In this age of e-commerce, the requirements for systems availability have
become so high that the current expectation has become absolute zero down
time.   For some of us, it's no longer a goal to aspire to, it's a
requirement for staying in business.  Using the HP3000 in a no-down time
environment is not quite possible due to the lack of critical capabilities.
I use an on-line backup solution, as well as Netbase to shadow to maximize
uptime.  However, this does not provided the guarantee of no down time that
I need.  If I have a failure on a box, then I have downtime while we switch
to the backup.  I would never dream of taking the HP3000 down just to "clear
trash".  "Month-end" is not an excuse for down time either.  Applications
must be written such that month end processing can occur while concurrently
continuing to take orders.  The environment must stay up 100% of every
minute of every day.  The only way I can see the HP3000 becoming a viable
platform for an e-commerce solution is to have true system clustering.
Meaning, machine A and machine B are both active all the time for reads and
writes.  If either system falls out, then the other picks up the entire load
automatically.  Resynchronization (when "failed" box returns) should be
transparent and (preferably) automatic.  Perhaps 2 boxes accessing a single
I/O subsystem?  But then again, I hate having single points of failure.  Am
I asking for too much from the HP3000?  These types of solutions are
available in other platforms.  For all the really great aspects of the
HP3000, I have a hard time billing it as a viable e-commerce platform at
this time.  Yes, I know I'm going to get flamed for saying some of this, and
it truly pains me to have said them as I'm a 20 year veteran of the 3k, and
I love it dearly.  If I'm wrong, or if there are solutions I haven't thought
of or don't know about I'd love to hear about them!

Randall Davis
Director, Technical Operations
KBkids.com

[log in to unmask] wrote:

> Hello Friends @ 3000-l,
>
> Re: reboot to clear out the trash...

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