Operations and applications get watched and tracked in emulation efforts
June 19, 2013
While explaining what a virtualized 3000 does with its MPE bootup volume disk image, questions come to mind. A systems manager will be asking about the following, since they're probably unfamiliar with tapping an MPE system instance which is part of a Linux environment. Here's a set of queries from a prospect who was working though proof of concept this spring. He is preparing to use the Charon emulator as a migration stopgap.
How do we do backups and restores with the emulator? Its architecture is that each HP 3000 LDEV is a separate Linux file, so identifying where MPE files are for backup and restore looks more difficult. For example, I have configured an 18-GB virtual disk drive as LDEV 32, so in the Linux directory where the emulator resides is an 18-gig file named 'LDEV32.DSK'. All of the MPE files stored on LDEV 32 are in that file. If I need to restore a file to pub.admin (one of our production accounts), how do I identify which Linux backup it is on, and how do I then mount that virtual disk to do an MPE restore?
This is an HP 3000 administrator with some applications which have already been moved to other host environments. Not a pro who's unfamiliar with Unix or Linux. He allows that there are "lots of questions that I'll have to work through, operationally." It's such operational questions that define the legend of building a datacenter around a general-purpose computer like the HP 3000 -- one designed to operate as if it had to be reliable enough to be installed in a satellite.
Applications, languages and utilities are coming on board in such emulated environments for the 3000. Some of these vendors must be contacted directly by the customer. For example, Nobix's Transpooler that manages jobstream operations will be part of one manager's emulation configuration. Could that manager do without the Nobix software?
The answer is "probably not." They are jobstream related -- scheduling, after execution error examination, and so forth. The CSL Sleeper utility [from Boeing] can handle some of the scheduling, but it's not as flexible as the Nobix Transpooler product. Also,the product is better at sending spoolfiles to printers than plain MPE.
The ability to re-send spoolfiles, delete them and otherwise manage them, without the use of MPE spooler commands, is very useful to us. We would probably not be able to go forward without it -- at least not without dedicating a lot more resources (personnel and time) toward developing a workaround.
Stromasys is promoting the idea that companies like Nobix would rather transfer a license and keep a support contract than see a customer disappear. This is all up to the emulator customer to arrange. But the truth of it is, some vendors might believe they are certain to be part of an emulator setup, and they might hold out for an upgrade fee. People suspect Cognos will be in this group, but the reports from customers are surprising. Cognos/IBM has made a tidy living doing that sort of re-license over the last 20 years. Powerhouse for MPE is on "Vintage Support" by now, but the real money is in a license upgrade fee.
"They have been very gracious in this," one manager said. "As of PowerHouse 8.49F, IBM removed licensing requirements on the MPE version of the product."
Unfortunately, we allowed our PowerHouse license to lapse when we were on PowerHouse 8.49E, so we missed that feature. We let it lapse to save on the annual maintenance fee, which for the N-4000 box with unlimited users was several thousand dollars annually. For testing, IBM gave us a 'universal' license, which will work on any HP 3000 box. I haven't asked, yet, if there will be a charge when we purchase the emulator.Our optimism has mostly to do with the way Stromasys has implemented the emulation. It's an elegant solution because they've emulated the HPPA chip in software, so MPE thinks it's running on regular HP 3000 hardware. I am very impressed with that. It behaves just like a physical HP 3000, in terms of booting and system management. All of the tools are there and work: sysgen, ioconfig, nmmgr, and more. I was able pretty much to have the emulator in a Reflection window side-by-side with our HP 3000, so that I could make sure nmmgr values were similar for network config.