[Info-vax] Alpha to Integrity migration, license options

[Rich Jordan]

On Monday, April 30, 2018 at 12:52:31 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2018-04-30 15:21:08 +0000, Rich Jordan said:
> 
> > I've heard from one vendor that HP may have stopped offering any form 
> > of migration or trade in for Alpha licenses to Integrity at some point, 
> > as far as they know.
> > I've exhausted my efforts to get a definite answer either way out of 
> > HP; nobody calls back except to direct me to talk to someone else who 
> > then never calls back or responds.  Even VMS support said they'd get me 
> > in touch with the right people, and then stopped responding.
> 
> HP isn't involved with OpenVMS.   HPE is.
> 
> The folks at HPE are exiting the OpenVMS business.
> 
> HPE would be subsidizing an upgrade from a now-supported platform to a 
> software platform that the HPE folks acquire from VSI and resell.
> 
> > I have a query in to VSI since early last week also waiting on a response.
> > 
> > Does anyone know if there is any kind of trade-in or migration option 
> > for VMS licenses when moving from OpenVMS Alpha to Integrity currently 
> > available?
> 
> Absent specific reasons to engage HPE, you're already going to be 
> dealing at least indirectly with VSI for any current Itanium hardware 
> and might as well go direct.
> 
> I'm skeptical around an upgrade an existing OpenVMS Alpha system to 
> OpenVMS I64 right now, given the schedule for OpenVMS on x86-64, and 
> given the existing VSI support for OpenVMS Alpha, and given the 
> migration path.
> 
> If you're on any recent OpenVMS I64 release or any supported OpenVMS 
> Alpha release, you're already dealing with VSI end-to-end for support, 
> too.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

Hoff
     sorry, too many years of HP;  I was trying to deal with HPE but autopiloted HP on the post.  When we started trying to get licensing info at the beginning of April the news about VMS support moving to VSI was not yet known (at least to us; the folks on the HPE side might have known); maybe that is why I could not get anyone to return a call or email.

     The site is concerned about their aging storage hardware (MSA1000, SAN switches, etc).  The Alphas are rock solid but every time they get a powerfail or the A/C lets the room get too hot, they lose a piece of storage equipment and its getting pricey to replace.  They looked at Alpha emulation but that has been priced into large business/enterprise territory these days (wonder if the transfer licensing for that is changing too...).  Integrity would put them on decade+ newer hardware with better/newer shared storage options, but we need to know if the only license option is retail or if any kind of trade-up or migration is still offered to determine costs involved.

     Our last Alpha-Integrity migrations were 6+ years ago so we need to know the current options, which HPE was unwilling or unable to provide.  Unable now, I suppose, if licensing has moved to VSI along with support.

Thanks for replying.