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

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2018-05-01 15:46:26 +0000, Rich Jordan said:

>      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.

I'd probably scrounge a spare Alpha and a spare switch or two, and 
would just replace the disks in the array, or upgrade to a "newer" 
array.  I've done various of these array upgrades for folks over the 
years, as have other folks.

And I'd scrounge some environmental monitoring.  Homekit-based remote 
temperature monitoring with alert will run "small change" compared with 
the costs likely being incurred here too, and there are all sorts of 
other options available there.  APC NetBotz and many others.  And I'd 
want battery or power conditioning here, if the mains are sketchy.  
That can also provide a path and a platform for automatic emergency 
shutdowns, too.

That'll all be cheaper than porting to OpenVMS I64.  Then there's that 
you'd be porting to a platform that's ending with the 
current-generation Itanium Kittson processors, and with the next 
platform and the next OpenVMS port to x86-64 well underway.  
Conservation of porting efforts, or whatever phrasing might be 
preferred.



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