IDX

I understand that IDX products, such as AP, BAR & MCA, are hosted on
Alpha/OpenVMS platforms. I am interested in knowing if they have any
plans on migrating to other platforms, particularly those involving an
open source operating system.

Does anyone have a knowledgeable contact with whom I could speak about
this?


Thanks, Steve Graham

On Aug 6, 10:30*am, Steve Graham <solitary.wandere...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I understand that IDX products, such as AP, BAR & MCA, are hosted on
> Alpha/OpenVMS platforms. *I am interested in knowing if they have any
> plans on migrating to other platforms, particularly those involving an
> open source operating system.
>
> Does anyone have a knowledgeable contact with whom I could speak about
> this?
>
> Thanks, Steve Graham

Hey Steve,

IDX (or GE/Flowcast/Centricity Business Solutions) does run on other
platforms, specifically the Cache/AIX package that GE recommends to
most new customers. IDX and OpenVMS is on it's way out as a standard
for them.

I am currently in the process of converting a Cache on VMS (Alpha)
implementation to an AIX platform. Intersystems (the Cache folks)
would probably have no problems with you running an enterprise App on
an Open Source OS, but I doubt very much that GE would bless off on
it.

On Aug 6, 5:08*pm, Pete <peter.charbonn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 6, 10:30*am, Steve Graham <solitary.wandere...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I understand that IDX products, such as AP, BAR & MCA, are hosted on
> > Alpha/OpenVMS platforms. *I am interested in knowing if they have any
> > plans on migrating to other platforms, particularly those involving an
> > open source operating system.
>
> > Does anyone have a knowledgeable contact with whom I could speak about
> > this?
>
> > Thanks, Steve Graham
>
> Hey Steve,
>
> IDX (or GE/Flowcast/Centricity Business Solutions) does run on other
> platforms, specifically the Cache/AIX package that GE recommends to
> most new customers. *IDX and OpenVMS is on it's way out as a standard
> for them.
>
> I am currently in the process of converting a Cache on VMS (Alpha)
> implementation to an AIX platform. *Intersystems (the Cache folks)
> would probably have no problems with you running an enterprise App on
> an Open Source OS, but I doubt very much that GE would bless off on
> it.


Hi, Pete. Thanks for the response.

While working for a previous company, we took an in-house developed
app which was running on OpenVMS/Alpha-Vax/DSM and converted it to run
on Unix-Linux-Windows/X86/Caché. I believe that we experienced a
large cost savings because we no longer had to pay maintenance on
aging hardware and system software. So, this is what got me thinking
about moving IDX s/w to Linux/X86. You're right, though, that the
vendor may not be thrilled/supportive of running their product on
Linux.

What has been your experience with moving to the new platform? I
guess that IBM is still fully supporting and enhancing AIX, both
software and hardware. What hardware runs with AIX? Also, do you
have a feel for cost of hardware/system software/maintenance for AIX
and how they compare to Alpha/OpenVMS? I would imagine that there is
a lot of work coverting DCL command files to the AIX equivalent. How
is that proceeding?

Thanks again for your response.


Steve

On Aug 7, 9:46 am, Steve Graham <solitary.wandere...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 6, 5:08 pm, Pete <peter.charbonn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Aug 6, 10:30 am, Steve Graham <solitary.wandere...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > > I understand that IDX products, such as AP, BAR & MCA, are hosted on
> > > Alpha/OpenVMS platforms. I am interested in knowing if they have any
> > > plans on migrating to other platforms, particularly those involving an
> > > open source operating system.
>
> > > Does anyone have a knowledgeable contact with whom I could speak about
> > > this?
>
> > > Thanks, Steve Graham
>
> > Hey Steve,
>
> > IDX (or GE/Flowcast/Centricity Business Solutions) does run on other
> > platforms, specifically the Cache/AIX package that GE recommends to
> > most new customers. IDX and OpenVMS is on it's way out as a standard
> > for them.
>
> > I am currently in the process of converting a Cache on VMS (Alpha)
> > implementation to an AIX platform. Intersystems (the Cache folks)
> > would probably have no problems with you running an enterprise App on
> > an Open Source OS, but I doubt very much that GE would bless off on
> > it.
>
> Hi, Pete. Thanks for the response.
>
> While working for a previous company, we took an in-house developed
> app which was running on OpenVMS/Alpha-Vax/DSM and converted it to run
> on Unix-Linux-Windows/X86/Caché. I believe that we experienced a
> large cost savings because we no longer had to pay maintenance on
> aging hardware and system software. So, this is what got me thinking
> about moving IDX s/w to Linux/X86. You're right, though, that the
> vendor may not be thrilled/supportive of running their product on
> Linux.
>
> What has been your experience with moving to the new platform? I
> guess that IBM is still fully supporting and enhancing AIX, both
> software and hardware. What hardware runs with AIX? Also, do you
> have a feel for cost of hardware/system software/maintenance for AIX
> and how they compare to Alpha/OpenVMS? I would imagine that there is
> a lot of work coverting DCL command files to the AIX equivalent. How
> is that proceeding?
>
> Thanks again for your response.
>
> Steve

> What has been your experience with moving to the new platform?

So far...none. This is work just starting. We do a preliminary copy
over of the .DAT files this weekend and then probably spend Monday
cursing at the .cpf file and reading the syslog to find out why Cache
isn't running

> I guess that IBM is still fully supporting and enhancing AIX, both
> software and hardware. What hardware runs with AIX?

I know we're on a SAN and I think that the box is the Power 5+, but
I'm really not a hardware guy. I'll post back if I can get real
specs.

> Also, do you have a feel for cost of hardware/system software/maintenancefor AIX
> and how they compare to Alpha/OpenVMS?

Nope. I'm not a money guy either, although I expect that you are
correct.

> I would imagine that there is a lot of work converting DCL command files to the AIX equivalent. How
> is that proceeding?

This I know about and let me tell you...it's making my head hurt. We
have a LOT of DCL scripts which were written way back in the day by
people who no longer work for the organization. There is no
documentation (of course) and no notation in the code. There's really
only 50 or so scripts running daily, but the way they were designed -
each one makes 6 or 7 calls out to other scripts. Drilling down and
reverse-engineering the business logic behind them is a real pain.

In addition to converting DCL to KSH, we've got a lot of custom AES
MUMPS routines which are similarly undocumented. Many of them make
hard-coded references to files and directories which won't be
available once we move to the new platform. I'm less certain how
we'll handle those. I'm leaning towards ignoring them and seeing if
anyone complains...

Steve,

I have been involved moving applications from DSM/OpenVMS, and would
suggest that you consider using GT.M. Depending on your hardware/OS
requirements GT.M is available on a wide variety of platforms, and
better yet, is available under the GPL for Linux. Of course,
support
is available from FNIS for a fee... depending on your needs.

If I can be of assistance let me know. I am available at
651/340-4007,
doing business as Fourth Watch Software, LLC. Thank you!

ldlandis@gmail.com

Cheers,
--ldl

On Aug 6, 11:30*am, Steve Graham <solitary.wandere...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I understand that IDX products, such as AP, BAR & MCA, are hosted on
> Alpha/OpenVMS platforms. *I am interested in knowing if they have any
> plans on migrating to other platforms, particularly those involving an
> open source operating system.
>
> Does anyone have a knowledgeable contact with whom I could speak about
> this?
>
> Thanks, Steve Graham