[Info-vax] Multi-site OpenVMS field upgrade options?

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2019-04-12 kl. 14:57, skrev Rod Regier:
> I’m investigating to see if I have missed out on a practical technical  alternative.
> 
> Background:
> I have a North American multi-site installed base of Alpha and Integrity servers
> running HPE OpenVMS to support the application package my organization supplies
> for those customers.  The OpenVMS systems are supplied on a turnkey basis,
> so my organization is responsible for providing remote OpenVMS first-tier support
> from a central location.  The sites are usually provisioned with IT technical staff
> who can provide limited hardware support.  My organization is responsible
> for the rest of the hardware support.
> 
> One of the options I’m considering is upgrading all of those systems
> from HPE to VSI OpenVMS.
> 
> Question:
> 
> Is there an approach I have missed in the following list to accomplish that goal:
> 
> “Consultant approach”
> Fly in a consultant to perform an onsite upgrade at each separate site
> Comments:
> Very long outage
> Very expensive in consulting hours and travel, lodging, meals charges
> 
> “Pseudo hardware upgrade approach”
> Ship a second similar architecture system to the site
> -	w/loaded and patches OS
> -	w/networking client configuration preloaded
> -	Migrate applications and client-specific data over LAN
> Comments:
> Shortest outage
> Shipping costs
> Needs float machine hardware pool for several different models
> 
> 
> “Drycleaner laundry approach”
> Make a backup of the client-specific data and applications.
> Freeze client operations
> Transfer over Internet to central support site
> Create OS image at central site
> Network configure the image to client site details
> Load client-specific data into the image
> Create bootable media with build system
> Priority ship media to customer site
> Walk client thru image load overwriting existing OS+data
> Comments:
> Lowest consulting costs
> minimal shipping costs
> intermediate outage
> No float hardware required
> Highest risk for unforeseen extended outage
> 


I was involved in a case 1-2 years ago where we did a mix
of your second and third approach:
- Shipped backups from the sites to a central place.
- Had replacement hardware (a HW upgrade was included)
- installed the backups and upgrade from 7.x to 8.4 (HPE at the time).
- Shipped the systems back to the sites and they did the replacement
and moved the actual prod DBs (rdb) over to catch up.
Repeated for the 4 sites involved. This is 24x7 operation and they
just planned the HW switches localy. Management of blod sample
testing at some major hispitals. Discussions about going HPE->VSI
is onging as far as I know...