Sorry, not sure how the empty reply got sent, I was cleaning out some
mailboxes in outlook and just changed my 3000L subscription email address...

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Robillard [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 7:35 PM
To: 'Mike Hornsby'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [HP3000-L] Was 3rd party support now HP3000 Services (longish)



-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Mike Hornsby
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 10:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HP3000-L] Was 3rd party support now HP3000 Services (longish)

First, some correction in terms: '3rd party' as applied to HP3000 
services needs to be redefined. The 1st party, namely HP, as of 1/1/11 
will no longer be part of the picture. So, lets be honest and just drop 
the 3rd party connotation and go with HP3000 Services.
http://www.hp.com/products1/evolution/e3000/news_events/discont/operating_sy
stems.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

The primary consideration for HP3000 service agreements would be the 
cost of downtime. If the system can be down for more than a week, then 
you probably don't need a service agreement. If on the other hand, 
downtime does impact negatively on the bottom line, and/or your 
prospects of staying employed, then support costs become a simple 
business equation. A good article on calculating the true cost of 
downtime is at: 
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1038783.html

The simple fact is that even the newest HP3000s are a decade old. The 
average age of in-production HP3000s is about 15 years, and many are 20+ 
years old! The MPE/iX OS and Image/SQL DBMS code is also very old. It is 
quite stunning to see: COPYRIGHT 1976 when running Query, or Copyright 
1987 when running DBUTIL or SYSGEN.

IMHO, the top 3 criteria for _Software Support_ service for HP3000 
systems should be:

1. HPSUSAN reliant applications. Many HP3000 non HP software products 
are coded to a specific HPSUSAN. If your system motherboard or processor 
is replaced  this variable will change, and this software will no longer 
execute. What is your service provider solution to this issue? In the 
past HP would recode the HPSUSAN for a fee, but it is unclear as to what 
they will do after 1/1/11. If your service provider states that they 
will pay HP, then you should get something in writing from your local HP 
office that confirms that they will be continuing to perform this 
service. Many of the companies that produced these HPSUSAN coded 
software products have gone out of business, or discontinued the 
software, so license transfers to a new HPSUSAN number is not an option.

2. New Critical Patches. Does your provider have a license for the 
MPE/iX source code? Will they be investigating and repairing any 
critical OS, security, or network problems? WITHOUT PATCHES TO ANY NEW 
PROBLEMS YOU COULD FIND ONE DAY THAT YOU ARE DEAD IN THE WATER. This 
happened to some users of older COGNOS products who found that the 
software stopped working due to hard coded end of service dates.

3. Crash Dump and boot failure assistance. Do they have experts at 
analyzing crash dumps, machine checks, and PIMINFO data. Do they have 
custom DEBUG SAT and DAT macros? THE WORST CASE HP3000_ SOFTWARE_ 
SCENARIOS ARE THE INSTANCES WHERE MPE/iX FAILS TO BOOT EVEN AFTER THE 
SYSTEM HAS BEEN 100% REPLACED. A simple example of this boot failure is 
a bug that HP introduced with NMLOGMON. If the system ran out of disc 
space, NMLOGMON would hang waiting for space to be freed up. 
Unfortunately,  NMLOGMON also runs in the critical path at boot up.Thus 
if the system ran out of disc space and aborted, (a common problem) then 
NMLOGMON would hang on boot. Without a patch to change permanent 
allocation on ldev 1, the only other recourse would be an install and 
reload.

The HP3000 is truly a remarkable server that continues to deliver 
mission critical highly customized applications. We are committed to 
providing the highest quality services for as long as our customers need 
to run their applications.

Questions or comments can be sent to:

Mike Hornsby
CTO/CoFounder
Beechglen Development Inc.
[log in to unmask]
513-457-5100




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