Introduction to
OpenVMS
Technology
Keith Parris
Systems/Software Engineer
Hewlett-Packard
2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice
Brief History of VMS
1978: V1.0 on VAX-11/780
1984: V4.0: VAXclusters
1988: V5.0: Symmetrical Multiprocessing
1992: XPG4 certification; Name changed to
OpenVMS
1992: V1.0 on Alpha
1998: Galaxy
2003: V8.0 on Itanium
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
VMS Core Values
Reliability
Security
Data integrity
Multiple programming language support
Consistency
Documentation
Upward compatibility
Unique Capabilities in OpenVMS
No viruses
File version support
Terminal re-connect after disconnect:
Virtual Terminals
Hardware auto-discovery is built in, so:
Different systems can all boot from same system disk
No need to re-gen the kernel (or load new drivers)
after hardware changes
VMS Popularity
Communist countries (Russia, Hungary,
China) cloned VAX systems during the Cold
War
Inscription on CVAX chip was written in
Russian: When you care enough to steal the
very best
CPUs on which OpenVMS can run
VAX
Alpha
Intel x86
via VAX emulator under Linux or Windows:
Charon-VAX (commercial software by SRI)
simh (freeware by Bob Supnik)
TS-10 (freeware by Timothy Stark)
Intel Itanium
CPU Support in OpenVMS
V1.0
V5.5-2
VAX
1978
V1.0
V6.1
V7.3-2
V8.2
Alpha
1992
V8.0
V8.2
Itanium
2003 2004
V9.0?
next?
2014?
Support for Multiples of Hardware
Not just N+1 or 2X redundancy
Interconnects
Cluster Interconnects
LANs (Gigabit/Fast/10-megabit Ethernet, FDDI, ATM)
CI, DSSI, Memory Channel
Storage Interconnects
Fibre Channel, SCSI, DSSI, CI
Disks
Host-based Volume Shadowing (RAID 1)
Host-based RAID Software (RAID 0, 5, 0+1 with HBVS)
Entire Servers (nodes in a cluster)
Entire Sites (Disaster-Tolerant Multi-Site Clusters)
Entire Disaster-Tolerant Clusters (RTR Shadowing)
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
Support for Hardware Redundancy
Online addition of hardware:
Disks, tapes
Dynamic volume size expansion in 7.3-2
Complete server addition / removal from cluster
Not just failover
Active / Active utilization
Load balancing / Load sharing
Online repairs in many cases
Disks, tapes, interconnects
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
OpenVMS Clusters
Mix VAX, Alpha, Itanium servers in same cluster
(Officially supported: VAX + Alpha or Alpha + Itanium)
Up to 96 nodes supported (design limit: 256)
Largest real-life example: 151 nodes
Connection Manager
Quorum Scheme to protect against partitioned clusters
Distributed Lock Manager to coordinate access
to shared resources by multiple nodes
Cluster-wide File System for simultaneous
access to the file system by multiple nodes
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
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OpenVMS Clusters
User environment appears the same regardless
of which node youre using
Cluster-wide batch job and print job queue
system
Nodes can share system disks (root)
Common security and management environment
Cluster Alias for IP (and DECnet)
Cluster from the outside appears to be a single
system
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
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Summary of OpenVMS Cluster
Features
Cluster communications over a variety of
interconnects, including industry-standard LANs
Support for industry-standard SCSI and Fibre
Channel storage
MSCP Server for indirect access to disks/tapes
when direct access is unavailable
Excellent support for Disaster Tolerant Clusters
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Popular Open Software Runs on
OpenVMS
TCP/IP stack, NFS, etc.
Apache web server, Perl, Python, PHP, etc.
Mozilla web browser
MySQL, Samba, etc.
X-Windows / Motif, CDE, etc.
Kerberos, SSL, Stunnel, GnuPG, etc.
Java, C, C++
Linux / UNIX Portability Initiative is underway to
ensure Linux / UNIX software can drop in and
run, unmodified
08/26/04
HP World 2003 Solutions and Technology Conference & Expo
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Real-Life Examples of OpenVMS:
Accuweather
Provider of weather information
OpenVMS user for 20 years
See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/brochures/accuweather/
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Over the years, AccuWeather has gone from a
meteorological weather company that produces
forecasts to a technology company. Information
technology is the heartbeat of AccuWeather. If we
didnt have accuracy, speed, and most importantly
reliability in our IT systems, we wouldnt have a
business. HP OpenVMS systems are the critical
lynchpin of our entire process.
Kathleen Fiore
Vice President and CIO of AccuWeather
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Real-Life Examples of OpenVMS:
Credit Lyonnais
Credit
Lyonnais fire in Paris, May 1996
OpenVMS
multi-site cluster with data replication
between sites (Volume Shadowing) saved the data
Fire
occurred over a weekend, and DR site plus
quick procurement of replacement hardware
allowed bank to reopen on Monday
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In any disaster, the key is to protect the data. If you
lose your CPUs, you can replace them. If you lose
your network, you can rebuild it. If you lose your data,
you are down for several months. In the capital
markets, that means you are dead. During the fire at
our headquarters, the DIGITAL VMS Clusters were
very effective at protecting the data.
Jordan DoePatrick Hummel
IT Director, Capital Markets Division, Credit Lyonnais
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Real-Life Examples of OpenVMS:
International Securities Exchange
All-electronic stock derivatives (options) exchange
First new stock exchange in the US in 26 years
Went from nothing to majority market share in 3
years
OpenVMS Disaster-Tolerant Cluster at the core,
surrounded by other OpenVMS systems
See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/brochures/ise/
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OpenVMS is a proven product thats been
battle tested in the field. Thats why we
were extremely confident in building the
technology architecture of the ISE on
OpenVMS AlphaServer systems.
Danny Friel, Sr. Vice President,
Technology / Chief Information Officer,
International Securities Exchange
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Real-Life Examples of OpenVMS:
Commerzbank on 9/11
Datacenter near WTC towers
Generators took over after power failure, but dust
& debris eventually caused A/C units to fail
See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/brochures/commerzbank/
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Because of the intense heat in our data
center, all systems crashed except for our
AlphaServer GS160... OpenVMS wide-area
clustering and volume-shadowing technology
kept our primary system running off the
drives at our remote site 30 miles away.
Werner Boensch, Executive Vice President
Commerzbank, North America
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OpenVMS Resources
HP OpenVMS web page
http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/
OpenVMS Documentation on the Web:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc
OpenVMS Technical Journal:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/index.html
OpenVMS Hobbyist Program
Free licenses for OpenVMS, Cluster Software, compilers,
development tools, and lots of other software):
http://openvmshobbyist.org/
GNV (GNU for VMS):
UNIX environment for VMS: BASH shell, etc.
http://gnv.sourceforge.net/
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OpenVMS Resources
Ken Farmers OpenVMS.org website:
http://openvms.org/
HP ITRC Forums on OpenVMS:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/familyhome.do?familyId=288
Encompasserve (aka DECUServe)
OpenVMS system with free accounts and a friendly community
Telnet to encompasserve.org and log in under username
REGISTRATION
Yahoo Group OpenVMS_Friends
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OpenVMS_Friends/
Usenet newsgroups:
comp.os.vms, vmsnet.*, comp.sys.dec
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Top Ten reasons
to use OpenVMS
Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
You want to run more than one
thing on a system at a time
Application Server
Web Server
Mail Server
Print Server
File Server
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
You want to run more than one
thing on a system at a time
2.
To you, downtime is a fourletter word
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
You want to run more than one
thing on a system at a time
2.
To you, downtime is a fourletter word
3.
You dont want to be a member
of the Virus-of-the-Week Club
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
You know that Reboot; and if
that doesnt work, Reinstall is
NOT the answer to every
problem
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
You know that Reboot; and if
that doesnt work, Reinstall is
NOT the answer to every
problem
2.
You can count to more than five.
Five Nines, that is. (99.999%
availability)
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
Your preferred unit of
measurement of system uptime
is years, not hours
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
Your preferred unit of
measurement of system uptime
is years, not hours
2.
You want a system that wont
trash the disk structure if you get
a power failure
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
9 out of 10 hackers prefer
another operating system
VMS declared Cool and
Unhackable at DefCon 9
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
9 out of 10 hackers prefer
another operating system
2.
You want to run the only O/S
Kevin Mitnick admits he couldnt
get into without being given a
password
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Top Ten Reasons to Run OpenVMS
1.
9 out of 10 hackers prefer
another operating system
2.
You want to run the only O/S
Kevin Mitnick admits he couldnt
get into without being given a
password
3.
SCO cant sue you
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