No. 38 (update of April 1999 issue)

Welcome to our 38th edition of Online Extra -- the e-mail update of our articles in recent issues of the 3000 NewsWire, plus items that have surfaced since we mailed our previous First Class issue (April). We e-mail subscribers this file between the First Class issues you receive by mail, updating the stories you've read and adding articles that have developed between issues.

IN THIS MONTH'S EXTRA

You got 16 bits, but whadda ya get?
Here comes the end for HP-IB peripherals and systems
HP giveth, and taketh away
HP posts Posix scanner tool for ports to 3000
How to set up BOOTP on 3000s
Free up Y2K upgrades for ALL HP customers, please
A better job queue scheduler than free
HP revamps its Java site for HP 3000s
OpenDeskManager gets another Y2K patch
More places to buy used HP 3000s

You got 16 bits, but whadda ya get?

We keep hearing that HP is promising to support Classic 16-bit code in the IA-64 HP 3000s, machines now some four years away from delivery. Jim Phillips, trusty Ohio reporter and NewsWire subscriber, forwarded a hopeful note from an HP rep verifying support of Classic 3000 code (i.e., 16-bit of the MPE V heritage) on forthcoming HP 3000 IA-64 boxes. If you do the math, it looks like an application written in 1974 would run on hardware created 30 years later.

While this is truly an impressive display few other platforms (if any) can claim, we're not sure HP has promised this yet. In our latest Q&A interview with Dave Wilde -- the CSY R&D section manager for growth projects including IA-64 -- we asked about this. Wilde said it was too early to say anything conclusive about it.

It's not the first time we've received a "we'll see" kind of answer to the question. When we checked with CSY lab chief Winston Prather last fall, his answer seemed to fall into the "maybe, and maybe not" category -- and again, he stated that it would depend how many customers had 16-bit code they still needed to support in 2003 (or whenever IA-64 makes it to the 3000 platform).

Our gut feeling is that CSY will support this code, so long as there are enough customers out there who need to run it on the IA-64 systems. Think about the likelihood of that, however. You're a shop supporting 16-bit code. Are you really likely to be buying bleeding-edge hardware? In general, we expect that actual use of the IA-64 3000 systems will be limited at first, when after they're available in 2003 -- because HP will continue to make PA-RISC as good a performer on 3000s as IA-64 for several years after IA-64 rolls out.

HP is telling its customers during RUG meeting presentations that it "remains committed to" 16-bit code support on the forthcoming systems. It may be more certain than anybody imagines. Most applications use half-word, 16-bit instructions even on the current 32-bit PA-RISC 3000s -- because the database fields in IMAGE/SQL are 16-bit aligned. It looks like either HP will supporting 16-bit code in the newer machines, or rebuilding IMAGE so it's 64-bit aligned. When you consider the turmoil the latter move would wreak with existing applications, supporting the 16-bit programs seems more graceful. And that's always been the watchword for HP 3000 improvements.

Here comes the end for HP-IB peripherals and systems

HP has released notice that starting with the 6.5 version of MPE/iX, expected in mid-2000, there will be no more support of HP-IB peripherals and computers using the HB-IB and CIB I/O backplanes. That means that a lot of older HP 3000s -- the Series 920/922/932/948/958/950/955/960/980 families -- will be getting their last operating system update during the first half of 2000. Expect to have to freeze your OS at MPE/iX 6.0 Express 2, or maybe Express 3, if supporting HP-IB peripherals remains important to you. These are the same systems that HP recently ended software rebates for on April 30.

HP-IB will continue to be supported on MPE/iX 5.5 until October 2000, and on MPE/iX 6.0 until October 2001. HP is recommending that customers plan to transition from these servers to Series 9x8 or 9x9 servers, and from HP-IB peripherals to SCSI or LAN-connected peripherals.

HP giveth, and taketh away

In the NewsWire's April Page One story, we reported on the language in HP's lawsuits against three used hardware resellers. HP filed two documents with the court that include this statement:

"The HP 3000 servers have substantially more features and functions than the HP 9000 servers, and are accordingly more valuable and sold for a higher price."

Later, in our Q&A interview with the new Worldwide Marketing Manager for the HP 3000 division Christine Martino, we noted a distinct dose of realism in the plans for 1999. She said:

"I don't think we're going to be able sell the HP 3000 as a multipurpose computer right now. We're going to be able to sell it as the workhorse for a specific solution."

Martino's comment is simply acknowledgement of the current state of the market bias. But since the HP lawsuit statement must be true, we wonder if HP's top management can appreciate the value in more HP 3000 sales -- and make investments accordingly.

One customer commented on HP's stance to sell the 3000 as a specific-solution system instead of a multipurpose system: "With that kind of back-peddling, no wonder the HP3000 market is so shaky. The box is truly a multifunction box. Do we have to convince HP of what their box can do, or what?"

There's more to convince than HP's top management. General-purpose media, for example, need to be updated -- or even educated. A March article in the Seattle Times reported on the Center for Information Services, a college consortium using HP 3000s for more than 15 years successfully. Although the article began as an investigation about why the college IT staff is recommending Unix instead of NT, the article contained this swill:

"The colleges use mainframe computers from the 1980s to keep track of payroll financial aid and student records. The systems are outdated, hard to use and unreliable; most companies are selling their mainframe systems as scrap to salvagers, who grind the computers and extract the gold from their circuits."

If the Times reporter had extracted something from a posterior part of his anatomy, he might have a clue about what's happening to the mainframe marketplace. It's actually growing again -- unless you ask Microsoft how it's doing. Our March issue carried an article about a college in the consortium, successfully integrating their 3000 with Windows NT mail services using Hillary Software's byRequest. So long as the people approving computer purchases get information from places like the Seattle Times, selling technology with a 26-year legend is going to be tough sledding.

And the education may come full circle if it's ever learned at the Times. During the 1980s, the Times was itself an HP 3000 customer.

HP posts Posix scanner tool for ports to 3000

Hoping to continue the initiative from customers and its own engineers to port Unix programs to the HP 3000, the 3000 division made a Posix Scanner toolkit available on the division's Jazz Web server (http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/ps/)

Engineer Steve Hoogheem said the toolkit "is useful to analyze an application you may want to port to the HP 3000. In two steps, external functions called by the code are collected and then reduced into a report showing which functions are or are not available on MPE/iX."

The toolkit is available in two versions. The first scans C source code and the second analyzes HP-UX executables. The tool for C source code uses lint on HP-UX to scan C source code. "Because lint does NOT work on C++ source code, this tool does NOT handle C++ source code," Hoogheem said. "The tool for HP-UX executables uses nm on HP-UX to get symbol information from the executable. If the executable has been stripped of symbol information, this tool cannot report function usage."

Programs such as Samba for file sharing, the Apache Web server and Domain Name Services for the HP 3000 all have arrived as a result of ports from other platforms. While Posix support in MPE/iX was expected to deliver applications for the system, its best bounty so far has been delivering vital network utilities and connectivity programs.

How to set up BOOTP on 3000s

Customers who want to use the BOOTP network services on HP 3000s have a summary of how to enable them, courtesy of Beechglen Development's Doug Werth:

"Assuming that you already have INETD set up and working already you will need to verify the following:

INETDCNF.NET.SYS needs the following line:
bootps dgram udp wait MANAGER.SYS /SYS/NET/BOOTPD bootpd

SERVICES.NET.SYS must have the following line:
bootps 67/udp # Bootstrap Protocol Server

Create a BOOTPTAB file with the mac addresses of your devices. Below is a working sample:

# bootptab.net.sys
#
# Format:
# nodename:tag=value:tag=value: ... :tag=value #
# first field -- nodename (hostname) of terminal followed by colon # (should be full domain name)
#
# OPTIONS
# ba -- broadcast bootp reply for testing with bootpquery # bf -- bootfile (for tftp download)
# gw -- gateway IP address
# ha -- hardware address (link level address) (hex) # hd -- home directory for bootfile
# hn -- send nodename (boolean flag, no "=value" needed) # ht -- hardware type (ether) (must precede the ha tag) # ip -- Printer IP address
# sm -- network subnet mask
# tc -- template for common defaults (should be the first option listed)
# vm -- vendor magic cookie selector (should be rfc1048) #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- - < br> global.defaults:\
ht=ether:\
vm=rfc1048:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
BLDG1LOC2:\
tc=global.defaults:\
hn:\
ha=080009B266FF:\
ip=198.6.1.5

Free up Y2K upgrades for ALL HP customers, please

Despite the general trend to make the HP 3000 an equal player with the other enterprise servers from HP, distinctions continue to pop up. Customers are complaining about some of them, like the difference between user counts on HP's Unix systems and the 3000. There's also an apparent restriction in the free upgrades to Y2K compliant versions of operating systems, too.

Mike Hornsby of Beechglen Development noted that HP calculates user counts more stringently on MPE/iX than on HP 9000 systems. Hornsby noted that one of his customers asked him, "Why does HP consider a 'user' on MPE differently than a 'user' on HP-UX?

"The way it was explained to me is: that on HP-UX six signons with the same user ID only count as one 'user.' Is this true? I can see why this is not implemented on the HP 3000, where many systems are setup with a sign on that consists of a unique session ID with all users using the same user name and account name. ala mch,user.manman

To be on par with HP-UX, shouldn't every identical sign on to the HP 3000 only count as a single 'user'? A corollary question is: How can multiple sessions from the same IP address count as multiple 'users?'

This is a very serious issue, one that I consider in the best light a 'bug' and in the worst light a disgraceful business practice. How can one company (becoming two) have different definitions of a 'user' for different platforms? It would be like Ford having a different measure of a mile for different makes of cars!"

NewsWire subscriber Gilles Schipper also noted that HP's offer of a free Y2K compliant upgrade didn't go nearly as far for HP 3000 customers as their HP 9000 brethren:

"HP-UX users are offered UNCONDITIONAL free upgrades to HP-UX 10.20," Schipper said, "while HP 3000 users are offered free Y2K OS upgrades only if they purchased their systems from HP within the past three years. "

"Not only is this unfair to HP 3000 customers, the offer is virtually meaningless since virtually all HP 3000 users who purchased within the last three years are probably either already Y2K-compliant, or are still on HP support."

Schipper went on to note that other than an announcement at the latest IPROF conference in front a fewer than 200 people, HP hasn't made its HP 3000 free upgrade offer publicized. [We did run notice of it in our NewsWire article from IPROF in our March issue].

We've seen CSY hunt down some of these "distinctions" the HP 3000 has "enjoyed" in years past and eliminate them. Experts like Hornsby and Schipper, who support hundreds of customers, are hoping these are two more that disappear soon.

"If HP cannot or will not provide the necessary [Y2K] patches for my current O/S -- be it 3.0, 3.1, 4.0, or 5.0 -- then a reasonable substitute would be to provide whatever O/S HP suggests will run beyond Dec. 31, 1999," Schipper said.

"What period of time is reasonable? I'm not sure. But three years is too short. Perhaps 10 or 15 years is more reasonable -- and if so, why place any arbitrary time restriction? Evidently that's the conclusion drawn for HP 9000 customers, who were offered unconditional free upgrades to HP-UX 10.20."

A better job queue scheduler than free

While HP 3000 customers wait for bug fixes in the new user defined job queues feature of MPE/iX 6.0, there are third party alternatives that need no repair. Shawn Gordon, our reviewer who looked over the free queues feature in our March issue, said:

"Technikal (727.78.-5976) had two products, CMS and QMS. One is like the JOBQ's recently introduced, but it's more flexible. The other product gives you granular control over the dispatcher queues. The new JOBQ's don't give you any control over what dispatcher queue to run in, either. What I have done in the past, and been successful with, is to tune the queues in the following fashion;

>tune cq=152,200,100,100
>tune dq=185,225,300,300,oscillate
>tune eq=170,220,300,300,oscillate

Then you use the otherwise useless EQ as a high priority batch queue. These quantums are short enough that your batch jobs will get quick snatches of higher priority so that they can finally finish on a loaded system."

Independent consultant Bill Lancaster put in a vote for another third party tool, while commenting on Gordon's notes about queue management:

"I don't necessarily agree with Shawn's recommendations about overlapping queues, although I used to. Two main reasons for my change of heart. First, as of 5.0 (I think) the dispatcher (the portion of MPE responsible for balancing and moving process priorities) has changed. It will no longer actually interrupt a process within its timeslice if a higher priority process lands on the Dispatch Ready Queue. In other words, if a DQ process has the CPU and a CQ process is ready, the CQ process won't actually get the CPU until the DQ process finishes its timeslice or the DQ process blocks for some other reason. This would not result in the type of consistent response time your users desire.

"The second reason I've become opposed to overlapping the queues is that process behavior has more of a tendency to become unpredictable. It's hard enough balancing the varied workload demands on a system without introducing variables that can have an unpredictable impact on response times. "

"I don't know much about Technikal's products, but the developer is the same one who wrote KLA/Express, a product now owned by Tivoli. KLA is/was an excellent product. I can, however, recommend the Q-Xcelerator product from Lund to do this. It's very simple and easy to use."

HP revamps its Java site for HP 3000s

Along with a new 1.1.7 version of Java/iX for the 3000 that's supposed to be faster, HP its improving its Java Web page for the 3000. Czar of all things Java on the 3000 Mike Yawn gave notice of the new information resource (http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/newjava):

"The one interactive feature on the site is an automated FAQ tool written in Python. (Hey, I would have used a Java tool if I could find one). You can add your own frequently- or once-asked questions and answers to the FAQ. (Only categories which have had answers posted show up in the Index or Complete FAQ views; try the 'add a faq' option to see the categories that have been set up). Only I can add categories, so send me suggestions if some have been left out. Also, if there's a question you feel should be there, but don't know the answer, go ahead and add the question and hopefully I or someone else will be able to provide the answer."

You can contact Yawn with feedback about the site at mike_yawn@hp.com.

OpenDeskManager gets another Y2K patch

Chris Bartram, developer of the 3k Associates DeskLink software that connects HP Desk sites to the Internet, noted a new patch that helps Desk stay Y2K compliant:

"There is a new HP OpenDesk patch (OD3039) that fixes a recently discovered Y2K bug in the HPDesk Intrinsics interface. (The patch also includes some cumulative patches that fix other Intrinsic-interface quirks, so ask for it by name."

More places to buy used HP 3000s

Finally, the mention of specific sources of used HP 3000 equipment in our last Online Extra ferreted a few more out. People we've been told to make note of include Priority Computers, LLC (972.248.0106). Bruce Schultz said his company "has dealt in the HP 3000 market for almost four years now with great success. We provide various HP 3000 systems from 920s to 996s and peripherals. Our company plans to stay in and grow its market share in the refurbished HP 3000 market." We can also add that we know of HP 3000s being sold at US Computer (425.558.5800, www.uscomp.com).