VAX panic - buried models? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

12 Sep 2000

...
 I think the real question that was asked might be the
following.  For
example I might have an old MicroVAX II running some ancient, but mission
...
 critical app.  Now suppose the company that wrote this
app is no longer in
...
 business, and there is quite literally no source for
thier software.  It
wasn't resold it just vanished.  Now further suppose that they had issued a
...
 license PAK based on the hardware ID of that MV2
you've been running the app
...
 on.

What happens if that MV2 CPU board dies? 

You put in another MVII board (or even a MVII and matching ram) and keep
trucking.  Anyone whos wored with vaxen would know this.

The system HWID is not a serial number that I'm aware of but a
model/product ID so that VMS (or Ultrix) "knows" a bit about the
processor
(or chipset) and it's busses.

...
 Another example would be what if I want to move this
app from a MV2 to say a
...
 VAXstation 4000/VLC as I've got space problems and
I want it to run faster.
...
 Of course this example is of questionable legality
since you're licensed to
...
 run this app on a MV2.  However, the first example
should be perfectly legal
...
 and something you'd want to be able to do. 

Ignoring the license issues if the media for both were say a scsi disk it
would run on any scsi equipped vax.  My MVII has CMD SCSI, I build a
5.4 copy and backup/image it to a second drive which is removed and
placed in a MV3100... runs fine.  Same for V7.2.

VMS if memory serves is not licensed to the specific CPU but to
the total users and  per CPU used.  So if you have a MVII and
upgrade it to a MVIII the license is still valid and all.  Now if you
take the old MVII boards and  build another system you will be
technically required to obtain another license.  Most VMS based
layered apps were the same way.

This was a pet peve of customers as the MVIIs were cheap and the
bigger machines werent but the license was not based on if it were
a MVII or VAX9000 but by the number of users it could serve and if it
was a cluster member or cluster host.  At the time (likely still) it was
a $3000 license and for some users that was chicken feed and others
that was the whole farm.

At times(through the '80s) DEC didn't realize how valuable their
software was and often acted like selling hardware was all of it and
 software was one of those annoying things you did to sell hardware.
By the '90s hardware and software were often bundled and used to
drive sales of each other.

Allison