with the 
> arcane commands and configuration requirements, with the occasional 
> missing or misplaced files or errant setup commands, missing or delayed 
> security patches, SSL updates because SSL always ages out, with bespoke 
> deployments and automation requirements at best, with integrating fully 
> with Active Directory or Open Directory, and the rest....

Yes, but I know people---who aren't geeks at all---who have re-installed 
Windows or whatever scores of times, due to viruses, things getting 
stuck, etc.

> The present-day OpenVMS management --- of which AUTOGEN is a very small 
> part --- is not going to be a future that sells very well.  Not to new 
> folks and not necessarily even to existing folks that are doing 
> substantial upgrades to their environments.  Not to existing folks that 
> have looked around at other platforms and tools, for that matter.

I agree.  There is room for improvement.

> You've been exceptionally patient with getting that configuration where 
> it is, too.   Which is also part of why you and many others are loathe 
> to reinstall OpenVMS, and that's another issue with OpenVMS.  
> Re-installations are hard, and there's no good way to preserve settings 
> and environments.

I agree.  There is room for improvement.

On the other hand, I have rarely had my current setup stop working, 
which is often an issue I hear about from other people.