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

[Rich Jordan]

On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 6:09:32 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 6:09:32 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

The option of waiting for x64 will be presented (it has been mentioned).  And VSI has contacted us now so we're getting the info needed for either migration or going on the Alpha maintenance path.  When we looked at replacement shared storage a couple of years ago we saw prices that made updating the SAN unfeasible.  We have some spare disks and they are still not that hard to get; its the SAN switches and controllers that have gotten painful.  Perhaps worth a new look.


The software porting effort is not all that big.  Getting the cluster ported and disks set up on the new hardware will take longer than rebuilding all the applications, which are written in BASIC.  We've done that before and the custom code (and the customer's updated code) is a straight recompile with already ported libraries and utilities.

But we haven't looked at environmental monitoring recently; the netbots used to be very expensive.  Right now monitoring is done by the Alphas; they track their own temperature, and the environmental info from the MSA, and start sending out alert emails to the site operators and owner if the temp gets too high.  And they shut themselves down at a bad enough point, but they can't turn off the MSA; there's no power control involved.  Worth looking at, thanks, regardless of the port/migration work.