[Info-vax] Wide area cluster, metro area network, seeking info

[Michael Moroney]

On 6/16/2021 10:59 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2021-06-15 22:54:41 +0000, dthi... at gmail.com said:
> 
>>
>>>> VSI _is_ involved and we are working with them on this possibility. 
>>>> At this point I think the additional license subscription costs are 
>>>> going to kill the HBVS/cluster option, especially if a third node 
>>>> was needed (and a third location and connection, and set of 
>>>> licenses). That means going with the one-day latency backup option 
>>>> and generating and testing the procedures for failing back to the 
>>>> main system when it is available again.
>> This is just a thinking-outside-the-box thought to bounce off of VSI 
>> in the design discussions.  Since OpenVMS doesn't really have a good 
>> solution for stabilizing a wide area 2-node cluster without extensive 
>> hardware/software investment, you might ask them if they would 
>> authorize you to set up a FreeAXP OpenVMS VM at a third site using the 
>> Alpha Community License solely to provide a tie-breaking vote for your 
>> production two-node cluster, and to do no other work. It never hurts 
>> to ask if there's an acceptable lower cost alternative to an expensive 
>> situation. This tie-breaker VM could even be hosted at an offsite VM 
>> provider like AWS so that your company doesn't have to invest in a 
>> physical 3rd site and network presence.
> 
> Or more succinctly, ask VSI for "buy two get one free" cluster pricing.
> 
> Two cluster PAKs still won't be cheap, if VSI goes for that.
> 
> (VSI does not presently have a voting-only cluster member product 
> offering at present. The old cluster-client license can't vote.)

I was going to propose something similar.  A very restricted cluster 
license, (relatively) cheap, with the ability to provide one vote to a 
cluster and nothing else. Perhaps even disable ability to do other 
things.  "Buy two, get this free" would be excellent other than the "buy 
two" price, of course.

Once upon a time I even toyed with the idea of proposing creating a 
"widget", a program which could speak just enough SCS to provide one 
vote to a cluster, to be the third "node" in one, and absolutely nothing 
more. The program (not necessarily a dedicated system) could be on a PC 
or something and not a VMS implementation.  Its only purpose would be to 
join a cluster and provide 1 vote. Before thinking how absurd that idea 
is, do remember that things like HSCs and DSSI disks spoke enough SCS to 
provide MSCP disk access to a cluster over CI/DSSI buses and they showed 
up on $ SHOW CLUSTER. Just not as full cluster members, and DSSI disks 
did that with the firmware on a disk drive.

I didn't/don't want to get involved with the hornets' nest of licensing 
such a thing.