INFO-VAX Sat, 29 Mar 2008 Volume 2008 : Issue 177 Contents: Re: Alphaserver/station reliability Re: Alphaserver/station reliability Re: ANA/DISK/SHAD not working properly Re: ANA/DISK/SHAD not working properly Re: GnuPG 1.4.9 for VMS Re: Question about products ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:13:48 GMT From: ChrisQuayle Subject: Re: Alphaserver/station reliability Message-ID: david.pearson@british-energy.com wrote: > This is a little bit of an open request but for the installation and > application I'm trying to justify it would really help me if I could > get some 'real' uptime data from the wider industry on how reliable > AlphaServers are. I know they have outstanding performance and are > used by half of wall street etc. but it would be great to know from > the real guys who have to keep these things running the real facts > behind the claims. > The two models I'm interested in are Alphaserver DS25 (a number of, > both single and dual processor) and an Alphastation DS15. All will be > running Tru64 Unix 5.1b. > Simple feedback such as "Typical application, date installed, MTBF/ > uptime/failure rate etc., whether frequently power-cycled or running > 24/7" would be great. Direct contact details to confirm this would > also be appreciated but not essential. > The reason for this request is to support the use of the Alphas in a > mission-critical role running a legacy app as part of the business > justification. > Posting to the forum preferred but mail to hp@pearson.in also accepted > if confidentiality required. Both hardware and software are pretty bulletproof. Have run several vax and Alpha systems - one Alpha system / Tru64 almost none stop for nearly ten years without a single crash or hardware failure. It would probably have had indefinate uptimes were it not for the yearly shutdown to clean the dust out, fans, check connectors etc. This machine is semi retired now, but would probably do another ten years without a problem, since there are no parts running outside their design ratings. The added attention to detail is one of the things you pay the extra for with high end kit - all the extended environmental testing, quality parts, real engineering etc. May look the same as the cheap pc, but the difference is all under the skin and the fact that the system never breaks down has quite an impact on TCO :-)... Chris -- ---------------------- Greenfield Designs Ltd Electronic and Embedded System Design Oxford, England (44) 1865 750 681 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:45:25 GMT From: patrick jankowiak Subject: Re: Alphaserver/station reliability Message-ID: Richard B. Gilbert wrote: > david.pearson@british-energy.com wrote: >> This is a little bit of an open request but for the installation and >> application I'm trying to justify it would really help me if I could >> get some 'real' uptime data from the wider industry on how reliable >> AlphaServers are. I know they have outstanding performance and are >> used by half of wall street etc. but it would be great to know from >> the real guys who have to keep these things running the real facts >> behind the claims. >> The two models I'm interested in are Alphaserver DS25 (a number of, >> both single and dual processor) and an Alphastation DS15. All will be >> running Tru64 Unix 5.1b. >> Simple feedback such as "Typical application, date installed, MTBF/ >> uptime/failure rate etc., whether frequently power-cycled or running >> 24/7" would be great. Direct contact details to confirm this would >> also be appreciated but not essential. >> The reason for this request is to support the use of the Alphas in a >> mission-critical role running a legacy app as part of the business >> justification. >> Posting to the forum preferred but mail to hp@pearson.in also accepted >> if confidentiality required. > > My current uptime on my Alphastation 200 is 97 days. It's protected by > a UPS but the run time after the power goes off is eight to ten minutes. > Power, once off, takes two-three hours to restore. That's two to three > hours to get two men and a truck here and two to three minutes to get a > a man to the top of the pole in the "cherry picker" and replace the > blown fuse. > > With reliable power and air conditioning, uptimes of four hundred days > or more are quite possible. Your downtimes then are for reboots to > install O/S upgrades and/or patches and to change SYSGEN parameters. > Also allow for a shutdown every three or four years for major > maintenance on the electrical systems. > > You CAN set things up to eliminate even more of the occasional down time > but it can get REALLY expensive. You would need dual Uninterruptable > Power Systems, dual (at least) air conditioners, dual emergency > generators for when the power goes off for several hours, etc. Few > companies need the uptime badly enough to pay the bills! > hmm.. I have that at home.. the 40KW diesel backup and UPS's.. Once those are installed, they cost little to maintain really. - and an XP1000 with OpenVMS been up for 330 days now and I need to blow the dust bunnies out occasionally, but I don't shut it off for that, I just remove the case and blow them out with some air, and this is in a 40-80 degree 30-60% RH environment. I bet you won't have any problems with "DECompaqHP Alpha" type of hardware. (note: the case is usually part of the "cooling system", so don't do this 'hot cleaning' carelessly. It can be gotten away with on certain machines, and not on others.) Patrick J ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:47:37 -0700 (PDT) From: tadamsmar Subject: Re: ANA/DISK/SHAD not working properly Message-ID: <1b29a6ed-60ba-42b9-baa6-01570094a691@d62g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> On Mar 28, 2:07=A0pm, bro...@cuebid.zko.hp.nospam (Rob Brooks) wrote: > tadamsmar writes: > > I am getting discrepancies in SYS$ERRLOG.DMP > > > But the HELP on /IGNORE says its suppose to ignore this file by > > default. > > > VMS 7.2.3 > > What is the EXACT command you are using? > > -- > > Rob Brooks =A0 =A0MSL -- Nashua =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 br= ooks!cuebid.zko.hp.com I am at shadowing patch 5. The most recent is patch 6 and its release notes don't mention this problem. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:54:51 +1100 From: Jim Duff Subject: Re: ANA/DISK/SHAD not working properly Message-ID: <47ed935e@dnews.tpgi.com.au> tadamsmar wrote: > On Mar 28, 2:07 pm, bro...@cuebid.zko.hp.nospam (Rob Brooks) wrote: >> tadamsmar writes: >>> I am getting discrepancies in SYS$ERRLOG.DMP >>> But the HELP on /IGNORE says its suppose to ignore this file by >>> default. >>> VMS 7.2.3 >[snip] > > I am at shadowing patch 5. The most recent is patch 6 and its release > notes don't mention this problem. Presumably, you are on an Alpha running OpenVMS 7.3-2. There is no such thing as version 7.2.3. There *are* changes that affect ANALYZE/DISK/SHADOW in SHADOWING-V0600 (5.2.11 ANALYZE/DISK/SHADOW Gives Incorrect Results). Granted, they don't specifically mention your issue, but considering what else is in that kit I'd be extremely anxious to install it. I'd hate to have to explain to my management why my production machine fell over with a SHADDETINCON, INVEXCEPTN, or UNXSIGNAL bugcheck, when a remedial kit had been out for nearly five months. And if that's not enough to worry you, consider point 5.2.8 in the release notes: SS$_ABORT Errors Handled Incorrectly. The release note basically admits that a fatal drive error is handled as a "recoverable" error where the failing drive should have been ejected from the shadowset immediately. Coupled with point 5.2.7 that states not all shadowing errors are reported in the error log, I'd want to install this patch *yesterday*. Jim. -- www.eight-cubed.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:59:32 -0500 (CDT) From: sms@antinode.org (Steven M. Schweda) Subject: Re: GnuPG 1.4.9 for VMS Message-ID: <08032813593286_2020CE0A@antinode.org> > GnuPG 1.4.9 exists now. [...] > http://antinode.org/dec/sw/gnupg.html And now the file protections will even let you download the kits. Sorry for the annoyance. SMS. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:37:49 GMT From: Malcolm Dunnett Subject: Re: Question about products Message-ID: <1YhHj.4579$9X3.1519@edtnps82> David Turner, Island Computers wrote: > Can y'all enlighten me as to how many Itaniums people here in COV are > buying? I have five of them (rx2600/zx6000). One purchased from HP (one of those "deals" they were offering a couple of years ago). The others were purchased on eBay. All running VMS of course. One has a "real" VMS license, the others are licensed under the OpenVMS EDU program and the CSLG. They're all dual processor systems, CPU speeds range from 1Ghz to 1.5GHz. One is our production Oracle 10g server, one is a backup system for the Oracle server. The others will be used for software development and application deployment. I've been quite happy with their performance relative to the ES40s they will replace, and they are substantially smallers and less power-hungry. ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2008.177 ************************