[Info-vax] Time to turn DECUServe into a mixed VMScluster?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2023-06-02, abrsvc <dansabrservices at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Friday, June 2, 2023 at 8:38:55?AM UTC-4, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 6/2/2023 8:26 AM, Simon Clubley wrote: 
>> > On 2023-06-01, Arne Vajhøj <ar... at vajhoej.dk> wrote: 
>> >> 
>> >> I am not sure that I understand the problem. 
>> >> 
>> > 
>> > That's obvious. :-)
>> Yes ...
>> >> We are talking about a PR stunt here - running a VMS cluster with 
>> >> 4 architecture to get some good press.
>> There appear to be users of emulated VAX systems. These could be serious 
>> production systems. Perhaps such users would like to add an x86 VMS system, and 
>> to cluster it with their emulated VAX systems. Why? I don't know, and it 
>> doesn't matter. So, considering it a "PR stunt" is unfair to such users.
>> >> Nobody cares whether that system uses encrypted clustering 
>> >> traffic or not. 
>> >> 
>> > 
>> > How good do you think the press coverage will be when they find out 
>> > this super-duper clustering technology is using completely unencrypted 
>> > protocols ?
>> Nothwithstanding Simon's paranoia, it is an issue for potential customers. 
>> Myself, I'd suggest a bit of security. But it isn't my horse in this race.
>> -- 
>> David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 
>> Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: da... at tsoft-inc.com 
>> DFE Ultralights, Inc. 
>> 170 Grimplin Road 
>> Vanderbilt, PA 15486
>
> I have real VAX, Alpha and Itanium systems.  Perhaps if I spin up an X86 version and cluster all of them together that would suffice?
> I can add some emulated systems to the mix for fun too.
>
> What would make this a PR win?   What proof would you want for this? I am willing to put it together if it makes sense.
>

To be honest Dan, I am not really seeing the PR merits of just linking
a current architecture (x86-64), two obsolete architectures (VAX and Alpha),
and one mostly obsolete architecture (Itanium) together in a cluster.

The general reaction to that outside of the VMS world is likely to be
"so what ?".

I should also point out you can build a Linux cluster across a larger
range of architectures. Even if the Linux clustering capabilities are
not as advanced as VMS, these days they can be made to be suitable for
a good range of tasks.

What _would_ be PR worthy is exactly what HP/HPE did 15 years ago, when
they physically destroyed cluster nodes and then everyone watched while
the remaining nodes recovered without data loss, especially if VMS was
still the way fastest to recover as it was back then.

However, expectations have moved on since then and such an explosion
and simulated workload would have to be on a far larger scale than it
was back then to be really newsworthy.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.