HP OpenVMS Systems

Article Abstract: LDdriver has been available for OpenVMS for a long time. This utility allows a file on disk to be used as a real disk, so that a physical disk can be partitioned into a number of smaller virtual disks. The latest version also allows an arbitrary range of logical blocks on disk to be used as a disk, so that partitions without an underlaying file system can be created. But there are many more features in LDdriver, like the ability to trace I/O requests, do timing measurements, and return failures on selected blocks as an aid to fault simulation. The article goes into detail on all the available features, and offers an inside view of the way that these features are accomplished.

Author Bio: After graduating as an electronics hardware engineer, Jur Van der Burg started in 1975 developing electronic test equipment for a medical research laboratorium. At that place he had his first encounter with computers (PDP8/PDP11/6502). In 1977 I moved to an oil company developing seismic test equipment connected to a PDP11, and started to write device drivers for RSX11M. They were then converted to a VAX and VMS. Later on, Jur moved to the computer center, manning the helpdesk for a year, followed by system management of the biggest VAXcluster in the country. In 1987 he joined DEC in the VMS country support group in the Netherlands, giving support to customers. Around 2000 he started to work part time for VMS engineering in the sustaining engineering group to support the VMS exec and the SCSI drivers, which then became a full time job.

Article Abstract: The OpenVMS Cluster Test Manager was the subject of an article in the OpenVMS Technical Journal, Issue 3. This follow-up article describes the design and methodology of threaded tests, as well as some of the specific threaded tests that are employed in CTM.

Author Bio: Richard Stammers is a Software Engineer who works in the Quality Test Verification (QTV) group of OpenVMS Engineering. Richard has over 30 years of experience in the computer industry, having worked as an independent consultant on a wide variety of projects prior to his joining HP in 2001 where he now develops and maintains test software for OpenVMS.

Article Abstract: This describes two mechanisms that OpenVMS provides that can help administrators monitor file and utility access and prevent unauthorized access. OpenVMS Auditing and Access Control Entries are standard with OpenVMS installations.

Author Bio: Michael Grinnell is an Off-site Software Support Engineer V for the Product Competency Center at Hewlett-Packard. He has been supporting the OVMS Operating System for the past 20 years. His expertise includes OpenVMS security and implementing various backup solutions which include VMS backup, Storage Library System, Archive Backup System and other 3rd party backup applications.

Author Bio: Gina Jones is an Off-site Software Support Engineer V for the Product Competency Center at Hewlett-Packard. She has been supporting the OpenVMS backup products for the past 20 years. These products include the native backup utility as well software application such as the Storage Library System and Archive Backup System as well as varied cross-platform backup solutions. As a part of his duties, Gina spends time assisting customers with testing their disaster recovery.

Article Abstract: This article covers MSI's experience in porting its Migration RPG compiler to HP's Integrity Server. The article covers the following subjects:

• Our software development methodology
• Our porting plan
• Technical issues faced during the porting process
• Product Quality Assurance testing after the port was completed
• Recommendations to others planning to port applications

Author Bio: Bruce Claremont has 22 years of OpenVMS and software porting experience. Among other responsibilities, he supports Migration RPG, an RPG compiler written primarily in Macro-32. He has played key roles in development and implementation of software migration methodologies and stategies. He has owned and operated MSI, Inc. since 1992.

Article Abstract: Describes real world implementations of EMC's Legato NetWorker on OpenVMS. NetWorker is the only product that incorporates OpenVMS into an enterprise-wide data protection solution providing direct backup to tape or disk, as well as support for Oracle and Oracle Rdb. This article covers two real solutions that were delivered -- one using EMC Symmetrix and CLARiiON Disk Libraries, and the other using host-based OpenVMS volume shadowing, HP storage, and an MSL5000 tape library.

Author Bio: Siobhán Ellis is a Senior Technology Consultant at ENSTOR, Sydney, Australia. Siobhán's career began with doing nightly backups at Digital 20 years ago. More recently she was responsible for implementing a backup project for 50 OpenVMS servers, 200 UNIX servers, 300 NT servers, and 8000 desktops. This was done using a combination of Legato NetWorker and SLS. In 1999 she joined Legato and was a Senior Product Manager in various areas, including Legato's implementation of NetWorker on OpenVMS.

Article Abstract: With the advent of public domain database management systems like MySQL and "web enabling" languages like PHP, which provide tight integration with those databases, it becomes possible to write programs that, given access to the database schema, can automatically generate large portions of web applications that interact with users to collect data to be put in databases. In particular, using phpMyAdmin for database design, MySQL as a database engine, and a little bit of design and implementation work with PHP, substantial portions of live Web applications can and have been generated. This article is an exploration of how this was done at the Florida Democratic Party during the last election cycle.

Author bio: Richard Munroe is a software engineer with over 37 years experience. He worked in a variety of positions, from architectural (storage, communications, distributed systems) to individual contributor. He is currently scrounging for work under the umbrella of Cottage Software Works and doing woodturning as a side business.