This thread will provide announcements with regard to the state of the Winnili OpenVMS cluster: Like in the event of possible downtime, for maintenance, due to failures (power, since the UPS batteries will only provide so much back-up time) and so on.
Feel free to comment or ask any questions, preferably via e-mail or private messages.
Recently[LIST][]Reinstallation
All of the nodes, since some were sold (two rx2600s, over time), were freshly reinstalled and fine-tuned. So I can keep better track of all the [FONT=“Courier New”]SYSGEN[/FONT] parameters, configured logicals, installed software and so on. (Configuring and implementing a system in a consistent and redundant manner is essentially the ‘VMS way,’ of which I’m needless to say greatly in favour.)
[]Uplink
In the last few weeks I ran into some problems with new, consumer-grade, routers that I purchased (one of NETGEAR and another of Cisco-Linksys). Port forwarding was a nightmare. Today I returned the Cisco-Linksys [WAG160Nv2] modem/router hybrid and the excellent store, Dynabyte (they deserve some credit), allowed me to return it and I got myself a Sitecom instead (like before, but a more modern type this time) and it works like a charm!
[*]Cable Management
Tidied up the rack some more. I only need to lay and tidy some FC cables, but those won’t be for the VMS systems anyway. (Although I do have a DS2400 that I could hook up to the rx2600 with the ‘copper ethernet and FC combo’ adapter cards.) [/LIST]
Upcoming[LIST][]The [FONT=“Courier New”]SYSUAF[/FONT] database will be restored and preferably centralized, for cluster-wide user access.
[]Registered (‘early access’) users will be able to login again, with the cluster up and running.
[]Downtime ahead, due to patch installations and some other duties.
[]Several Layered Products and other software will be added. Feel free to make requests, if there’s something you’d love to use.
[*]Winnili.net website isn’t done yet, but will be hosted on WASD or SWS (HP’s VMS-customized Apache). I’m not sure yet which one, maybe a combination on different ports. [/LIST]
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Thanks, I’m glad you like it!
that’s some cool hardware u got there dude. I hope we can get some public access soon for ur OpenVMS in order to improve my skills.
=)
Thank you, I do what I can! I’m not sure yet if it’ll become fully ‘public’ access, but certainly remote access and on request at first. I’m still evaluating all of the possibilities.
By the way, about the hardware. You’re relatively nearby Australia. How much is having things from Australia shipped to the Philippines? On eBay there are some HP Integrity systems for surprisingly good prices at the moment. In fact, I’ve bought things from Australia (yes, all the way from W. Europe) in the past and it was — even with the shipping costs included — cheaper than if I had ordered it from Germany or the USA. Don’t ask me why or how, I know it may sound somewhat anecdotal.
well, I’m not really sure how much but lemme ask some of my friends from Australia first.
The Winnili OpenVMS cluster plans have been cancelled. At least, for now and the near future anyway. The original idea of public access won’t happen, or not anytime soon. (It’s too expensive to power and also too ‘work-intensive’ to monitor and properly organize). I can organize ‘guided tours’ on an individual basis, you can still approach me for that.
Rest assured, my upcoming site will still be VMS-oriented, alongside other interesting quality operating systems (such as IRIX, Digital/Tru64 UNIX and others) and I’m still a very avid and enthusiastic user. It’s without doubt the best operating system I’ve personally ever used and it’s a true joy to run.
What are the prices like for hosting something for you out of your home?
I was looking at business Fiber Optic service in my home to see if I can host some services, since it is always tempting to do so. These are what the prices would be for me with a single IP for me out here:
25/25 $129.99
35/35 $149.99
50/20 $214.99
150/35 $234.99
Which is just insane, I’m paying <$100 for 50/20 and television right now with dynamic ips and ports blocked.
That is unrestricted (also with a static IP), with my current ISP at least. It’s mostly that powering the systems themselves is problematic for me, especially the bigger systems like the rx2620s (which I’ve actually put up for sale recently).
My plan is to only keep my HP AlphaServer DS15 (a conveniently sized 1 GHz Alpha workstation/server and quite recent, from 2007~'08) and my heavily modified DEC Multia/UDB VX40, with its maxed out memory and ― its most recent addition and upgrade ― a new ~73 Gbyte disk.
By the way, fibre-optic is also very expensive here. I’m still on ADSL and my internet connection is actually rather slow, because the old ISDN lines are still in place and my ISP is ― for whatever, aggravating, reason ― unwilling to help me upgrade, or at least help me in allowing my connection speed to improve… in other words, getting what we’ve been paying for (and not getting) all this time.
Oh man, having been connected up to it for a couple of years I couldn’t turn back. I just wish there were some competition in this space to bring prices down since they keep going up. It’d be nice to be able to host some servers out of my garage or attic or something, cheaper than buying a data center. I should look into a cave or decommissioned missile silo 
Or both, which would resemble the setting of «Day of the Dead» (1985)…
Oh man, I need to start saving. I’ve heard of some people building some pretty nice homes out of them (via here):
One of those systems, in the pictures, was sold a month or so ago (by now). I have one left. Anyone interested? Dual dual-core, VT-x (for HPVM/IVM), etc., up to 24 Gbytes available, lots of PCI/PCI-X goodies and so forth. (I also sold the DS15 a while back, along with all my DS10s and PWS 500au’s; only keeping the Multia/UDB, whilst currently waiting for a replacement PSU.)
The last remaining one is reserved, pending the actual sale/transaction, at the moment.
It has been sold. (The end of an era.)
I guess Congrats are in order. Well done Good Sir.
Thanks, though, how do you mean?
You’ve wanted to sell those for awhile now. Feels good to have them all sold.
That is true… Although, it’s not always nice to have to sell something, but it was more or less inevitable.