Where two 3000s work better together
May 30, 2007
Where MPE/iX fears to tread on HP 3000s, hardware can muster onward. On the Unix side of HP's enterprise equation, instances help spread the computing workload. Multiple copies of HP-UX can live inside the same HP Integrity server, and so distribute the work of, oh, say the reporting from fourth generation language applications.
MPE/iX wasn't designed for such sharing, at least not out of the HP labs. While your average HP 3000 operates many more applications than a Unix server, splitting up the computational lifting calls for a third party, plus multiple 3000s.
The latter part of that combination has never been less costly. The latest report we've heard has a Series 928 selling for $200. That's a system which runs the latest 7.5 release of MPE/iX. So adding a server to share the work won't break a budget. This is called replication, but it requires outside software to sync up the servers in matching steps. Quest Software provides it; last week the company's John Saylor noted that replication can reduce the drag from 4GLs — if the 3000 is feeling the strain.
Saylor, whose current title at Quest is Director of Sales, Specialized Markets, said that if the 3000 configuration running a 4GL uses a lot of system resources, "We have many customers that have a reporting server set up on a economical HP 3000 server, and use Quest replication technology to create reports 24x7 on the smaller system to offload the main production server."
"This is mainly directed at homesteading customers," Saylor explained. Using a phased approach, such a customer hosts the Quiz or Cognos application, and the centralized directory points the data requests to the main server.
"Many customers have saved thousands of dollars by purchasing a small application server for this function. The main benefits are 24x7 reporting, offloaded CPU resources, application inquires, Adhoc reporting, remote batch updates and the ability to use an application like Output Management Viewer.
The Viewer app, formerly Quest's VistaPlus, provides reporting and viewing of output spoolfiles, with full search and security-levels of viewing. "Any homesteader would be interested in adding more computing power without changing their existing environment," Saylor said, "and increasing functionality and availability is huge."