topic Re: Happy birthday, cluster! in Operating System - OpenVMS

Happy birthday, cluster!

Jan van den Ende — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:35:05 GMT

On 13 april 1997, at 11:35:50 MET DST (09:35:50 GMT) our cluster came into existence,
It has been providing continuous service to our users ever since.

So, today we celebrate
9 YEAR UPTIME.

Proost.

Have one on me (maybe in May in Nashua?)

jpe

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Karl Rohwedder — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:48:46 GMT

Congratulations Jan,

the longest uptime I can report is about 1200 days (for a single VAX4000-200):
AX/VMS V5.5-2 on node WZB01 13-APR-2006 08:00:57.76 Uptime 1218 17:19:02

regards Kalle

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Kris Clippeleyr — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 01:01:51 GMT

Jan,
Congratulations.
We definitely will drink to that in Nashua.
Cu there.
Kris (aka Qkcl)

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Thomas Ritter — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 01:10:14 GMT

9 year uptime... unbelievable. We replace clusters about every 4 years. Well done.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Antoniov. — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 01:45:06 GMT

Success story!
Congratulations for your real cluster.

Antonio
http://it.openvms.org

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 01:45:09 GMT

Congrats Jan.

I have a 2000 that is power off since 3 years but still not gone due to a difficult organization. Happy birthday too.

Wim

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Bojan Nemec — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 05:53:37 GMT

Congratulations Jan,

Na zdravje! (cheers)

I used your story many times to explain the VMS robustness.

Bojan

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Ian Miller. — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:42:23 GMT

Congratulations on your new birthday. Not the longest uptime but very impressive considering the hardware changes and relocations.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Jan van den Ende — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:40:29 GMT

Bojan,

bonus points (in name of the VMS Stealth Marketing Initiative) for actually USING our story!

Proost.

Have one on me (maybe in May in Nashua?)

jpe

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

John Gillings — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:56:56 GMT

Re Tom:

>9 year uptime... unbelievable. We replace
>clusters about every 4 years. Well done.

With the right cluster configuration, it's entirely possible that Jan has replaced all the hardware, and possibly even moved buildings in those 9 years, while still maintaining the cluster foundation date. All it needs is for at least one node to remain running at all times.

Application up time does not depend on a single node remaining up all the time, it just needs at least one member of the cluster to be up.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Vladimir Fabecic — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 01:25:18 GMT

Congratulations Jan,
Hope some day someone from HP marketing will use your story like Bojan.

In vino veritas, in VMS cluster!!!

By the way, I hope some day I will drink vino (wine) with you.

Proost.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Dirk Bogaerts — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:04:24 GMT

Congrats Jan,

I'm counting down another 6 weeks to be able to report 3 yrs. uptime on a VAX4000-100 (which regrettably will have its final power down in 3 months time - to be replaced by the W...-stuff).
Can't wait to announce the 3 yrs. uptime to all my other collegues (I'm the only VMS guy left; outnumbered 10 to 1)

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Peter Zeiszler — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:34:50 GMT

Congrats on the long uptime.

Real clustering is a wonderful thing.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Ian Miller. — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:58:46 GMT

The key point is not the cluster up time but that Jan and colleages have maintained continuous application availability for 9 years.

This is a very impressive system management archivement.

IIRC the cluster has been relocated and all the hardware replaced.

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Arch_Muthiah — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:46:55 GMT

Its great info Jan!!!. unable imagine how could it be possible to keep the system up for 9 years, serviving the security issue, upgradations, and no crash!!! Excellent maintenance!!!.

Archunan

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Robert Gezelter — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 06:40:06 GMT

Jan,

Congratulations from NYC!

All too few people remember that it is meeting the availability requirements on a continuous basis that counts, not how much emergency work has to be done.

Nine years to continuous availability of an integrated system, across version changes, technology changes, and location changes is an achievement that no other OS can meet.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

comarow — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 07:37:22 GMT

Are you sure it wasn't a windows system up all these years?

I mean, VMS must be one of those antiquated legacy systems, with tubes that heat up, addresses we walk to, switches to set, and wires?

More similar to a weaving machine than some kind of modern contraption?

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Allan Bowman — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 10:57:37 GMT

Jan,

Nine years is a great feat! Of course we all have come to expect this kind of performance from OpenVMS.

Should we start planning for the cluster's 10th birthday yet? That event will be a true milestone!

Allan in Atlanta

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Jan van den Ende — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 12:25:43 GMT

Thomas,

like John said, there can, and have been, "some" changes... the oldest piece of hardware (including screws, wires, anything you can hold, or drop) dates from 2000 or later. EVERYTHING has been replaced at least once.
It is all about continuously providing desired services that counts (at least for us), and the results for THAT vary somewhat per application, but the better designed ( = designed on & for VMS ) applications have (nearly) perfect scores, with one at only some 10 minutes less than the cluster itself.

For those that do not yet know our cluster (or like to revisit :-)

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=800734

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=793109

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=602529

and last years anniversary:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=855602

Some recent devellopment: although it still RUNS most backoffice apps for the Regio Politie Amsterdam-Amstelland, it has now been outsources to a newly-created, countrywide Service Organisation.
They are consolidating several regio's into above-regional service areas, and it is by no means certain that (or for how long) this cluster can continue.
But, we have been saying that also for several years now. We will just have to wait and see...

Proost.

Have one on me (maybe in May in Nashua?).

jpe

Comarow:
Is this your way af applying for a job in Billy's marketing department? Be wary, it just might be successful!! :-) :-) :-)

Re: Happy birthday, cluster!

Ian Miller. — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 06:18:22 GMT

an another link to more information is
http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=06/04/14/4215552