Moving an old database from HP UX server

[Nathan Muleski]

A disclaimer: I have little to no knowledge of Unix.

We have an HP 9000/887 Server
running HP UX version B.10.20:

It was used to run Prism software, which we used for our database management.
Flash forward 9 years and now it just holds the old databases for record keeping purposes.

We are soon migrating to new servers and are virtualizing everything and we'd love to be able to get rid of this old Unix box.

Problem is we need to be able to access the old database from time to time so we need a way to either copy the old database out and import it into SQL or virtualize the machine.

I've read a lot about the "ignite" utility but it doesn't appear this server has it. And the only backups it supports are to 9.5 floppy and magnetic tape drive, neither of which we have.

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] And the only backups it supports are
> to 9.5 floppy and magnetic tape drive,
> neither of which we have.

What's a "9.5 floppy"? (I've heard of (and
touched) 8-inch floppies.)

Is this system connected to your network? If
so, then getting the data off the old system
and onto some other system should be pretty
easy. Making use of it anywhere else could
be difficult, of course.

> [...] Prism software [...]

Can't recall ever having heard of it. If it
runs only on obsolete hardware with an
obsolete OS, then you may be stuck with an
old box. (Unless you can find an old-box
emulator which runs on a newer box.)

> [...] so we need a way to either copy the
> old database out [...]

Knowing nothing about your old data base
software, I'm ill-equipped to explain how to
do that.

[Eric Antunes]

Hi Nathan,

In order to help you, I need to know the following:

- What is the old database version?
- What are the OS of those new servers?

Best Regards,

Eric Antunes

[Nathan Muleski]

> What's a "9.5 floppy"? (I've heard of (and
> touched) 8-inch floppies.)

> Is this system connected to your network? > If so, then getting the data off the old
> system and onto some other system should
> be pretty easy. Making use of it anywhere > else could be difficult, of course.

Sorry. I meant 9.5" magnetic tape drive and floppy. Neither of which we have.

Yes it is connected to our network but I'm having trouble even making a backup, which I'd like to (at the very least) get done in case this server dies.


>Can't recall ever having heard of it. If it
>runs only on obsolete hardware with an
>obsolete OS, then you may be stuck with an
>old box. (Unless you can find an old-box
>emulator which runs on a newer box.)

Yes it's very old and sadly we the company didn't save much documentation on it either. All I know is that it is by the same company who database software we still use, Activant.


>Knowing nothing about your old data base
>software, I'm ill-equipped to explain how to
>do that.

Here is everything that I've found on it:

https://www.activant.com/automotive-aftermarket/distributors-jobbers/products/activant-prism/

[TwoProc]

I think you'll have to use the networking ports to mount some external disk drives via NFS and you'll have to write a program to dump database content to them, probably via programming, or if you're lucky some export-to-text (dump) tools provided by either prism application software or from the database itself.

[Nathan Muleski]

Ok,
I've made a small amount of progress today. Finally got a log on (had to guess the root password).

The program is PRISM 9.0, the company that made it is System Designs Inc. It was released in 1999.

I can't find any information on what type of database they used but I found some raw files and they have the
.idx
.lok
.dat
file structure.

I have a few ideas as to what type of database this is but I need to get everything off this ancient server before I can try anything.

I have tried unsuccessfully to use dd (which it appears is only good for tape drives) and now I'm stuck... Can anybody help me out??

[Nathan Muleski]

I've found and installed a NFS client for Windows. Can anybody tell me how to export files from the Unix box using NFS??

[Dennis Handly]

>I've found and installed a NFS client for Windows. Can anybody tell me how to export files from the Unix box using NFS?

It might be easier to use another HP-UX system.
Otherwise you may want to use Samba.

[Nathan Muleski]

Well I ended up using the old reliable, FTP... It certainly hasn't solved my problem of being able to export all the information but that's not what I came here for.

Thanks everyone for your help.