my application support on various Itanium/OpenVMS platform

[Arch_Muthiah]

Hi All,

I have ported one of our VAX MACRO application to IA64/OpenVMS 8.2-1(build server). The ported application runs fine IA64/VMS 8.3, & VMS 8.3-1H1.

We did this porting work on Itanium rx2600 OpenVMS Industry Standard 64 Operating System, Version V8.2-1. We don’t have any other Itanium hardware to test our application. I would like to know what are all the Itanium Hardware series will support my application. Hope it will run in all rx2nnn, rx3nnn,,,,,rx7nnn series, etc. But I have no idea about the compatiblity with Blade server series and any Non-stop server?.

Yesterday I saw Itanium/OpenVMS road map. OpenVMS 8.3-H1 runs in blade server too. But I am not able to understand the various Itanium hardware –versus- 3rd party application (like our software) support details. If you please give some details, it will be great healp.


Thanks
Archunan

[Robert Gezelter · Accepted solution]

Archunan,

In general, the answer is yes. There are, of course, questions about does your application do things where care might be advisable (e.g., does the code use constructs such as shared memory, where increased numbers or speeds of processors could uncover latent timing errors and race conditions).

In most cases, the usability of an application depends on the CPU chip(s), not the particular hardware model.

This is a technical reality. If one is selling software and making guarantees, it would be advisable to arrange for test time on each of the hardware models to ensure that there are no issues.

It is not necessary to purchase and maintain a stable of all platforms. There are a variety of ways in which access to different models can be obtained for testing purposes, including through the OpenVMS organization at HP.

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

[Hein van den Heuvel]

It is very hard to imagine a 'normal' application which would not run on an other platform on the same chip.

99% sure it will run unchanged.

If this is all user mode code, then that becomes 99.9% sure

If the application is CPU dependent, then typically the porter would know... by bumping his head, falling over and getting back up.

OpenVMS 8.2 --> 8.3 is the bigger risk, about 00.01%. ;-).

The biggest risk really is going SMP, multiple cores, if that was not originally tested.


>> We donâ t have any other Itanium hardware to test our application.

Maybe Check out testdrive.hp.com
They may be able to give you access to an 8.3 Itanium, but the current system they have is also an RX2600, dual-cpu.


fwiw.
Hein.

[labadie_1]

Hello

>>>We did this porting work on Itanium rx2600 OpenVMS Industry Standard 64 Operating System, Version V8.2-1

I am a bit surprised, I would not take 8.2-1 as a starting point, but 8.3

I see 8.3 as 8.2-1 with all major patches and improvements.

[Arch_Muthiah]

Bob/Hein/Labadie,

Thanks for all your information.
Labadie, actually I started porting this application on 8.3 only. But my HP support adviced me to do this port on 8.2-1. All sources are MACRO 32, it works fine upto 8.3-1H1.

Thanks
Archunan