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Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
drchrist68
Member
Posts: 8
Joined: 22.03.13 |
| Posted on March 24 2013 01:05 |
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Greetings from another VMS newb!
I'm a seasoned sysadmin having spent a couple decades managing Windows and various flavors of 'Nix. Most of my early computer training was on VAX/VMS and and IBM System/34 (SSP). The modern systems are wonderful and thankfully keep me employed, but I recall the older systems I learned on seemed to be so stable and reliable. Recently I've become interested in computing history and came looking for a way to revisit the past as sort of a hobby. Thus, I was pleased to learn of the OpenVMS Hobbyist program.
I'm currently running OpenVMS Alpha 8.4 on AlphaVM_Free on top of Debian 6. This is by far one of the most straightforward setups of any emulator I've used.
It has been a blast to learn so far, especially the process of smoothing out a few of the bumps along the way:
-License PAKs not loading properly; I ended up copying/pasting each command in its entirety into DCL in order to get the licenses registered. Only later did I discover that I needed to tweak my terminal emulation because it was mangling the file when I tried to execute it.
-Networking not starting at boot; found the proper line to un-comment in the startup file and all is well.
-New user cannot login via ssh because password is already expired; was able to login via telnet to change password, then ssh worked.
-X-forwarding works like a charm (ssh -Y), but need to recreate the X Authority file on the Alpha every time; still working on that one.
I like the fact that there is no need for constant updates to fix security issues. Once things are set and working, they just keep working. Now if only I can find some of my old FORTRAN programs from school and see if they run!
I find this forum is full of good information, hopefully I can contribute something valuable as well.
~David |
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
Bruce Claremont
Member
Posts: 623
Joined: 07.01.10 |
| Posted on March 24 2013 04:55 |
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Welcome. Nice intro. Did you do any RPG on the S/34? |
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
abrsvc
Member
Posts: 108
Joined: 12.03.10 |
| Posted on March 24 2013 07:58 |
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Welcome David,
Please note that if you do find the FORTRAN programs, they will likely run just fine. I still have some form the early days (VMS V1.5) that run without change on Alpha and Itanium. Even got Space Invaders running with VEST on the Alpha...
Dan |
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
drchrist68
Member
Posts: 8
Joined: 22.03.13 |
| Posted on March 24 2013 14:38 |
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Thanks! I like the true backward-compatibility.
Bruce, I never did RPG on the S/34, just a bunch of FORTRAN, Pascal, Basic, plus sneaking in a game of Star Trek whenever the instructor wasn't looking. Also remember the green-text terminals that IBM referred to as "Two-Color" which were just green, and bright green. I always wondered how they got away with that one... |
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RE: This is going to be fun. |
rdyess
Member
Posts: 2
Location: Dallas, TX
Joined: 21.07.13 |
| Posted on July 21 2013 07:23 |
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Hello David,
I think I'm going to enjoy this quite a bit. I share your interest in the older computers. I wrote Fortran programs for a CDC 1604 as a student at Texas Tech but don't think I could afford the electric bill even if I could find a working copy of the machine. I live in a apartment so my neighbors would also complain about the noise of the tape transports. LOL So I have decided instead to explore the wonderful world of VAX/VMS through an emulator. Should be fun, especially since my career is not in systems administration. Hopefully I'll learn something.
I'm with you on the terminal colors. I'm running a Mac with OS X v10.8 and still pick green text with black background for the Terminal app.
Anyway, welcome to the group.
Robert
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
Burgess
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: 02.04.15 |
| Posted on April 02 2015 00:41 |
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The company I work for has several Alpha's and we recently purchased a lot of used gear for backups. Now running on two GS1280-8's and many ES40's. We will likely move 5-6 ES40 single CPU systems to emulation within a year. We run the same COBOL application on HP-
pass4sure ccna security vce
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
abrsvc
Member
Posts: 108
Joined: 12.03.10 |
| Posted on April 02 2015 01:39 |
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I looked into emulation for my company at one time, but the cost was prohibitive. I found that purchasing spare hardware was far less expensive and built up wuite a collection of replacement hardware. 5 years later, I still have not needed any spares. These Alphas just keep on working. In 5 years, there have been 2 failures, both fans and easily replaced.
With Cobol applications, I would question whether or not "upgrading" to the Itanium would be cheaper in the short term and further upgrading to the x86 platform when VSI completes the port would be a better choice.
Dan |
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RE: Teaching an Old Dog new tricks |
murraybay
Member
Posts: 13
Joined: 16.02.15 |
| Posted on April 02 2015 13:16 |
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abrsvc wrote:
I looked into emulation for my company at one time, but the cost was prohibitive. I found that purchasing spare hardware was far less expensive and built up wuite a collection of replacement hardware. 5 years later, I still have not needed any spares. These Alphas just keep on working. In 5 years, there have been 2 failures, both fans and easily replaced.
With Cobol applications, I would question whether or not "upgrading" to the Itanium would be cheaper in the short term and further upgrading to the x86 platform when VSI completes the port would be a better choice.
Dan
Yeah the Alpha's are pretty solid machines, well built. It's also still cheaper to buy a real Alpha then to buy the $4000+ emulators. |
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