[Info-vax] The best VMS features, was: Re: openvms renaming file

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 05/28/2018 09:51 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 5/28/2018 12:41 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> On 2018-05-27 23:32:18 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>>
>>> On 2018-05-27, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)
>>> <helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Certainly in the top-ten list of most useful VMS features.  Off the
>>>> top of my head, others would be:
>>>> HBVS,
>>>
>>> Yes
>>
>> Sort of.  For specific configurations and requirements, definitely. For
>> many other common configurations, no.   Outside of multiple paths across
>> multiple hosts, hardware RAID solved what HBVS provides long ago.  HBVS
>> is simple and synchronous and inefficient approach toward replication.
>> For single-path access, file shares and hardware RAID all work fine, and
>> various of those configurations can be replicated. Which reduces the
>> cases and the configurations that really want and need HBVS.  Other
>> platforms replicate data differently.  And some apps want or need asynch
>> replication.  Or want to avoid the overhead of whole-disk replication.
>> Or the overhead of synchronous write-thru I/O, whether due to geographic
>> latencies or otherwise.
>>
>>>> clustering,
>>>
>>> Yes (big time)
>>
>> There's a whole lot of work necessary here.
>>
>> On OpenVMS, I'd suspect that the pricing killed clustering.
> 
> Well, yes ....
> 
>> An integrated DLM is handy, but clustering and its APIs and management
>> and integration is far too firmly stuck in the 1990s.  No job
>> management.  No LDAP integration past authentication.
> 
> The DLM is a really useful tool.  Not just for clustering.  I use it on 
> stand alone systems for multiple things.
> 
>> On other platforms, there are add-on packages that provide distributed
>> coordination, file shares, replication, backups and other features.
>> Which reduces the numbers of combinations where clustering really still
>> shines.
>>
>>>> logical names,
>>>
>>> Yes
>>
>> Logical names?  Definitely not.  Logical names are a disaster, in most
>> of the ways that they're commonly used.   There are better ways to do
>> most or all of what logical names are used for, too.  Just not as easily
>> on OpenVMS, unfortunately.   They're complete dreck when used for app
>> settings, flags and related configuration data.
> 
> As Bill might say, don't blame the tool for the shoddy workmen.
> 

Even in my absence I was an influence.  :-)

bill