DECUS IT Symposium April April 2007

Transcription

1 DECUS IT Symposium April April 2007 The end-of-life announcement of the Alpha computer line may mean that you have to look for alternatives for this product in order to safeguard your applications. Most likely when you still run your software on one of the older Alpha computer systems like a DEC3000 AXP or an AlphaServer 1000, 2000, 4000, 300, 400 or one of the AlphaStations. These installations are most likely to suffer from the end-of-life status first because support problems will be imminent with these older systems. When migration to a more current Alpha platform, Integrity is not an option or undesirable due to cost and effort constraints, we can provide a good solution. Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software creates the environment of your Alpha system inside a more current, industry standard computer platform. Your software recognizes the system it used to run in and can continue to be used without applying any changes. Adding additional years to your existing and valuable software does not require a large investment in time or money, when using this Alpha Virtualization Software. Transferring your software to a modern platform is a matter of days instead of months/years. Many customers have selected Hardware Virtualization and are running their legacy software still very successfully.

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3 The enormous advantage of Alpha Hardware Virtualization is to be found in the fact that it works exactly like a hardware replacement. The software on the Alpha (Operating System, Layered Products, your applications and data) does not need to be touched. You can simply replace the Alpha hardware by a combination of a more current computer system (Intel/AMD based) with its operating system (Windows x64) and our Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software. This creates the environment of the old Alpha on top of the new system and the Alpha Operating System and all software on top of that will not see any difference with the old system. Replace the hardware, do not touch the software and save lots of time and money. It is by far the easiest and least expensive way to move your applications from the Alpha to a more current computer platform.

4 DECUS IT Symposium April April 2007 Alpha Hardware Virtualization is a solution created for the users of older Alpha system, since they will run into trouble almost immediately after the Alpha is withdrawn. Just because their hardware is of old age already. You cannot move to more modern Alpha Systems, or have no desire to. Perhaps due to software constraints (e.g. older releases of layered products/applications) or other issues (e.g. migration costs). The Alpha Hardware Virtualization is meant to replace these early Alpha systems. We virtualize a single CPU Alpha system that can mimic these systems.

5 We virtualize or emulate the Alpha hardware as mentioned in the slide. All memory sizes that these products originally supported are included, with a minimum of 512 MB. Two different bus architectures are included in our portfolio, TurboChannel (1 st wave of Alpha s) en PCI, everything after that. Please note that no graphics adapter emulation (like PowerStorm) is included. For this we recommend the use of commercially available X-Windows emulators. Up to 4 Ethernet adapters can be used, which can be mapped to Ethernet hardware in the host system you use. Also up to 4 SCSI adapters can be defined. Every virtual SCSI adapter can support physical and logical disks, addressable as a disk container file, a Windows disk or a direct address on the physical SCSI bus. Disks, tapes and undefined SCSI devices can be connected. Tape devices are supported, physical tapes as well as logical. Depending on the Alpha Emulator model serial line adapters are supported. Please note that we did not emulate graphic adapters (e.g. PowerStorm), for this we recommend the use of commercially available X-Windows emulators. Release 1 of CHARON-AXP supports OpenVMS (6.1 and onwards). Version 2 (Q2-2007) will include support for Digital UNIX / OSF1 / Tru64.

6 DECUS IT Symposium April April 2007 This charts visualizes the various Alpha systems that were manufactured over time, ranked according to their relative performance. All systems were benchmarked against the AlphaServer 800 5/500 (based on the Alpha EV5 500 MHz CPU), presenting the 100% mark. At the low end on the left of the arrow you will find the DEC3000-AXP that held the first wave of Alpha processors (21064 or EV4). Higher on the ladder you find AlphaServer 1x00 and 2x00 systems, also carrying EV4 based processors. AlphaServer 4x00 holds the second generation Alpha CPU (EV5 or 21164), there is however a grey area of AlphaServer 1000 and 2000 systems that also include this newer processor. Please note these are all single CPU measurements. We have created several Alpha Hardware Virtualization products which relate to the products they aim to replace by naming them after these Alpha systems. Therefore CHARON-AXP/1000 intends to replace an AlphaServer 1000 and CHARON-AXP/4000 an AlphaServer CHARON-AXP/4000 requires a faster host platform than the /1000 to match the performance of the system it replaces, the products are however different. Be aware of the fact that an AlphaServer 1000 EV5 based system requires a CHARON-AXP/4000 class Virtualization product and host system to match the performance of the original system. At the moment (April 2007) the Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software can replace single CPU EV4 or EV5 based Alpha computers.

7 The Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software requires 64-bit capable host platform. This can be a workstation or a server. We recommend the use of HP Proliant server or XW workstation for this purpose. Preferably this system should be equipped with one of the dual-core processors from Intel or AMD. Processor types are indicated in the slide. For CHARON-AXP/1000, /3000 or station we recommend a 2 GHz dual core processor of either brand. For CHARON-AXP/4000 a 3 GHz variant should be used. The Alpha Emulator and host operating system consumes 1.5 GB memory. You can add the amount of emulated Alpha memory to this figure to calculate the amount of memory that should be included in the host system. The host system should include as many Ethernet adapter as are currently used in the Alpha, to map the existing connections to the host hardware. Since Alpha disks are emulated any type of disk can be used in the host computer. The Alpha Emulator makes them all look as SCSI devices to the Alpha Operating System, the actual type of storage is not important to OpenVMS or Tru64. The emulated Alpha disks can be actual physical disks in a SCSI storage array, or be logical units on a Windows disk or SAN/NAS/iSCSI storage solution. CD-ROM/ floppy and tape are also emulated. For the host operating system Windows x64 was selected due to the wide broad spectrum of hardware driver support that is available. The Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software uses the core of the host operating system and the drivers that are supported by this OS, warranting support for almost any hardware configuration. Windows x64 Server 2003 or XP Professional are currently supported. No Vista yet

8 DECUS IT Symposium April April 2007 This screen capture shows the OPA0 console of CHARON-AXP in front of the Windows environment it runs in.

9 Since the various versions of the Alpha Hardware Virtualization Software represent different hardware architectures, the same operating system dependencies apply as on the real hardware. In principle OpenVMS 6.2 (version 1h3) is supported by all CHARON-AXP versions. Earlier versions (6.2 or 6.1) require the use of CHARON-AXP/3000 Tru64 support is still under development. Scheduled release Q2/2007 depending on the current field-test results.

10 HP recognizes CHARON-AXP as a genuine Alpha hardware replacement product and has issued the OpenVMS transfer license, in support of their existing Alpha customers. Under the terms of this transfer license you are allowed to move your Alpha OpenVMS license to an equivalent CHARON-AXP product. E.g. replacing an AlphaServer /xxx by CHARON-AXP/1000 is covered under the terms of this transfer license. You may also move to CHARON-AXP/4000 by upgrading your existing OpenVMS license to Alpha Server 4000, like you would do when you upgrade with larger Alpha hardware. It is also possible to continue your existing OpenVMS support agreement when you it is run on a genuine HP host system. This transfer license can be obtained via HP or your CHARON-AXP reseller. More information about the transfer license can be found on the indicated webpage.

11 PersonalAlpha is a subset of the production quality CHARON-AXP version that will run on a 32-bit system. It can be used to explore the capabilities of Alpha Hardware Virtualization and see if the concept could work for you. PersonalAlpha is a proof of concept, but can also be used to run OpenVMS on your laptop or Personal Computer. It provides limited functionality and performance, for specification see the slide. The product is not supported, and not qualified to run production applications. PersonalAlpha is a freeware product and can be downloaded from

12 This is a first example of an Alpha system that does not qualify for migration. The software control a positioning robot whose movements are controlled by camera s. It is one of our earliest projects with the emulator. Additional advantage is the performance increase this customer experiences, mostly caused by the slow speed of the original DEC3000 system. Especially the fast boot sequence helps because the system has to be recalibrated/rebooted when the subject changes. This customer is now running this application on HP Proliant.

13 Customer has a large installed base of different Alpha systems and VMS releases due to gradual roll-out of their product. Main reasons for considering hardware virtualization: Unify the installed base allowing them to maintain only one application version Lower the cost of customer service Focus only on their application without being forced to requalify new hardware every few years Add new features enabled by newer technologies They managed to achieve all their goals and even more and are now rolling this solution to their customers.

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15 Started as a normal case of AlphaServer 1000 replacement by studying the product and running an evaluation on the form of shadowing prodcution But then, disaster struck and the original Alpha broke down. Within a day they were able to transfer all production software and data and continue the normal operation. I can only tell you that it was a sensitive operation and they were very happy/lucky with the Virtual Alpha product. Here we were exactly on time., but we have had other prospects that were less lucky. Their hardware broke down before they had the opportunity to evaluate Hardware Virtualization as a solution for their situation and they ended empty handed.

16 This is an example of a non vital implementation, but still an interesting case. It concerns a software development company that had to carry a DS10 workstation, a network switch and a client workstation around the world to demonstrate their product. Running CHARON-AXP/station and Reflection-X on a laptop actually takes a lot of weight of their shoulders. The whole bulky package is now carry-on luggage and an improved sales tool for them

17 This customer wanted to replace an AlphaServer ES80 with our solution. This was way out of our league and we advised against it, until the customer explained that most of the system content was already moved to Itanium, but a small portion of their software could not be migrated. At least not for a reasonable effort/cost. Alpha Hardware Virtualization allows them to put the ES80 out of commission and save a lot of money with it. The non-migratable software now runs on a Virtual Alpha.

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