Practice independence in your community

Here in the US we're observing our Independence Day this weekend, a celebration that echoes my hopes of independence for HP 3000 community members. Those who are homesteading on the system beyond HP's schedule have already chosen an independent path. They depend on new partners for support. Some community members have chosen the independence of Linux and open source, too, to supplement their 3000 computing power.

I also believe that independence is essential to those members staying with HP. Those companies migrating need to speak out freely about their experiences. As a journalist for almost 30 years, I've seen a decline in the independence of speaking on the record. I'd love to start a revolution in that regard and roll back the calendar, but anonymous sources have become a bulwark in reporting. The journalism community represented at the Washington, DC Newseum — a fine stop for any citizen-tourist in that town — has grave doubts about anonymous sources. We reporters trade credibility for trust when we need to use these sources.

I'd use fewer of these with more customers going on the record. Public meetings, open to both users and the press, are becoming rare indeed. It's up to 3000 community members to speak out online, where the speaker has more control of what's being reported.

In fact, the demise of public meetings was one factor in passing up the HP Technology Forum & Expo this year. This is first year since 1985 that I haven't attended a national-level HP user conference. After 24 annual events in a row, it seemed that things have changed between HP and the press. Last year I complained about the frustration of incomplete press access at HPTF. Things have shifted in HP's press approach, which makes the Internet and blogs the reasonable alternative to hearing community members' voices.

There's been a bit of good change, like hearing HP talk live to the analysts about quarterly reports via the Internet. But when Computerworld is standing outside a meeting door alongside the 3000 NewsWire, then HPTF starts to look like a restricted event. The user forums were ideal for a journalist who wants in-person connections with new sources. Users voicing opinions and telling stories about their customer experience is the meat of a conference. I understand how that won't serve HP as well as it did in the 80s or even the 90s. Sometimes you just have to accept changes.

As a community member you don't have to accept a less independent strategy. HP does operate a few forums online where customers can share opinion and experience. But the filtering is profound these days, probably reflecting the whole spin dance companies do with the media. You control your statements if you can speak out in places like Twitter, Linked In and Facebook (all of which have 3000-related followings and groups), as well as the Connect user group's online MPE forum. We'll be hearing more about that group in awhile, according to Connect board director Chris Koppe.

Until then and beyond, I hope you'll share your independent statements with your community and me here at the NewsWire. Enjoy and exercise your independence as a citizen, community member, or both.

Thanks for reading for four years

This week I'm grateful for four years of your attention on our blog. In June of 2005 I took the first steps into the media that was called Weblogs at the time, and your support of us has kept the news business lively, fun and a-pace of the action in 21st Century computing.

Fun comes most obviously on April 1, when journalists follow the tradition of the faux news story. We talked about a Treeware Project, and a development mission to rewrite MPE/iX as social networking software. On our first two blog Aprils the Fool's Day fell on a weekend, so we had to set the comedy aside. We've also reported on a $7 HP 3000, which was no joke, and how HP blew up Unix and NonStop servers with C4 to prove how good they were.

There's also been fun in reporting the news people would rather not have made public. It usually requires public sources, people who are willing to take a chance on speaking up. The stand-up, on-the-record sources have become tougher to find over the 25 years I've written about the HP computer environment. The trend might seem safer for those who don't speak up. But it puts everybody who needs adaptation and new ideas at risk.

Perhaps there will be a renaissance in relationships between software vendors and their customers. But here, heading into our fifth year of reporting weekdays on the blog, it seems the suppliers of technology are spooking too many customers into caution -- when those customers need action and honesty from the vendors about their options. It's baffling that a company will support a vendor with cash in this rough economy, than cringe at the vendor's displeasure should the truth ever be told in an unfavorable light.

How you will ever ensure a productive relationship with a vendor which cashes checks and tells you to keep quiet, well, I don't know. It would be untoward to call it blackmail, but the integrity of such an arrangement is a hoary mess. What's the redress for an unhappy customer? The ancients back in the 20th Century used to run companies with complaint departments. Now if you buy Oracle you're barred from reporting on its performance, right in the contract.

As a more local example, spreading word that a 3000 installation can't be PCI DSS compliant doesn't tell the whole truth, or even a decent share of it. That Ecometry continues to do this, in the face of third-party solutions to the contrary, makes it plain who the company is working for. That would be its shareholders and officers, rather than the customers who mail support checks every month.

What's more, a user group that meets in private, and keeps its discussion under wraps, doesn't seem to be working for any 3000 homesteaders who use Ecometry. It certainly isn't of much use to anyone who's outside the meeting room until somebody goes public. Over my quarter-century, and four years of blogging, I've learned that going offline to resolve an issue can be that trap-door you see in the James Bond movies. You watch and say,"Don't stand there," but people still step onto the "give me your business card so we can discuss this" chute.

Happily, there are still independent and intelligent IT pros who see the benefit of keeping discussions out in the open. Blogs push us journalists into new reporting processes, because we don't have to wait for ink and paper to dry and mail anymore. The new beta-culture makes it plain that the myth of journalism's perfection is just that, a fantasy. Newspaper people—and I started as one almost 30 years ago—see their articles as finished products of their work. Bloggers—and every journalist blogs today—see posts as part of the process of learning.

These new practices help me get more information out there faster than the old days of envelopes and staples and weeks of knowing but being unable to tell. Everyone whose help I've received for a story should know that a "off-the-record" or background-only request is an automatic yes, unless I have to say no or abandon the story. But there's a story to tell every Monday through Friday here, a joy and sometimes a challenge. Thanks for keeping your eyes on us and our new news culture since 2005.

HP educates on virtual servers today

The HP user group Connect gave us notice late yesterday that HP will offer instruction in an hour-long Webcast today. Virtual servers offer a potential upgrade for HP 3000 sites who are migrating, but the concepts differ from 3000 fundamental architecture. Andy Schneider of HP will talk at 2:30 PM CDT (19:30 Central Europe time) on Mission Critical Virtualization Solutions with HP Integrity Blades and HP Virtual Server Environment.

Registration for this free GoToWebinar is open online at the Go To Meeting Web site. Schneider, who's with HP's Software Virtualization team in the Enterprise Storage and Servers unit, will show the latest deliverables for HP Integrity Blade server environments,"including processing capabilities, network/storage interconnect technologies, and their interaction with HP Virtual Connect capabilities." This Virtual Server Environment (VSE) is one driver toward migrating to the HP-UX environment.

Promising an insight on "unprecedented business outcomes," the Webcast page says Schneider will talk about the processor and networking upgrades in the Integrity Blade line.

Leveraging on these recent offerings, infrastructure management enhancements in the area VSE’s support of logical servers will be discussed, including expanded capacity planning functions with HP Capacity Advisor, and the related integration with the virtualization and high availability solutions that are integral to the HP VSE environment

HP's Unix rebuffs Java security exploit

A new critical patch for the HP-UX operating environment — a key element in many HP 3000 transition plans — has closed the door on the latest security hack.

Java can be forced to execute rogue code on HP's Unix, as well as many other flavors of the OS from other vendors. Versions B.11.11, B.11.23, B.11.31 of HP-UX are affected, running the Java Runtime Engine 6.0.03 or earlier, or RTE 1.4.2.22 or earlier.

The problem's details, scant as they are, are on the HP IT Response Center Web site page dedicated to the security breach. (You'll need a password and user handle to log in. These are free.) The patch is HPSBUX02429; the service number is SSRT090058.

HP says "you could be at risk of a serious recoverable error if action is not taken." The HP 3000 version of Java doesn't use these more recent runtime engines. But Java on the 3000 isn't a fully functional tool, either.

Not all vendors have written a patch to close Java's security holes under Unix. One back door remains open for Apple systems, even after six months of notice about the breach. Apple's OS X is still missing a patch as of this week, much to the dismay of system admins. One developer has actually published a how-to, proof-of-concept exploiting this breach, to nudge along the Apple patch.

The secured versions of Java for HP-UX are available at HP's Java Web site.

HP-UX training arrives free today only

Connect gives a taste of the HP Unix content from the HP Technology Forum & Expo today, a Webcast launching at 1 PM CDT. The conference begins in earnest four weeks from today in Las Vegas, where an expo floor has filled three more open booths since we last checked 10 days ago.

Today's free content is presented by longtime HP-UX expert Bill Hassell. This IT pro has been a fixture on HP user group agendas for more than two decades. I enjoyed sampling a seminar on HP-UX secrets and tips at the 2007 Greater Houston Regional User Group conference. Well worth the time; even those with everyday Unix experience could be seen taking notes and nodding their heads.

Attendance is free for today's "Sneak Peek." Register online with Connect.

In a glitch this morning, the Citrix meeting registration page is bouncing off to an error 404 Web page right after registration. You can rely on the confirmation e-mail for your unique Web address to attend.

Connect says that Hassell, who worked for HP many years ago before founding his own consulting company, will provide admin tips today in the Sneak Peak.

Hassell will show some common system administrator tasks with a twist to get things done faster. There will be some command line and scripting techniques to manage multiple systems as well as providing automated notifications. There will be tips on scanning logs and creating automated notifications. Find out why 777 and -9 are the sysadmin's enemy and how to write good bootup start/stop scripts.

Google returns to a sound database design

This week we heard about Google's App Engine from ScreenJet's founder Alan Yeo. The free tool in Google Code "is sort of like a distributed computing environment that anyone can use," Yeo said when he called a few days back. "You can create Web applications and use Web-based datastores." Datastores for Google's App Engine use an SQL-like syntax, GQL. "See what database this reminds you of," Yeo asks.

GQL intentionally does not support the Join statement, because it is seen to be inefficient when queries span more than one machine. Instead, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships can be accomplished using ReferenceProperty(). This shared-nothing approach allows disks to fail without the system failing.

The where clause of select statements can perform >, >=, <, <= operations on one column only. Therefore, only simple where clauses can be constructed. Switching from a relational database to the Datastore requires a paradigm shift for developers when modeling their data.

"I think Google has just re-invented IMAGE," Yeo said.

Google's Web-based guide to the app solution goes on to explain that the Datastore is not relational in the traditional SQL sense, like with DB2, SQL Server or MySQL. "What they've written is almost IMAGE," Yeo said. "You've got detail datasets you can access on a key with a bunch of operators. You can can only access one dataset at a time from the keys. And they've done it for mass volume efficiency."

Most 3000 developers take mass volume efficiency of IMAGE as an article of faith. The efficiency of IMAGE lets nearly-antique processors like PA-RISC 2.0 run even with the latest Itanium chips, given the right database design.

The App Engine datastore is not like a traditional relational database. Data objects, or "entities," have a kind and a set of properties. Queries can retrieve entities of a given kind filtered and sorted by the values of the properties. Property values can be of any of the supported property value types.

"Looks like it's time to dust of those IMAGE skills and get an instant head start on those other developers, who are going to have to learn about network databases from scratch," Yeo told us. "Now if HP had some foresight they could have been sitting on a database structure that could become the backbone data storage model for the Internet."

Secure transfers come out of open shell

The Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) is a suite of transfer solutions that's in a transition position for the HP 3000. Enough work has been completed to bring this software into use under MPE/iX.

Donna Hofmeister, an OpenMPE director, has reported that

When Jeff Vance was at HP, he wrote a FTP script that used the Posix program ‘crypt’ to encrypt/decrypt files leaving an MPE system. If the destination system was also MPE, the file would be automatically decrypted upon delivery.

An expert in open source solutions that run on the 3000 says that SCP clients already have logged work on HP 3000s. Server-side SCP components are still in the future, though, for MPE/iX.

Hofmeister added, "I wrote a very simple decryption shell script for Unix/Linux. If someone had a lot of time on their hands and had intimate knowledge of Unix/Linux porting, there’s a remote possibility, I think, of moving this to the 3000. If all that you're looking for is 'push' (from MPE/iX) functionality, sftpput should work for you."

Brian Edminster of Applied Technologies explained the biggest challenge at the moment is finding OpenSSH download sources, since HP pulled the plug on the Invent3k Web server.

SCP (and sftp) clients are available for MPE/iX and work fine on version 7.5. You can contact me if you’d like to discuss how to get a copy of your own. I’ve had extensive experience with the sftp client, and some with the scp client. Both work remarkably well, although there are some ‘quirks’ it helps to  be aware of. I’d be happy to discuss those too.

The limitation here is that while files can be put to or retrived from other systems, since only the  client is available, the 3000 must originate the transaction. This can make for some process redesigns if your existing applications are used to your 3000 being the ‘server’.  And no, jinetd doesn’t need to be running for SCP or sftp to  work.

There is a port (although technically not complete) of what is by now a fairly old but still workable version of OpenSSH to MPE/iX. It was done by Ken Hirsh, which he had gratiously made available to the 3000 community via his Invent3k account. Unfortunately, the ‘Invent3k’ community development server that HP had made available some years ago is, like Jazz, no longer online. [OpenMPE has plans to rehost the Invent3k programs.]

I don’t recall what version of MPE was used, but I’ve used the ported software successfully on 7.0 and 7.5.  I suspect it’ll work on 6.0 or later, but as yet haven’t tested it myself. His port included the ‘ssh’ command line client, but it had very limited functionality due to technical issues.

It also included the client components sftp and scp, as well as an ‘entropy’  (random number) generator written in Perl. This last piece is necessary because the ‘random’ number functions under MPE/iX aren’t very random. At  least, not as far as serious cryptography is concerned. This Perl script (modified by Ken to run on MPE) was originally written by others to get around not having a kernel-based entropy source for their systems either. Poor quality random number generation is not just a MPE/iX issue.

The ‘server’ components (sshd, sftpd, and scpd) were never ported for reasons that Ken could possibly explain. It might have been something as simple as he didn’t need them. From my perspective I’m thankful that Ken did the port in the first place.

I have installed his OpenSSH port many times, and even tightly integrated it  with legacy applications. Sftp is still in use many times a day with those  applications, and since first installed several years go has safely and securely transferred terabytes of data, with no clear end-date for this application’s life.

I did a presentation on this at the 2008 GHRUG conference. Look at the bottom of the ‘Links & Other Resources’ page at my Web site.

I’m currently in the process of adding even more use of sftp and scp to replace standard FTP in this client’s applications, at the insistence of their PCI  auditors -- and so will have more stories to share.

Paper clip enables resets for disks

The HP 3000 was designed for satisfactory remote access, but there are times when the system hardware needs to be in front of you. Such was the case for a system analyst who was adding a disk drive recently to a A-Class HP 3000.

Central to this process is the 3000's Guardian Service Processor (GSP). This portion of the A-Class and N-Class Multifunction IO card gives system managers basic console operations to control the hardware before MPE/iX is booted, as well as providing connectivity to manage the system. Functions supported by the GSP include displaying self-test chassis codes, executing boot commands, and determining installed hardware. (You can also read it as a speedometer for how fact your system is executing.)

The GSP was the answer when Larry Simonsen asked

I need to configure some additional disk drives and I believe reboot the server. The GSP is connected to a IP switch and I have the IP address for it, but it is not responding. I believe I need to enable it from the console. Can this be done from the soft console, using a PC as the console with a console # command?

A paper clip will reset the GSP and enable access, says EchoTech's Craig Lalley.

Lalley added that a GSP reset is an annual maintenance step for him.

Look on the back of the CPU and you will see a small hole labeled GSP RESET.  You need your favorite techie paper clip. Just insert the paper clip, and you will feel it depress. It takes about a minute to reset. Don't worry, it only reboots the GSP, and will not affect the HP 3000.

I find it is necessary to reset the GSP about once a year.  It seems to correlate to when you really need to get access, and you can't get physical access to the box. Good old Murphy's law.

Resource 3000's Stan Sieler (one of the Allegro Consultants) has a fine white paper online about MPE/iX system failure and hang recovery that includes GSP tips.

HP's documentation on resetting the GSP for the 900 Series 3000s, remotely through commands, is still online at the HP Web site.

HP pushes blades with solution blocks

Hewlett-Packard enjoys a leading position in blade server market share. The company's margin is a key element in the message that bladed servers are the vendor's new heartland for IT enterprise solutions. Both Windows and HP-UX can be deployed on blades. The former represents the bigger part of HP's blade share, so the latter was the topic for a recent Webcast hosted by the Connect user group.

Connect has posted the slides for the Webcast, a 60-page deck that might have been difficult to finish during the one hour time slot. One at the end stood out as a new offering, packaged like old 3000 products. HP calls these Solution Blocks, "hassle-free ordering, configuring and customizing of multiple applications. Starting with... HP-UX 11i on an HP platform provides a foundation for adding the required server, storage and tape backup blades to complete your infrastructure."

Solution Blocks are packed and deployed by HP's application resellers, so the business model aligns with the part of the HP 3000 customer base that purchased turnkey solutions, like Summit's Spectrum credit union app. HP's Webcast stressed that Solution Blocks reduce risk while optimizing deployment. Mitigating risk is high on the typical management list when a 3000 shop chooses to migrate.

There's the risk in remaining on the 3000, mostly the reality of declining community resources. But migrating also poses risks. A Washington State college consortium is regrouping this year after a $14 million project bottomed out. A Solution Block might not have helped there, but the point is to simplify any deployment.

HP and Connect didn't position the HP-UX blade server Webcast as a migration message. But the 3000 community is evaluating HP's Unix blades as a transition target. For the mid-sized customer with lean Unix skills, Solution Blocks might help. HP has the blocks organized by enterprise-size solutions and those targeted at mid-size companies. As an example, the SAP Business All-in-One is offered to mid-size firms with what HP calls "overbuilt" hardware.

The HP  BladeSystem for SAP Business All-in-One (AiO) Solution  Block running on HP Integrity server blades and the  HP-UX 11i operating environment. With the highly reliable HP BladeSystem infrastructure,  we’ve overbuilt the enclosure to set new standards of  readiness and certainty. It can accommodate 10 cooling  fans, six power supplies, four pairs of switches, and IO bandwidth of 5 terabytes—so your  business’ mission won’t stop.

Solution Blocks will probably be on the list of offerings from any reseller who's packaging HP's Unix along with applications. Unix has been a roll-your-own, highly customized solution for a long time. The blocks might make a Unix migration less complex.

Keep 3000-Mac emulation up to date

Macs aren't in wide use as HP 3000 clients, but the popular publishing and Web design computers do work for a number of 3000 community sites. One such is the US Cat Fancier's Association (CFA), where manager Connie Sellito needs an emulation program built for the Mac's modern-day OS X.

We do not have the  option of moving the Mac applications to a PC -- our publications (Web site and printed materials) department is firmly entrenched in the Mac camp. Makes for an interesting day!

The most straightforward solution comes from Minisoft. Its MS92 software, a longtime competitive solution to WRQ's Reflection, is designed and maintained for Macintoshes. Sellito's says that MS92 "is what we're using on the newer Macs. Excellent product."

But Reflection's scripting is entrenched at CFA. The emulator long ago lost its development team, in the same way that the WRQ brand name has disappeared into its new owner, Attachmate.

WRQ was once the largest supplier of HP 3000-related software, if you counted individual licenses on PCs. The company was acquired by Attachmate in 2005. Reflection lives on in a Windows version. The company also pointed to a Web-based solution that requires an intermediate server.

Melissa Liton, a PR rep for Attachmate, reports that "Reflection for HP is a Windows only product. However, Attachmate’s Reflection for the Web product — a Java-based “thin-client” that runs in the browser — does support Mac and is a great HP emulator."

The diagram at left shows the configuration needed to run Reflection for the Web. Adager's Alfredo Rego, one of the 3000+Mac advocates in the community, has also noted that running Reflection for HP is possible inside an emulator such as VMWare or Parallels. He's tested the latter, which recently proved to be more secured against a Windows malware exploit than its competitor. (That's right: Macs could get hit by a Windows virus with older versions of VMWare.)

No matter how you solve for giving Macs 3000 terminal access with Reflection, an in-between step adds complexity. When WRQ dropped Mac support late in the 1990s, the Mac was a niche solution in IT. Times have changed: A recent study showed that 68 percent of companies surveyed plan to add Macs to their IT mix. Minisoft has hung on long enough to see the world expand.

HP serves up Integrity blade broadcast

Hewlett-Packard will promote the virtualization features of its bladed Integrity HP-UX servers in a Webcast tomorrow (April 23). The broadcast begins at 11 AM CDT (1600 GMT), led by HP's Tom Vaden, who works on HP-UX architecture.

Registration for the Webcast is available at Gotomeeting.com Web site. You won't need anything special to access the Webcast other than a recent Windows or Mac OS version. A VOIP option is available for audio in addition to a standard phone dial-in number.

HP says the training broadcast — if you consider its hardware-software presentations training — will also cover power, cooling and management features of using blades with HP's Unix.

During this presentation, we will examine how HP-UX delivers its mission critical value proposition in bladed configurations. It will explain how the marriage of HP-UX and Integrity Server Blades enhance the core areas of the Adaptive Infrastructure especially for mission critical applications. The presentation will pay particular attention to the virtualization, power and cooling, and management advantages of HP-UX in a bladed environment.