3000 NewsWire

CAMUS conference registration closes soon

The ERP and manufacturing user group CAMUS is closing its registration very soon for its mid-July conference. On July 3, registration will wrap up for the July 16-18 meeting at the Holiday Inn Brentwood, in Nashville. The 3000 app MANMAN, still working at a surprising number of HP 3000 shops to serve manufacturing firms, is at the heart of CAMUS members' knowledge.

These people have a lot of experience to share, on both homesteading and migration of HP 3000 systems.

The group has a lineup of experienced speakers to cover two full days of paid training — and at a good price — $350 for a CAMUS member, $450 for a non-member. Plus, a free training day follows on the 18th. You can even register separately for the free day. (They even have a "Stump the Stars" meeting on the free day, for consulting via meeting-room Q&A at no charge.)

Registration, including the capability to pay online with a credit card, is at the conference reg page. More details about the speakers and the lineup are at the meeting's schedule page and on a additional information page.

SWC gotcha on HP systems

Regardless of your HP platform — either the HP 3000 or a target migration system — you will now want to watch for PC system hangs while using HP's Secure Web Console.

The SWC became a new tool for the 3000 several years ago. As our Homesteading Editor Gilles Schipper noted in a November, 2005 article, the SWC lets a 3000 manager "enjoy 100 percent full console capability, including system reboot, for your 3000 from the comfort of your home or any other location remote from the actual HP3000."

But a snag has appeared in using the SWC. It's not just with the 3000, either, according to OpenMPE director Donna Garverick. This detail is the kind of report that OpenMPE will be able to provide in 2009, once HP licenses MPE/iX source to the group.

PCs running Java 1.6 will hang when trying to download the .jar file from HP’s Secure Web Console running the a2.0 firmware  — but they will connect to devices running older firmware.  Java releases prior to this work with all (recent) SWC firmware revs.

HP does not have any copies of the old (< a2.0) firmware," Garverick adds.  "HP also states that a SWC cannot be back-dated from a2.0."

The work-arounds include:
- don't update Java to 1.6 if you have a2.0 SWCs
- don't update SWCs to a2.0
- check eBay/etc for SWCs without a2.0
- replace SWCs with a different solution
- for PCI systems, use the built-in SWC/GSP

A glimmer of hope remains that sun will release a fix for Java 1.6.  Other folks with older .jar files are complaining.

And just to be clear — this isn't just an MPE issue.  It impacts any system with a SWC.

HP blows up marketing real good

As my last official duty at last week's Technology Forum, I watched a fun film. HP produced it, and HP 3000 Business Manager Jennie Hou escorted me onto the closed expo floor to watch the film from the HP booth, just to make sure I'd seen it.

In a prior report, I mentioned the HP booth at the Tech Forum was big enough to require a tour guide. (I found the tour useful and enjoyable. In fact, one of the cooler parts of it was listening to the guide's voice over her headset follow her. Zoned speakers picked her up from point to point around the HP exhibits area.)

The film — which works as an HP marketing piece — unreeled in an unlikely spot at the booth: The HP NonStop display. HP used C4 explosive to make a bang-up demonstration of how a disaster would mean no more than two minutes of downtime. As they used to say on the SCTV show "Farm Film Report," HP blowed up its computers real good.

After watching HP's film, I believe the old "marketing sushi as cold, dead fish" image of HP's communications is long dead — or just as blowed-up as the computer configuration in the film. As an added touch, HP's Jack Mauger, Product Manager of the Business Continuity Products in the NonStop Enterprise Division, stood boothside wearing a white lab coat with the HP logo on the back. "Costume," he called it, in another repudiation of HP as an inept marketing firm. Perhaps being Number One in the IT marketplace brings budget enough to produce such drama.

Mauger was also passing out portions of the exploded computer, encased in a handsome lucite block. (Click on the image at left if you're "ready for a close-up, Mr. DeMille.") I haven't had such an HP paperweight for my desk since the early 1990s. This one takes its place next to the Precision Risc Organization clock from the same era. Perhaps only time will be able to erase the Itanium-based systems, much as the calendar has caught up with PA-RISC designs.

The DR catch-phrase is "disaster-proof," a feature that many HP 3000 sites have experienced after floods, fires and the like. HP recovered five different environments after it used 65 pounds of C4 to destroy an Itanium-based system and attached storage. The film's high-energy narration says the vendor's test crew was simulating a gas line explosion, with a backup failover system connected less than a quarter-mile away.

No, MPE/iX was not among the recovered environments. Windows, Linux, HP-UX, OpenVMS and NonStop got the stopwatch treatment. It made me wonder if, during a wholesale migration of HP 3000 code, any NonStop servers have been evaluated by the risk-averse HP 3000 crowd.

The footnotes from Mauger included a story that the detonation and filming site was in Camden, Arkansas, where an electrical storm had fried out a nearby substation with a single lightning bolt strike just before shooting was to begin. For two days, the HP server and storage sat in a tent with portable cooling units. Meanwhile the HP film crew waited for the skies to clear. After all, 65 pounds of C4 is not something to hook up under threatening skies.

The customer who chooses HP as their Transition supplier might be more certain of HP's marketing prowess after seeing the film, complete with cute animals. Marketing was a downfall of HP's business plans for the HP 3000. The vendor has learned a few things since those mistakes were made. Mistakes, after all, are really the only things that teach new lessons.

HP's end of patch days remains unclear

It's not exactly news, but the update on HP's patching futures did not change at the recent HP Technology Forum. HP continues to work on useful enhancements and needed fixes for the 3000. These repairs and improvements, like new disk support and more secure FTP, arrive in the form of patches.

HP builds the software and tests it in its own labs. Then it goes out for public beta testing. Only HP support customers can test a patch. At the moment, more than 80 of HP's patches, for MPE/iX versions ranging from 6.5 through 7.5, remain in beta test. So, only HP support customers can download these enhancements and repairs, until the testing is completed to HP's standards

Last year HP was considering whether the non-HP-support customers could test patches. No decision has been made during the past 13 months.

HP's plans to wrap up this process are in-process, we learned after asking at the Technology Forum. Possible plans include setting free all the beta patches available once HP's public patch creation process ends; leaving the beta patches in limbo, unreleased; or perhaps passing them off to a third party which holds a limited license to patch MPE/iX during 2009 and beyond.

The current list of such limited license candidates appears very short. Only OpenMPE has asked for the ability to create patches for MPE/iX. The group would like to get started on this just as soon as HP can complete a process to share MPE/iX code.

One other patch distribution candidate — a company which hasn't proposed any development, like OpenMPE — is Client Systems. The Denver-based company was HP's last North American HP 3000 distributor, and it remains an outlet for refurbished (read: used) HP 3000s, already loaded with transferred-license copies of the 3000's OS.

Whoever carries on the HP patching work could be liberating many man-hours of HP lab work, if that third party can continue beta testing to HP's satisfaction. Otherwise, the final 2006-2008 stories of the 3000 patch skyscraper may go unoccupied and unused.

For example, the fate of enhancement patches like the SCSI pass through driver — which goes into beta test sometime before the end of this year — is not clear. If that driver patch does not receive enough testing from customers, HP won't give the patch general release status. It might remain in beta test status on December 31, 2008.

HP hasn't decided yet how its beta-tested patches will fare after the vendor shuts down its patch process. The best option for the user community which plans to use 3000s in 2009, and relies on patches, is to test those beta patches now.

2009 support from HP, for a few, maybe

At last week's HP Technology Forum, HP introduced the concept of supporting HP 3000 customers beyond 2008. Jennie Hou, HP's 3000 business manager, cautioned the crowd of fewer than 30 in a small Forum meeting room that HP isn't extending its basic support for the entire user base beyond 2008.

Hou was specific in an interview after the meeting. "There may still be customers out there looking for help from HP," she said. "We will be looking at specific customer needs, and we will evaluate those needs based on local capabilities. It may not be a worldwide program. It's really on an individual basis."

Hou wanted to be sure that customers understand: HP's global message on 3000 futures hasn't changed. HP wants you to exit this platform. The vendor believes the risk of running a 3000 is increasing. Any post-2008 support from HP will only be available on a special contract basis. What's more, HP isn't even sure that any customers are going to want HP's support for the 3000 beyond 2008.

HP is calling the program Customized Legacy Support. Customers who qualify will be able to receive "site-specific patches, and workarounds." Hou said that HP will be shutting down its general release patch process at the end of 2008 — meaning no new patches will be available for download from HP's IT Response Center (ITRC) after December 31, 2008. As of January 1, 2009, what you'll see in the HP patch site for the 3000 is what you will get.

The whole HP offering for 3000 support in 2009 will depend on the parts available in a customer's area, plus other resource availability.

If everything above sounds exploratory and evolutionary, that is HP's intent. The vendor doesn't want to leave customers without support, but it appears to be sticking to its 2008 date. License transfers will continue at HP indefinitely. But many questions remain unanswered about the "post-08" period of HP's 3000 business. (Of this I can be certain, because I asked many of them. The replies often ran to "we haven't worked out that process yet," or words to that effect.)

HP's Jeff Bandle — the new liaison to OpenMPE — and Hou seemed to suggest answers will be available when they're needed.

HP still believes that one full year from the end of its 3000 business is enough time for a third party to step in and receive a limited license to portions of MPE/iX. By connecting the dots, that would make January of next year the time when a hand-off of 3000 operating system might occur.

Looking for a handful of good directors

As the Encompass HP user group wraps up a successful conference, another group of users builds up its experience and energy — also on a push toward an annual meeting. The Greater Houston Regional User Group (GHRUG) has issued a call for nominations to the group's board of directors. Five seats are up for grabs on the 10-member board. Current members include much HP 3000 experience, but also specialize in computing on Windows, Unix, Linux and HP-UX platforms.

Nominations are for five directors, with a nomination deadline of July 12. You can nominate a co-worker or colleague, but be sure you get the okay from your nominee before submitting it to GHRUG. The voting starts on Friday, July 20, and runs through Tuesday, July 31st. Submit a nomination, or toss your own hat into the ring, by e-mailing GHRUG President Richard Pringle at Richard.Pringle@escg.jacobs.com

GHRUG holds a special spot in the heart of the 3000 community. No other user group in North America represents the HP 3000 homesteading user so completely. This past week we surveyed the work of Encompass to maintain a modest lineup of HP 3000 migration-related talks. In addition to a broader array of 3000 training, GHRUG is also planning to offer soft skills training at its next conference. But that meeting will be an affair that's far smaller than the vast enterprise which Encompass just closed up this week, all complete with a Grammy-winning band at the farewell party.

And that's okay, as Stuart Smalley might say. A modest conference is more in keeping with a computer community that's now marking its 34th year. GHRUG gives the 3000 professional a chance to extend their network through board service, as well as spice up a resume and add new platform exposure.

Swank show floor draws quality customers

Nary a homesteading provider can be found among the HP Technology Forum Expo exhibits, unless you count longtime 3000 friends such as MB Foster (whose MPE sign is shown left) and Speedware, companies both supporting sustainability plans as well as making migrations happen. But there is no reason to expect that kind of exhibitor here, a place where a new HP future would be on the minds of most 3000 attendees.

Few were in attendance at yesterday's 3000 updates and advisories. Head count never topped two dozen for the main talk by HP's Jennie Hou and engineers Craig Fairchild and Jeff Bandle. Nine bodies were present for the OpenMPE update. A stronger turnout listened to migration advice from HP partners Softvoyage, Summit-Fiserv, Oy Porasto AB and HP's own Kevin Cooper. (Cooper mentioned in passing that he's worked with the HP 3000 since 1976, from internal IT development through SE service and on to performance management.)

But the expo floor did display a torrent of information about HP destinations for migrations, as well as a few outposts where the remarketed HP 3000 gear was on offer. Baypointe and Canvas took out booths to attract buyers of used systems and prospect to rent HP 3000s, HP 9000s and more, respectively. DB-Net offered a look at a new interface which migrates 3000 databases in just two clicks on a screen. MicroFocus and Acucorp cozied up in a booth to show off the latest in COBOL technology, promising a July 11 Webcast update on merging their product lines. And most vendors said that if the show traffic was light, the quality of the contact more than made up for the quantity.

The innovation on the floor extended to entertainment, of course. Voodoo Systems, makers of the Superdome of gaming computers, sat attendees in a racing car with response of rocking a chassis as well as the high-grade visuals and audio blasts. HP conducted a tour of its vast acreage of systems, solutions and storage, 15 minutes that featured more than 20 stops, with a USB reader as a door prize. And Elvis rode a Segue scooter, then talked with Marilyn Monroe. Why not — it is Vegas, after all. The Smothers Brothers are headlining here in town, and the Commodores are coming soon, too.

Off in a quiet corner of the expo floor, attendees could shoot pool or shoot the breeze with each other at the Connections Cafe. The Cafe was a new element to the Forum, a place to follow through on contacts from the social networking software which Encompass made available to registered attendees in the weeks before the show. HP had dedicated spaces in the Cafe to meet with prospects and customers which they'd enticed to the Forum. Comfy chairs and sofas provided another kind of software. Rock-solid wireless access beamed to every corner of the show hall.

MB Foster's Birket Foster, our At Large Editor, chatted up veteran HP hardware planner Dave Snow (at left, but briefing a customer, not Foster) in the HP Integrity rx8620 station — where Foster mentioned that the electrical partitions of that mid-to-high end server might help with the compliance requirements of migrating 3000 customers. Snow, ever in form as the leading feeds-and-speeds guru, showed off the 8620's plum-colored pull-out boards to remove IO cards while the system is still hot. The server uses as many as four cells, each of which can hold two processor boards. HP also had 3600 and 6600 Integrity servers on display, systems that can offer a smaller, more affordable leap in performance for the migrating customer.

Along a prominent wall of the HP booth, the benefits of cooler and lower-power HP systems got the big headlines, with the new jet engine cooling fans on display. A Tech Forum show floor now only opens from 10 to 3 each day, a shorter and hotter span of time for the rare 3000 customer to do their next-platform exploration.

Conference debut now checked off Craig's list

HP's 3000 business manager Jennie Hou had just announced the latest e3000 Contributor Award winner. After giving hearty congratulations to Stan Sieler of Allegro Consultants (pictured at left), Hou introduced another new but seasoned element to the 3000 community: Craig Fairchild, selected to begin to fill the "very big shoes," as he said, of retired 3000 engineer Jeff Vance.

Fairchild (pictured below, keeping the faith at the HP e3000 booth at the conference), has been working on the HP 3000 since 1985. He rolled into his presentation like he's been ready for more than 20 years to communicate directly with customers. His first mission in HP's 3000 update meeting was to introduce the SCSI pass through drivers for MPE/iX, a bit of engineering coming to a 7.5 beta test patch near you.

Part of Fairchild's duties will be reminding the community about opportunities such as this driver, software which will let HP 3000s utilize storage devices that haven't been officially certified as 3000 peripherals. All support bets are off, but at least the lack of a 4GB drive from HP's parts list won't keep a 3000 offline, thanks to the driver.

Fairchild was introducing another example of the sort of technology Vance offered up often: designs for the future of using a 3000, no matter how long that future looks to a customer. He stepped to the microphone apologizing for a voice weak after ferrying schoolkids on a lengthy trek last week. But his ease and affability spoke even louder.

"It's designed to teach SCSI devices new tricks," Fairchild said of the driver to be in beta test during the second half of 2007. The device driver makes use of the Posix IOCTL command to send and receive data from the SCSI device.

In fact, the engineering is even more clever than that. Fairchild pointed out that the device file actually talks to the physical path of the device, not just the device itself. HP created an external use for an existing diagnostic interface to create the SCSI Pass Through, which it calls SPT for short.

Fairchild emulated Vance's candor, too. "Using the SPT is not for the timid," he said. "You'll need to know a lot about the device you're talking to." He was talking to a room full of IT do-it-yourselfers, but the caution took its deserved place in the afternoon. So did Fairchild, warming up for a long stretch run as the man to follow Jeff Vance and lead new HP efforts into the community.

HP turns up the jets to go green

I bumped into a bonus moment yesterday while I crossed the vast acres of the HP Technology Forum. Locating my last elevator, I held the door for an HP employee. He trundled an HP blade unit on a luggage cart behind him while he juggled a small metal component that looked like the service end of a blow-dryer.

"That's some pretty interesting gear you've got there," I began.

As the elevator started to move, he looked up. "Oh darn, I thought we were going down. Oh well." He saw me staring at the blade and the blower end.

"It's our new cooling units," he explained, cutting across miles of PR and media relations tape with a friendly comment. "It's great." He beamed a wide smile. "My team helped develop it."

The engineer was holding a crucial component in HP's speed toward green computing: new cooling components that get rid of fan propellers to use a jet engine design instead. Runs quiet, draws less juice. HP is looking at many ways to keeping the power bill down in lots of IT operations, even its own. On Monday CEO Mark Hurd said HP's own datacenters will save enough electricity to power Palo Alto for a year, once all the new green engineering is in place.

Later that day I heard another story about the new jet coolers. An HP customer in the Bay Area had seen a video of HP's design engineers hooking the new cooling components up to model racecars with wireless controls. The new coolers were acting like afterburners on the racers.

Now that's cool.

HP flies security flag from florid stage

Before the anthems of a seven-piece band launched from behind HP's stagy podium, us journalists spent our Monday afternoon playing a news version of speed-dating. In blocks of 30 minutes, one atop another in a room packed with 10 other interviews going on at once, we quizzed HP executives on the latest in storage and security.

HP announced its Secure Advantage Portfolio, a new castle keep devoted to protecting data through advanced encryption, a new Identity Center dashboard and anti-phishing toolbar, servers, storage and services.

"This lets customers fine-tune their level of security commensurate with their appetite for risk," said  Montserrat Mane, a security practice principal for HP Services. "This model is multidimensional, blending standards from industry, ISO and HP's own best practices."

During the afternoon's interviews, one HP official after another invoked the name of ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library best practices guidebooks. ITIL received its "V3 refresh," as HP called it, within the last year. The company referred to it often to explain how best practices are driving the HP offerings.

To nobody's surprise, the new security offerings have little to offer the HP 3000-only shops. But for a customer with more HP platforms than the ones which run on MPE/iX, the Secure Advantage can step up protection, for customers with an appetite for costs and little appetite for risk.

HP's appetite for costs appeared to have increased at HP CEO Mark Hurd's keynote speech, starting at 5 PM after the speed-dating ended. The Technology Forum hosted the meeting in the massive Mandalay Bay Events Center, a 10,000-seat arena with tiered seating. The Mandalay hosts concerts and prize fights in the Center, but no blows of contention were flying Monday evening. Where such arenas in the Interex era hosted combative questions, yesterday's presentation was the love-fest Encompass president Nina Buik had promised.

Instead of hard questions flying , acrobats flew up and down wires from the catwalks to the stage where Hurd stood, looking bemused and in command. Striking policy announcements and profound product introductions were not on Hurd's teleprompters. He told the story of how HP has been working to change its IT expense ratio from 80 percent maintenance to 80 percent innovation — and how HP could help its customers do that, too.

HP had one significant restriction, however. "We had to do it all with our stuff," Hurd said. "You all don't have that problem, although I hope you do."

"Our costs were increasing in IT faster than our revenues were increasing," Hurd added. "That's not easy to do, but we were managing it," he quipped. "The only way we knew out of this was to interrupt it."

HP spent considerable money and time to flip those numbers from maintenance to innovation. "Don't take anything I say about this to mean that this was easy or free," Hurd said.

The key to success in HP's endeavor "was not technology," he added. "It was leadership, process and governance."