17 Dec
2018
17 Dec
'18
3:02 p.m.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an RA8000 raid server,
and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix 5 when shut down a week
ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45 which
has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is
protecting his data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are
available and they will fit the internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s
which may or may not have disks depending on the whim of the present owner.
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits but no licenses.
They can be had for free but shipping will most assuridly not be free.
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
17 Dec
17 Dec
3:32 p.m.
On 12/17/2018 04:02 PM, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote:
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an
RA8000 raid server,
and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
Where are the servers located? Are they in Athabasca, Alberta Canada
near you?
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix 5
when shut down a week
ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45 which
has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is
protecting his data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are
available and they will fit the internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s which
may or may not have disks depending on the whim of the present owner.
Understandable.
Is the owner keeping the raw disks or are they disks staying in sleds /
enclosures? Read: Are the enclosures sans-disks available?
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits but
no licenses.
ACK
They can be had for free but shipping will most
assuridly not be free.
Does it need to move as a single lot? Or is someone (you?) willing to
passel things out (assuming everything moves relatively quickly)?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
3:45 p.m.
On Dec 17, 2018, at 5:32 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 12/17/2018 04:02 PM, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote:
Wikipedia reports there is some variability in ES45 models, including number of CPU and
amount of memory. Any idea what model/spec these are?
Also: ?...The AlphaServer SC was a supercomputer constructed from a set of individual
DS20L, ES40 or ES45 servers (called "nodes") mounted in racks?.?
<drool>
I hope hard enough that this cluster gets saved that if no-one else comes forward, I?d
like to be notified?.I?m not certain what I could arrange, but the thought of running my
own personal Alpha supercomputer ? wow. Not sure how to solve the license issue though. I
assume OpenVMS doesn?t support that level of parallelization?
- Mark
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an
RA8000 raid server, and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
Where are the servers located? Are they in Athabasca, Alberta Canada near you?
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix
5 when shut down a week ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45
which has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is protecting his
data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are available and they will fit the
internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s which may or may not have disks depending on the whim
of the present owner.
Understandable.
Is the owner keeping the raw disks or are they disks staying in sleds / enclosures?
Read: Are the enclosures sans-disks available?
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits
but no licenses.
ACK
They can be had for free but shipping will most
assuridly not be free.
Does it need to move as a single lot? Or is someone (you?) willing to passel things out
(assuming everything moves relatively quickly)?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
3:59 p.m.
On 12/17/2018 04:45 PM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk wrote:
I hope hard enough that this cluster gets saved that
if no-one else comes
forward, I?d like to be notified?.I?m not certain what I could
arrange, but the thought of running my own personal Alpha supercomputer
? wow.
Agreed.
Not sure how to solve the license issue though. I
assume OpenVMS doesn?t
support that level of parallelization?
I'm not sure what to make of OpenVMS doesn't support this level of
parallelization.
I know that (Open)VMS has some impressive clustering abilities. But I
don't know how parallel different jobs can be. I would assume that it
is highly dependent on the job at hand and how it was coded.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
5:29 p.m.
On Mon, Dec 17, 2018 at 3:45 PM Tapley, Mark via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I hope hard enough that this cluster gets saved that if no-one else comes forward, I?d
like to be notified?.I?m not certain what I could arrange, but the thought of running my
own personal Alpha supercomputer ? wow. Not sure how to solve the license issue though. I
assume OpenVMS doesn?t support that level of parallelization?
I have two ES47 System Building Block Drawers boxes, each with two
1GHz 21364 EV7 processors, which form a four CPU ES47 Model 4 when the
two boxes are connected via the interprocessor hose cables. I didn't
have any issues getting OpenVMS 8.4 running on the four CPU system.
Maybe the memory is half full, so 8GB in each of the two boxes.
The real issue is that each of the two ES47 boxes weigh around 125
pounds and they are almost 3 feet deep, so not something I can pull
out and set up for casual use. They were reasonably cheap on their own
to acquire at the time, but the freight shipping certainly was not
cheap. If someone in the Seattle area is really interested in an ES47
system, let me know, although I wouldn't want to just give them away
completely free at this point.
18 Dec
18 Dec
8:08 a.m.
On Dec 17, 2018, at 7:29 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I have two ES47 System Building Block Drawers boxes, each with two
1GHz 21364 EV7 processors, which form a four CPU ES47 Model 4 when the
two boxes are connected via the interprocessor hose cables. I didn't
have any issues getting OpenVMS 8.4 running on the four CPU system.
Maybe the memory is half full, so 8GB in each of the two boxes.
Glen,
this is interesting! My comment was based on looking at:
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c00376999#N100…
First hit on my gurgle search and I apparently didn?t do enough digging. That page lists
CPU?s available including ES45, and calls out as software, "Tru64 UNIX 5.1a HP
AlphaServer SC system software, including Cluster File System, Parallel File System, and
Platform LSF?.
Not to start a flame war, but I?m well aware VMS supports clustering pretty well, so I?m
puzzled - does anyone know why the Product Description called out Tru64 rather than VMS or
both? Was Compaq de-emphasizing VMS when that was written?
- Mark
9:11 a.m.
On 12/18/2018 09:08 AM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk wrote:
Not to start a flame war, but I?m well aware VMS
supports clustering
pretty well, so I?m puzzled - does anyone know why the Product
Description called out Tru64 rather than VMS or both? Was Compaq
de-emphasizing VMS when that was written?
Is there a chance that what you found was a kit (order able SKU) that
included Tru64? As in was there possibly a different kit (SKU) that was
(Open)VMS?
I remember seeing similar from Compaq for Windows NT vs NetWare. Same
hardware, just different software (and possibly factory BIOS config /
optimizations).
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
9:28 a.m.
On Dec 18, 2018, at 9:11 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 12/18/2018 09:08 AM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk wrote:
Tru64 supports various bits of hardware not supported by VMS. The one that is in the
forefront of my mind is video cards, but I wouldn?t be surprised if there aren?t also disk
controllers. On Alpha?s, the SRM console supports both OpenVMS and Tru64, while the ARC
firmware only supports WinNT.
As for the product description calling out the clustering in Tru64, perhaps they simply
assumed anyone looking knew it would be supported in VMS.
Zane
Not to start a flame war, but I?m well aware VMS
supports clustering pretty well, so I?m puzzled - does anyone know why the Product
Description called out Tru64 rather than VMS or both? Was Compaq de-emphasizing VMS when
that was written?
Is there a chance that what you found was a kit (order able SKU) that included Tru64? As
in was there possibly a different kit (SKU) that was (Open)VMS?
I remember seeing similar from Compaq for Windows NT vs NetWare. Same hardware, just
different software (and possibly factory BIOS config / optimizations).
10:40 a.m.
On 12/18/2018 10:28 AM, Zane Healy wrote:
On Alpha?s, the SRM console supports both OpenVMS and
Tru64, while
the ARC firmware only supports WinNT.
Wasn't it possible to switch between ARC and SRM on many Alphas? As in
to overwrite one firmware with the other?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
10:55 a.m.
On Dec 18, 2018, at 10:40 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 12/18/2018 10:28 AM, Zane Healy wrote:
Yes, for example on a DEC PWS 433au. It is also possible to load the SRM console on a DEC
PWS 433a (Windows NT only), and once you had a supported SCSI card, and if you wanted
video, a supported video card, you can run OpenVMS (or Tru64). This was my primary VMS
box for many years, including several years after one of the PCI slots died (which speaks
highly in my mind about how well the hardware was made).
My main box is now a Compaq XP1000/667, though I?m slowly moving everything to a
virtualized cluster.
Zane
On Alpha?s, the SRM console supports both OpenVMS
and Tru64, while the ARC firmware only supports WinNT.
Wasn't it possible to switch between ARC and SRM on many Alphas? As in to overwrite
one firmware with the other?
11:01 a.m.
On 12/18/2018 11:55 AM, Zane Healy wrote:
My main box is now a Compaq XP1000/667, though I?m
slowly moving
everything to a virtualized cluster.
Will you please share details about what you're hosting your virtualized
cluster on? Please include emulator and / or hypervisor.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
11:41 a.m.
On Dec 18, 2018, at 11:01 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 12/18/2018 11:55 AM, Zane Healy wrote:
HP SFF PC?s running:
VMware cluster on ESXI 6.7 (and then Ubuntu Linux running SIMH), OpenVMS/VAX 7.3
Ubuntu Server running SIMH, OpenVMS/VAX 7.3 (I need to virtualize this Ubuntu server)
Raspberry Pi 2+:
Raspian running SIMH, OpenVMS/VAX 7.3
Compaq XP1000/667, running OpenVMS/Alpha 8.3
Now that I have the cluster up and running, my primary use for the Alpha is WASD, Oracle
RDB, and Fortran, I?ve moved pretty much everything else to SIMH, including drive
capacity. Unfortunately there aren?t any good solutions to move an Alpha to an emulator,
when the system is for Hobbyist use.
I find that VM?s running on VMware make an great SIMH host. Once I virtualize my Ubuntu
server box, it will become a 3rd node in my VMware cluster (I?m licensed for up to 6
CPU?s).
Zane
My main box is now a Compaq XP1000/667, though
I?m slowly moving everything to a virtualized cluster.
Will you please share details about what you're hosting your virtualized cluster on?
Please include emulator and / or hypervisor. 
17 Dec
17 Dec
4:50 p.m.
Dear Richard,
As soon as I saw this message my heart skipped a few beats, merely at the _possibility_
that I might be able to share in some of this hardware.
I have been fascinated by my first HP AlphaServer DS15, ever since an acquaintance at the
local hackspace kindly gave it to me. Here are some photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jxxkmh9fiaqdsjw/AAC5QdhR8NXE-Id5A44UYWRya?dl=0
I would love to take it all, and would gladly pay for shipping and insurance to the UK.
But I don't want to be greedy either. Maybe there are other people on this list who
would like to, or ought to, experience the same exhilaration as owning an AS.
Having a small cluster of AlphaServers, plus RAID server and fibre switches, fits in SO
PERFECTLY with my side project; it's about formalising methods for distributed
computation and then making a libre-friendly distributed computing environment available
to interested users in a communal or co-operative environment. I'm currently
preparing the x86 portion of the overall project for shipping to colo.
Several AS'es in an HA, resilient setup would be such a perfect complement.
Please let me what you think! I value comments and questions from all.
Kind regards,
Andrew
Sent from my mobile phone
On 17 Dec 2018, at 23:02, Richard Loken via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an RA8000 raid server,
and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix 5 when shut down a week
ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45 which
has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is
protecting his data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are
available and they will fit the internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s
which may or may not have disks depending on the whim of the present owner.
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits but no licenses.
They can be had for free but shipping will most assuridly not be free.
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
4:54 p.m.
Dear Richard,
As soon as I saw this message my heart skipped a few beats, merely at the _possibility_
that I might be able to share in some of this hardware.
I have been fascinated by my first HP AlphaServer DS15, ever since an acquaintance at the
local hackspace kindly gave it to me. Here are some photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jxxkmh9fiaqdsjw/AAC5QdhR8NXE-Id5A44UYWRya?dl=0
I would love to take it all, and would gladly pay for shipping and insurance to the UK.
But I don't want to be greedy either. Maybe there are other people on this list who
would like to, or ought to, experience the same exhilaration as owning an AS.
Having a small cluster of AlphaServers, plus RAID server and fibre switches, fits in SO
PERFECTLY with my side project; it's about formalising methods for distributed
computation and then making a libre-friendly distributed computing environment available
to interested users in a communal or co-operative environment. I'm currently
preparing the x86 portion of the overall project for shipping to colo.
Several AS'es in an HA, resilient setup would be such a perfect complement.
Please let me what you think! I value comments and questions from all.
Kind regards,
Andrew
Sent from my mobile phone
On 17 Dec 2018, at 23:02, Richard Loken via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an RA8000 raid server,
and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix 5 when shut down a week
ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45 which
has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is
protecting his data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are
available and they will fit the internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s
which may or may not have disks depending on the whim of the present owner.
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits but no licenses.
They can be had for free but shipping will most assuridly not be free.
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
7:40 p.m.
There are contractors who have the hardware to correctly and contractually
perform mil spec data wipe in situations like this.
More thorough than leaving sitting on some shelf and crossing fingers that
one will find time to burn them or whatever.
On Mon, Dec 17, 2018 at 6:02 PM Richard Loken via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have immediate access to four Alphaservers, an RA8000 raid server,
and the associated fibre switches in need of a new home.
There three servers that were running Tru64 Unix 5 when shut down a week
ago, they are a DS15, and two ES45s. There is also a third ES45 which
has not run in a decade and was kept around as a cold spare.
None of the RA8000 disk will be available because the present owner is
protecting his data (of course) but all of the unused spare disks are
available and they will fit the internal slots in the DS15 and ES45s
which may or may not have disks depending on the whim of the present owner.
Lots of paper docs and Tru64 OS installation kits but no licenses.
They can be had for free but shipping will most assuridly not be free.
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we
wear,
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!"
** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black
2195
days inactive
2196
days old
14 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
andrew＠canaldwellers.org -
cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net -
glen.slick＠gmail.com -
healyzh＠avanthar.com -
jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com -
mtapley＠swri.edu -
rlloken＠telus.net -
ullbeking＠andrewnesbit.org