AlphaServers

[Zane Healy]

> On Mar 14, 2018, at 12:40 PM, geneb via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 14 Mar 2018, Zane Healy wrote:
> 
>> I’m currently using Ubuntu (I’ve run SIMH a lot of different UNIX & Linux flavors over the years).
>> 
>> With the ESXI and RPi systems, I’m using the version of SIMH/VAX that Ubuntu provides.  With the i5, I upgraded to current to try to resolve some issues.  The i5 is serving up several large drives, and a couple small Shadowsets that it shares with another system.  The Shadowsets are for Cluster Files, and critical data.  It’s also my cluster tape server (virtual tapes).
>> 
>> There can be issues, but I think the ones I’ve run into are more a OpenVMS/VAX v7.3 & OpenVMS/Alpha v8.3 clustering issue. Backing up an ODS-5 disk from a VAX isn’t a good idea, but it seems fine to back it up from the Alpha, to a tape drive on the VAX.
> 
> What model of HP i5 did you get?  I'm entertaining the idea of getting another R710, but they're still ~$250 plus drives.
> 
> tnx.
> 
> g.

I’ve been using the HP SFF systems.  I think the i5 I got specifically to run SIMH is a 6300.  It’s an i5-3470 3.2Ghz system with 4 GB RAM.  I had to add a hard drive, but had an old 500GB drive laying around.  That’s plenty big to backup and migrate the data on my Compaq XP1000 running OpenVMS 8.3 to.  It’s not a modern system, but it’s newer by far than any of my real VMS hardware.  To me the key thing is, it only cost $75.

I also have two other HP SFF systems, both are 8200’s one is an i5, the other an i7.  The i7 is the ESXI system I mentioned.  The VM running SIMH is able to outperform SIMH on the HP 6300 SFF box.  I initially had lots of issues with clock drift on OpenVMS running under ESXI, but it turns out that was due to my having throttled the VM itself.  Once I removed that, everything is fine.  I’ve since switched to using CPU idling under SIMH, to reduce the load on the host CPU.

In spite of having a website on emulating DEC HW, I’ve resisted emulating the VAX, as I didn’t see the point.  We’ve reached the point where even a RPI running SIMH outperforms most of my VAXen, and the i5 and i7 based systems running SIMH can outperform all of my VAXen.  I just wish the hobbyist options for Alpha emulation were better.

I may consider picking up another HP SFF running a supported version of Windows, and then trying the Alpha emulation on it.

Zane