Number 71 (Update of Volume 7, Issue 4)

HP ends the baiting: drops fees for Web migration training

It didn't take long for HP to realize the magnitude of its mistake about migrating from the HP 3000 — at least its mistake of trying to charge for Web-based training on how to migrate. After announcing that it planned to charge for this year's detailed Webcasts which will outline how to get onto HP-UX systems from the 3000, the Commercial Systems Division (CSY) started telling customers just two weeks later the Webcasts would be free of charge. Customers roundly criticized HP's proposed pricing for the classes, so HP took the high road and followed the low-cost structure to deliver advice on leaving the MPE platform.

Webcast host George Stachnik said the upcoming shows will "try delivering real honest-to-goodness skills training over the Web. This skills training is quite different from the marketing content that we've been presenting in the past year. These programs will be all technical content, with little or no marketing fluff. They will teach you how to migrate — step by step." Stachnik, who works for the marketing group of the HP 3000 division, explained that HP's produced Webcasts up to this point for the 3000 community "contain news and information about new migration tools and services as these things become available. These free Webcasts are primarily vehicles for HP marketing (which is why they're free). They will contain some technical content. I don't think I'm being too cynical if I characterize the technical content as the 'bait' which is there to get you to come to hear the marketing."

Less than two weeks later HP marketing had heard enough from customers to abandon the idea of charging as much as $1,000 per Webcast, or even as little as $50. "The Jan 22nd Webcast was only an introduction to HP's program for helping HP e3000 customers make the transition from the HP e3000 to other HP platforms," Stachnik said in an Internet posting. "During the next several months, HP plans to provide a full curriculum of customer Webcasts that cover this topic in detail. Based on feedback received from 3000-L, comp.sys.hp.mpe and during the Webcast itself, it has been decided that all of these Webcasts will be available from HP at no charge."

Customers had advised the vendor that no matter how much the training might have cost to produce, recovering the fees from sites which face thousands to millions of dollars in migration expense "seemed like kicking us when we are down." From our perspective, the training is just one more product HP is creating which its 3000 customers are unwilling to purchase.

Fix your 6.5 SL.PUB.SYS file

While Web-based training revenues disappeared from the 3000 division's vision, its R&D staff watched a problem with a key file in the operating system emerge on a wide range of 3000s, then posted a fix you might need if you're running MPE/iX 6.5. Allegro Consultants' Stan Sieler located the initial report on the problem, alerting the 3000 community through the 3000-L mailing list:

"One (or more) MPE/iX 6.5 patches may cause a problem with your SL.PUB.SYS, which could cause a problem for some programs. In my case, MPEKXX0 was cited as one of the patches that can cause the problem.

Call ID: 3200531331
SR: 8606232211

How to detect the problem:

:debug
cm
var foo cmtonmnode (mpefiletype + %27)
nm
dc foo, 7

You'll see something like the following (I flagged the bad instructions with "-->"):

TRANS $22.1f66194
01f66194 MPEFILETYPE+%27 4b7d0028 LDW 20(sr0,r27),r29 01f66198 d06c1fc1 EXTRS r3,30,31,r12
01f6619c d3bd1fc1 EXTRS r29,30,31,r29
--> 01f661a0 d4dd0a10 ZDEP r29,15,16,r6
--> 01f661a4 d58c0a10 ZDEP r12,15,16,r12 --> 01f661a8 0986d406 SUB,NSV r6,r12,r6
--> 01f661ac e680e5a0 BLE 720(sr7,r20)

If you don't see the "SUB,NSV & BLE", then you don't have this problem."

After Sieler's alert, the HP 3000 labs posted a workaround to fix the problem patches. It involves retranslating the SL.PUB.SYS file. See the HP script at jazz.external.hp.com/src/scripts/sloctfix. System managers can download I00STRSL and M00STRSL to the HP 3000 (If you don't have AUTOPAT laying around, download that file too).

HP's Mark Bixby reported that "Processing the STRSL files with AUTOPAT results in a new CSLT tape with a correctly translated SL.PUB.SYS. Then UPDATE from the new CSLT to install the fixed SL.PUB.SYS. The ultimate fix for this issue is still being worked on, and involves fixing our patch tools to behave correctly when translating SL.PUB.SYS."

HP offices extend 9x7 HP support

Some HP 3000 customers in the US are reporting their local HP offices are guaranteeing support for the 9x7 Series HP 3000s beyond HP's published end of support date (currently April 30 of this year). The extension of support is happening on a city by city basis, and it depends on the availability of parts for the stalwart HP 3000 models. HP representative Kevin Cooper confirmed that some offices were extending support beyond the official deadline based on parts availability, but HP's official position remains that there's too few 9x7 parts to give the largest single segment of HP's 3000 community more time on HP support. Some customers note that with the current HP Round Up trade in program for 9x7s in full swing through April, the company might soon be awash in 9x7 parts. Then there's the HP 9000 equivalent models to cannibalize as well. Third-party suppliers of support say they've got no concerns about supporting 9x7 sites, even with replacement hardware, indefinitely.

Processors provide plenty of emulation horsepower

Emulation of the HP 3000 hardware on other processors is gaining support among companies experienced in HP 3000 architecture and firms which have already built emulators for Digital servers. Critics of the concept, which if successful could extend the 3000's hardware platform indefinitely, point to the severe hardware demands of emulation as a stumbling block. But Intel's recent International Solid State Circuits Conference announcements showed there will be chips plenty fast enough to offer IA-32 based emulation a chance to equal PA-RISC speed. Intel, a company already partnered with HP on the Itanium chip project, presented a paper detailing a portion of a microprocessor that has performed at up to 10 gigahertz at room temperature. Current chips in the Intel line run at a little more than 2 gigahertz.

Hardware architects will be quick to point out that clock speed is only one aspect of a system's ability to perform, and that performance needed to emulate another architecture's clock speed demands a lot of horsepower. HP 3000 customers should also remember that the fastest PA-RISC chip HP will ever release for the 3000 only runs at 550 megahertz, a little more than 5 percent of the speed Intel is quoting for its forthcoming 10 GHz chip.

Oracle to dump HP-UX in its IT ops

Just as HP starts to recommend its HP-UX platform as a safe place for HP 3000 sites to migrate toward, one of the biggest HP partners is pulling its IT operations off that proprietary Unix platform. Oracle is replacing the three HP-UX servers that run the bulk of its business applications with a cluster of Intel servers running Linux, according to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. The Oracle chief was plugging the benefits of Oracle's clustering technology to an audience of financial analysts, a new scheme that will let enterprise sites -- the kind that HP likes to say have turned away from the HP 3000 -- run applications across a group of low-cost Intel servers using Linux.

Oracle's IT department -- presumably an operation with enough bandwidth to adopt any technology -- is doing some migrating of its own this year, away from HP-UX. Instead of upgrading three of its older HP Unix servers, Oracle will move its application server and business software to Linux-based Intel machines this year, Ellison said. "We'll be on Linux no later than the summer, so we'll be running our whole business on Linux," he said. Oracle favors Intel servers because they are "cheap" and can be easily replaced, he said, and he picked Linux over Microsoft Windows because Linux is "much safer if you're on the Internet." HP's response to questions about its HP-UX commitment, raised during that January Webcast on migration, was to tout how well its Unix scored in analyst comparisons. We found it an interesting answer, but definitely not one to the question of "how long can we count on HP-UX?"

Suprtool adds Eloquence support

A long-time provider of database technology for the HP 3000 has extended its tools to the Eloquence database, a proposed replacement that behaves like IMAGE on Unix, Linux and NT platforms. Robelle started an alpha test program in early February on a new HP-UX Suprtool version with Eloquence support, according to architect Neil Armstrong:

"We have currently added support for HP Eloquence databases into the HP-UX version of Suprtool," Armstrong said in an Internet posting. "We are looking for a few select alpha testers who are familiar with Suprtool on MPE and are looking at migrating to HP Eloquence on HP-UX. We have the commands that you are used to using on MPE working with IMAGE databases, and we need more users trying the software out, especially in trying the various data types available in HP Eloquence." Prospective testers can contact Armstrong at neil.armstrong@robelle.com with information "as to if you have Eloquence installed, if you have a database built and what your plans are, or even if you are just investigating."

Interex survey offers 3000 users impact

The HP user group Interex recently uncapped its Worldwide Advocacy Survey, and some 3000 supporters suggest the document can be used to send a message to HP and its customers. Ken Nutsford, an Interex volunteer and chair of the SIG-Client-Server special interest group, said that by going to http://www.interex.org/survey customers can "show their dissatisfaction with HP. If the HP 3000 community can make HP sneeze, then we have a chance they will take notice of us and the stink we are making about the discontinuance of the HP 3000 and our refusal to migrate to other HP computers. Get your fellow HP 3000 users to fill out the survey as well. The more who do, the better chance we have as a community of impacting on HP."

Interex advocacy surveys of prior years identified the HP 3000 community as one of the most satisfied segments of HP's customer base. Given that an earlier Interex survey this year showed two thirds of the 3000 customers opposing the HP migration recommendation, it will be interesting to see how satisfied the MPE customers are after HP's announcement. Interex gathers data in the survey to positively identify which platforms a customer is using. It also asks specific questions about level of satisfaction with HP actions in each platform segment.

HP World paper deadline approaches fast

Interex is making plenty of room for migration expertise in its upcoming conferences, but the deadline for submitting some of your first-year experience with the topic is fast approaching. Feb. 22 is the last day to submit a paper topic for this year's HP World show, to be held in Los Angeles Sept. 23 - 27. For more details head to the Interex Web site at <http://www.interex.org/conference/hpworld2002/cfphome/hpw02_cfp_01.html> for track descriptions and suggested topics. Almost half of the suggested topics for MPE/iX tracks involve migration topics, so the user group is clearly open to the flow of your migration experience. Conference organizers will let presenters know if their paper or tutorial has been accepted starting March 20, the day after the HP vote on its merger with Compaq. Presenters get one free day at the conference -- the same day your deliver your presentation -- as compensation for the paper.