Log In
[lrm_form default_tab=”login” logged_in_message=”You are currently logged in!”]
Register
[lrm_form default_tab=”register” logged_in_message=”You are currently logged in!”]
OpenVMS Sessions
<
Session ID 10003
Assessing Your OpenVMS Cluster Interconnect, Part 1: Health
Track
- System Management
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
This session tells how to determine and track the health and high-availability aspects of your OpenVMS Cluster interconnect. Case studies from real-world experience are included.
Session ID 10004
Assessing Your OpenVMS Cluster Interconnect, Part 2: Performance
Track
- Performance
- System Management
- Network and Cluster Communications
This session tells how to measure, track, and optimize the performance of your OpenVMS Cluster interconnect. Case studies from real-world experience are included.
Session ID 10005
A New Secure Paradigm of Cloud Computing using OpenVMS
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Programming
Last year I told you all about how I recently found myself in a merger situation with our new parent company expressing a desire to move IT infrastructure to “The Cloud”. I also noted that this cloud direction had started me thinking about the VMS Software Inc roadmap and OpenVMS on the x86-64 Architecture.
The thought of provisioning OpenVMS in a cloud environment still intrigues me and I have continued my investigation. I have procured a server for testing and with the help of willing compatriots, in VSI and AVT, I am moving past last year’s proof of concept and onto scenarios in which OpenVMS is going to be hosted in an OpenStack infrastructure.
This session will cover the current progress being made in my effort to run OpenVMS in a cloud infrastructure. I will focus on lessons learned creating the hardware test environment including installing ubuntu and OpenStack and generating provisionable images with the AVT Bare Metal Alpha Emulator.
Attendees need not have any foreknowledge of anything being presented. Just bring a willingness to embrace OpenVMS on the x86-64 architecture and the possibilities that it might bring for the future. Remember, “The Cloud” is just someone else’s computer…
Session ID 10006
Utilizing OpenVMS System Programming Techniques to Develop Tools for Management and Monitoring of OpenVMS Applications
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Programming
An effort has recently been started at Opus Inspection to consolidate the current processes for the management and monitoring of all of the state programs running OpenVMS. This effort includes the development of a common tool for the operations personnel that is available via either the OpenVMS CLI or a web based interface.
Currently all of the state programs utilizing OpenVMS have procedures in common for managing and monitoring the processes that makeup the application as a whole. Similarly each state program has copies of the common procedures that are used to perform the various tasks. The current development is tasked with consolidating the common processes into a single tool.
This session will cover the use of OpenVMS System Services to create and stop processes. We will also cover the use of exit and exception handlers to manage and monitor OpenVMS processes along with other services that can be utilized to collect information on the state of the system..
It would behoove attendees to have some knowledge of OpenVMS System Programming Concepts.
Session ID 10007
Managing your Integrity, Console, boot and crash processes.
Track
- Hardware
- System Management
Booting an integrity it quite a bit different from booting a VAX or Alpha. This session will discus how to boot the system in conversational mode (with a boot option or manually) and how to boot the system manually (assuming you can access the disk from the console). It will also discus the various ways to shutdown the system, including multiple ways to force a crash. Also shown will be the utility to backup the NVRAM on the motherboard, to be restored when you have to replace the motherboard. This session will include a replication of the most unusual boot problem he has ever seen, which happened to be on an Integrity, but could happen on any architecture.
Session ID 10008
Troubleshooting OpenVMS With SDA Extensions and Availability Manager
Track
- Performance
- System Management
- High Availability
This is a 2 part session. One part is general performance issues such as high MP sync, alignment faults, high interrupt or kernel mode time. Monitor can Identify that these events are occurring but what is creating them? SDA extensions can be very useful in identifying the root cause.
Network performance issues are usually best handled by the network administrators, however there are a couple of issues that may be identified from VMS and fixed within VMS.
Using the best disk in a multi-site/multi-SAN shadowset will also be discussed (ie how to manage).
Part 2 is what to do when you have a hung cluster, with the symptom of getting a username prompt but never a password prompt. This is usually indicative of a problem accessing the sysuaf file. If the problem is the disk that contains the sysuaf/rightslist is broken you are out of luck. But if one of the systems has a lock on the sysuaf then crashing that node will usually fix the problem. Here is the dilemma, which node do you crash? This is where Availability Manager can help you identify WHICH node to crash.
Session ID 10009
Customer Case Study: Implementing a WebDAV Server using WASD on OpenVMS
Track
- Open Source Development
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Other
Customer Case Study: Implementing a WebDAV Server using WASD on OpenVMS
Description
The session is a customer case study of implementing WebDAV Servers on OpenVMS using WASD. Prior to using WASD this customer had been using Apache. The session introduces the audience to the WebDAV specifications and terminology. A brief description of the
WASD components will be given. The session will describe in detail the required WASD configuration to implement a WebDAV server. An overview will be given of the different methods available to monitor and manage an WASD WebDAV environment. A insight will be given to how this customers rates the differences between the use of Apache and WASD on OpenVMS and why the customer migrated away from Apache to WASD.
Duration: 60 mins
Session ID 10010
Customer Case Study: Using OpenSource/Freeware Software on OpenVMS to help manage your small software business
Track
- Open Source Development
Customer Case Study: Using OpenSource/Freeware Software on OpenVMS to help manage your small software business
Description:
The session is a customer case study of using OpenSource/Freeware Software on OpenVMS to help manage your small software business. The session gives an overview of the requirements and challenges that needed to be faced. An insight is given of the Database, WebServer and Application Availability Framework that were chosen and the reasons why. A detailed description will be given of the steps required to install OpenSource PHP Applications in this environment, and the type of OpenSource PHP Applications that were chosen to fulfil the requirements presented above.
Duration: 60 mins
Session ID 10011
Support and communications for EMEA customers – OpenVMS boot camp EMEA customer track
Track
- Other
- Executive
Speaker:Multiple EMEA HPE and VSI Personnel
Support and communications for EMEA customers – OpenVMS boot camp EMEA customer track
Calling OpenVMS customers from Europe, Middle East and Africa. Want to know how to get the most from your OpenVMS environment? We have two sessions just for you. Join other customers, VSI and HPE staff in EMEA to:
· Learn the profile of EMEA customers and how they are evolving their OpenVMS environments
· Discover how HPE and VSI are investing to support EMEA customers, and how EMEA OpenVMS system integrators are able to assist you.
· Understand services tools available to you
· Let us know how you would like to stay in touch with OpenVMS news and developments, choosing from a events, forums and newsletters.
There is a significant number of OpenVMS customers in Europe so VSI is anticipating setting up an office in Europe. Meanwhile HPE consultants in EMEA have never been busier, working with OpenVMS customers to modernise the core of their IT operations. Learn who and how VSI, HPE and others can support your operations in EMEA, and let’s lay out:
· The recommended evolution of OpenVMS systems
· What help you need
· Who can support you in your evolution
Session ID 10012
Talking with your ACMS applications in new and exciting ways
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Open Source Development
- Programming
ACMS (Application Control and Management System) is a powerful and sophisticated transaction processing monitor software system for OpenVMS that was originally developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in the early 1980’s and remains popular with many large OpenVMS users to this day, most of whom rely upon it to run their key business-critical applications. Traditional methods of interacting with ACMS-based applications are via green-screen user interfaces (typically TDMS or DECforms) or using TPware to facilitate remote access to ACMS applications in a client-server fashion. However, TPware is only available for the Windows platform. TPware has also not been updated for many years, and it cannot be used safely by modern multi-threaded Windows applications. For many ACMS users this lack of good integration options can be a serious issue as it becomes increasingly necessary for these business-critical ACMS applications to interact with other non-OpenVMS application environments across the enterprise, and to ideally do so in a standards-compliant manner. In this talk Brett will discuss several Open Source Software-based solutions that that can be used to readily integrate ACMS applications with other systems in a platform-agnostic, scalable, reliable, and performant manner. Solutions that will be discussed include automatic generation of SOAP-based and RESTful web services interfaces, and use of Open Standards-based integration technologies and protocols such as AMQP, ZeroMQ, and Gearman. Much of the material covered will be relevant not only to ACMS users but to anyone wishing to integrate their existing OpenVMS applications with external systems using freely-available Open Source technologies.
Session ID 10014
Open Source Strategy & Updates
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Migration and Porting
- Open Source Development
- Programming
Speaker:Brett Cameron and Camiel Vanderhoeven
Providing and supporting more Open Source software on OpenVMS is an integral component of VSI’s roadmap for the future of the OpenVMS operating system. In this talk Brett will provide an overview of work that has been done by VSI to date, and will present details of VSI’s current and future plans and activities around Open Source, including information about Open Source products that VSI are intending to port (or are currently working on) and support, additional services that will be provided to help OpenVMS users to make best possible use of available Open Source technologies, and information on how VSI are engaging with the wider community around various Open Source initiatives. Camiel will then provide an update on the Java 1.8 port, including an overview of some of the challenges that have been encountered to date, current status and schedule, important differences between 1.6 and 1.8. Camiel will also show a few simple examples that illustrate some of the new language features that are available in Java 1.8 and will discuss future plans for Java on OpenVMS.
Session ID 10015
MQTT – A protocol for communicating with your things
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Hardware
- Open Source Development
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Programming
Speaker:Brett Cameron and Robert Nydahl
The Internet of Things refers to the ever-growing network of physical devices that have IP connectivity, allowing them to connect to the internet, and the communication that occurs between these devices and other internet-enabled devices and systems. In this talk, Robert and Brett will introduce the Internet of Things and will discuss some of the key technologies associated with the creation of Internet of Things solutions and services. Particular attention will be given to MQTT, which is gaining acceptance as the preferred protoc
ol for use by the Internet of Things applications. Currently available implementations of MQTT will be briefly reviewed (including those that can be used on OpenVMS) and case studies illustrating the application of the protocol will be presented. Finally, some examples of how MQTT might be used with OpenVMS to implement secure, fault-tolerant, and scalable Internet of Things solutions will be discussed and a simple demonstration of the technology will be presented.
Session ID 10017
Troubleshooting with Chaos
Track
- System Management
- High Availability
- Programming
A couple of methods on how to recreate those odd problems that happen in a typical computer environment will be covered. These methods are the result from working on recreating strange problems seen by customers. In the end the bugs were found and corrected.
Cleverly employed in a test-environment these methods can help trigger and discover latent bugs, or help getting staff drilled in recovery procedures. This session is aimed to those who already have or are planning to setup a test-environment to harden their application or practice recovery procedures.
Session ID 10019
Securing your OpenVMS system with System Detective
Track
- Security & Compliance
Learn how to use System Detective to help secure your OpenVMS system by establishing security rules for users and taking actions when the rules are violated. Learn about selectively logging the sessions of users or groups of users including privileged users continuously or when triggered by user activities. Manage idle sessions. Observe hackers and assist users with help desk tools. Learn how to keep security information on audit systems not accessible by production users. Become more compliant with security standards. Learn how System Detective works in kernel and executive mode threads in user process context. Improve your security by attending this session.
Session ID 10020
Auditing your OpenVMS system with PointAudit
Track
- Security & Compliance
Auditing the security of an OpenVMS system can be automated by using PointAudit to generate the reports an auditor needs to prepare his audit report. In this session learn how to use PointAudit to generate audit reports on patches available but not applied, users whose accounts have not been used for some time, users who have privileges, ACEs with identifiers not in the rights list, and nearly a hundred other reports which may be used as delivered or customized to suit the site security requirements. All audit information is stored in a database on a PC so it is separate from the production OpenVMS systems as required by good audit separation of duties practices. Learn how the information may be gathered through an encrypted path so that sensitive information is not passed in the clear. This session is a must for anyone concerned with auditing the security of an OpenVMS system.
Session ID 10022
An introduction to the Ruby programming language and some cool things that you can do with it on OpenVMS
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Migration and Porting
- Open Source Development
- Programming
Speaker:Brett Cameron and Lorin Ricker
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, object-oriented, general-purpose Open Source programming language with a particular focus on simplicity and productivity, providing an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write. The language is ideally suited to the development of web-based applications for which several powerful application development frameworks have been developed. The language can also be readily extended via dynamically loadable modules to hook into operating system functions and C API code. In this talk Lorin will provide an overview of the Ruby language, describing its key features and capabilities, and outlining the types of applications to which it is ideally suited. Ruby has been previously ported to OpenVMS Alpha and Integrity); however the version is old and has limited support. Following on from Lorin, Brett will provide a short overview of VSI’s new OpenVMS port and some of extensions that have been bundled with the port, including the Bunny AMQP library, the EventMachine event processing engine, the Rack and Thin web servers, and several others. Brett and Lorin will also discuss future plans for Ruby on OpenVMS.
Session ID 10025
Open Source on OpenVMS Community Update
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Migration and Porting
- Open Source Development
- Programming
Presentation of status of the Open Source on OpenVMS Community.
Details of current status of packages making up GNV and improvements of the same. Discussion of improvements of ancillary packages used in Open Source development and porting. Progress reports of various packages of interest to the OpenVMS Community at large.
A discussion of the implementation of the Jenkins build automation environment being implemented by the Open Source on OpenVMS Community as well is included.
Session ID 10026
What you always wanted to know about OpenVMS Service Control, but were afraid to ask!
Track
- System Management
- High Availability
This based on the same presentation that I made in 2015.
Changes could be made if requested, ie. deal in more detail with the scripts that you have to write, would mean less of an introduction.
Description
The session gives an overview of the OpenVMS Service Control (OSC) architecture that enables OpenVMS cluster-unaware applications to become highly available. The session introduces the audience to the OSC terminology and their meaning in the context of OSC. The session describes the methodology required to define your application environment in terms of resources, services and service-groups.
An overview will be given of the different methods available to monitor and manage an OSC environment. Based on real life examples a
brief introduction will be given of how to configure an OpenVMS cluster-unaware application and make it highly available in an OSC environment.
Session ID 10027
Customer Case: Virtualize Alphas while moving them to a different location without shutting down
Track
- Migration and Porting
- Storage
- Virtualization
This project regards the replacement of 30+ ES45 (4-CPU) systems using virtualization running on X86.
The challenge here was that they needed to be moved from various locations to a centralized datacenter, bridging 10 – 50 miles distance, without shutting down the OpenVMS systems. In the process the EVA SAN had to be upgraded to 3PAR without affecting the existing OpenVMS environment (version 7.3, no 3PAR support).
This presentation will focus on how this project was executed, addressing the details of the operation. Also explaining how the move from regional to central was solved (OpenVMS clustering, of course).
Session ID 10028
Update on Thin Provisioning and OpenVMS
Track
- System Management
- Storage
Modern storage controllers implement Thin Provisioning, only allocating space for storage when it is actually written to, rather than pre-allocating space beforehand in preparation for future growth. This lowers the cost of storage, since storage need only be purchased at the rate it is actually used. OpenVMS has recently been enhanced with support for Thin Provisioning, being given the capability of notifying the storage controller when files are deleted, so the controller can free up the associated storage space. This session describes the new functionality and how it is enabled and used.
Session ID 10031
Mistakes: That which makes you stronger
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Open Source Development
- Programming
- System Management
Our OpenVMS systems and OpenVMS applications are just not very good at some tasks. Some of our designs and our choices are bad. What I’ve learned from my designs and coding mistakes and from errant duct tape, from the mistakes and designs and misfires of others, from the dashboard turning red or green, and from using newer technologies, tools, and approaches. How these changes can fit into OpenVMS and OpenVMS applications. We can do better. If we have to.
Session ID 10032
OpenVMS Security
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Open Source Development, Programming
- Security and Compliance
- System Management
Implementations of certificates and private certificate authorities, SSL/TLS and network connection security, data encryption and authentication, online and offline attacks, password filters and password storage, and with brief side-trips into recent malware, firewalls, DNS, ACME, external authentication using LDAP via Active Directory and Open Directory, and related. Includes discussions of OpenVMS security omissions and weaknesses.
Session ID 10033
Setting up and using ACME/LDAP from OpenVMS
Track
- Security and Compliance
Update on my ACME/LDAP presentation from 2015
installing ACME/LDAP
patch summary
trouble shooting
Session ID 10034
Linking OpenVMS, Jimmy Cliff, Queen and The Who: OpenVMS today-tomorrow-forever
Track
- Hardware, System Management
- High Availability
- Other
- Virtualization
- Executive
- x86
ABSTRACT
OpenVMS is legendary and it’s great to be back on track thanks to VSI. But where does OpenVMS fit in your datacentre? Do you have the feeling that the OpenVMS community is going in one direction and the rest of world is going in another direction? Converged Infrastructure introduced the concept of running OpenVMS on servers that shared components with the volume market, and this helped drive up innovation and drive down costs. That was good, but today it is not enough. IT innovation is moving along at a tremendous rate. What was not obvious is whether OpenVMS would ever be part of this exciting new world. After scanning the horizon, and listening to many annoyingly intelligent engineers and visionaries, all the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. Let me share my vision of a) what HPE server engineers are trying to achieve and why, b) where OpenVMS fits in. Yes, you really can look forward to a world where Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials can all happily co-exist.
Session ID 10035
Perl for VMS System Managers : An Introduction
Track
- Open Source Development
- Programming
- System Management
I will discuss how VMS System Managers can install and use Perl, a premier Open Source scripting language, very popular on *n*x platforms as well as Windows. MRTG, a network monitoring tool, is written in Perl (with some C language glue). This course is very introductory, so if you already know Perl, you can skip this session. With luck you will come away with the tools you need to use perl productively on your own systems.
Session ID 10037
Connecting your OpenVMS Itanium systems to Storage Area Networks
Track
- Hardware
- System Management
- High Availability
- Storage
Summary
This session will help guide you through connecting your OpenVMS Itanium systems to a Storage Area Network (SAN). Key components are:
- ILO
- Firmware
- HBA Configuration
- Zoning
- OpenVMS Patch Determination
Description
The course will encompass the many settings, firmware and patch requirements to allow your 3PAR, Hitachi and EMC arrays to connect to your OpenVMS systems. Each SAN has its own unique requirements and this session will walk you through the steps necessary to make connecting your OpenVMS system to a SAN simple and easy. The session will also discuss some performance considerations if you have the luxury of selecting a SAN for your needs or how to make your OpenVMS system work best with the SAN you have been designated to use.
Session ID 10039
Troubleshooting OpenVMS System Performance: From Beginner to Advanced
Track
- Performance
- Programming
- System Management
Speaker:Dan Fleury & Lorin Ricker
Troubleshooting is not just for developers. This session explores the tools and techniques for troubleshooting DCL procedures, programs and system issues, and will demonstrate how to use SDA to examine running or suspended systems when “normal” debugging does not seem to help. Focus is on the practical, hands-dirty how-to, no
t theoretical stuff.
Session ID 10040
OpenVMS Logical Names in an Application Setting: A Case Study
Track
- Programming
- System Management
Speaker:Dan Fleury & Lorin Ricker
Many companies provide applications to their clients in a hosted environment. This session examines one method of keeping client environments separate from each other through the power of logical names and concealed devices. How can you provide specific client environments, custom features and data-set (database) isolation, while still providing common applications code-base and simplified, coherent systems management? Two major case studies will be the focus of discussion, and the session also lays out a methodology for creating separate client environments for testing, development and production within the context of a single VMS system.
Session ID 10041
OpenVMS and the Three Sins of Security: A Pragmatic Approach
Track
- Security and Compliance
- System Management
Speaker: Lorin Ricker & Dan Fleury
There are three Big Sins of Security on VMS — many sites and sys-admins manage to commit all of them. This session will break down the why’s, how’s and fixes for VMS system security, focusing on best practices and principles, from passwords to privileges, from user identification to auditing, from break-in evasion to safe Internet access. No, it’s not enough to say “My system is not on the ‘Net…” — there’s much more to it than that. Draconian approaches and corporate security policies aren’t enough… and are wrong more than they’re right. This is a hands-dirty, practical session with solutions and recommendations, including how to recognize your own system’s security sins, and what to do about them.
Session ID 10042
A Ruby DCL-Emulator
Track
- Open Source Development
- System Management
- Programming
This session examines an approach to bridge the command-line gap between Linux and VMS. Do you ever get confused and frustrated by the differences between Linux and VMS commands, and their completely distinct command-line environments, bash vs DCL? We will explore a means to bridge this command line gap: An actual (though partial) DCL emulator for use on Linux/bash. This session is a deep-dive through a Ruby application which emulates DCL-style CREATE, COPY, DELETE, RENAME and DIRECTORY commands in Linux/bash; the emulation also provides a selection of common DCL F$-lexical functions, including F$EDIT, F$ELEMENT, F$EXTRACT, and F$LENGTH (plus bonus functions not available in DCL). The solution to the conflict between VMS/DCL wildcard processing and Linux/bash globbing is of particular interest. This session is aimed at software developers and system administrators who would like to know more about Ruby. Join us if you “go crazy” trying to work in both Linux and VMS command-line environments, and want a solution which “just works.”
Session ID 10043
Network troubleshooting for the VMS Engineer
Track
- Hardware
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Performance
This session will focus on lower layer LAN/WAN – TCPIP / DecNet / Cluster troubleshooting using the built in tools of OpenVMS, HP hosting hardware (e.g Virtual Connect / C7000 enclosures) and the open-sourced network packet analysis tool, WireShark . Additionally, there will be some discussion of best practices for provisioning of the network to achieve the highest availability and performance leveraging OpenVMS constructs and external connectivity coordination. Attendees should have a basic understanding of network infrastructure, TCPIP and to a lesser extent DecNet, but having an advanced understanding of any of these would not be required.
Session ID 10044
Adding friends to T4
Track
- Performance
- System Management
Simple T4 configuration steps to add your own data collectors to the daily T4 data. Adding RMS file statistics to T4, with sample programs and procedures. Coping with MONITOR drift when adding your own data collector(s). Practical examples of using RMS statistics in T4 to handle real world issues.
Session ID 10045
SharkDB – the database project
Track
- Database
Speaker:John Dite and Wolfgang Burger
When Oracle announced its plans to discontinue database development for Itanium systems in 2011 a private project was started to develop a new relational database for OpenVMS. The project title for this development was SharkDB. Although Oracle decided in 2012, after it lost the lawsuit, to resume HP Itanium support, SharkDB development continued and now this database is a 100% cluster aware, SQL99 compliant single image relational database with a low data footprint, enhanced security, performance and management features. Due to the its extraordinary write performance, an integrated reliable messaging system (STR) and the powerful C virtual machine (CVM) especially developed for this database, SharkDB is particular suitable for online transaction systems.
This session will provide an overview of the main features, basic concepts as well as the design goals and limits of SharkDB. In addition a real world use case of SharkDB will be briefly presented and discussed.
Session ID 10046
Securely Managing VMS from a Windows Environment
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Security and Compliance
- System Management
This session addresses the problems of centralized help desk operations and system management of multiple VMS servers from a Windows environment. It describes how system managers can securely connect to multiple VMS servers and run DCL scripts in parallel on those servers, viewing output in a single central window. Directories and files on multiple VMS servers may be viewed in a browser window and VMS files such as .lis, .log, .com, etc. are created / edited / deleted from the Windows environment.
Reports can be taken on: server availability; disk space; process and memory usage; queues; databases; files; etc. Alarms can be triggered when unexpected events occur or thresholds are exceeded.
User administration can be delegated to nominated help desk operators for: password management; account creation / modification / deletion. All transactions are recorded in an audit log for security purposes.
A development interface gives the ability to customize standard procedures and write purpose-written tasks under a common umbrella. No need to learn new script languages. All scripts that run in the VMS environment are written in
DCL.
Key benefits are: system managers can save a lot of time by executing routine tasks in parallel. Help desk operations can be delegated in confidence and safety to less technically experienced staff. Early warnings of problems using 24/7 monitoring of systems and triggering of alarms help you keep on top of situations. And target servers may also be on Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms too!
Instructors
Mike Schofield, Shoshana Huss
Session Level
Intermediate
Intended Audience
System Managers, Help Desk Managers, Security Managers and User Administrators
Session ID 10047
Cleaning Out the Cruft: An Updated Look at OpenVMS Object Maintenance
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- High Availability
- Security and Compliance
- Storage
- System Management
Speaker:Dan Fleury and Lorin Ricker
Cleaning up disk files might seem to be an antiquated topic, especially in this era of gigabyte and terabyte drives, and even more so if you’re blessed with SAN storage. Compared to “the good old VAX days” when your system disk had to fit on a 10Mb removable platter, it seems today like we’ve got nearly endless disk storage capacity. But is disk and file maintenance a lost art? What if your systems are clogged and cluttered with thousands of versions of files that no one ever looks at or cares about? How come it takes an hour or more to generate a VMS Audit Summary or Accounting Brief report for today’s events? Why won’t our VMS web server open any more log files? Why did SSH logins suddenly stop working yesterday? This session will examine the answers to these and many more questions, cases and situations; it will also review and recommend methods and best practices which contribute to keeping your VMS systems lively, maintainable and squeeky clean. Along the way, we’ll touch on issues of legal risk and retention, security, disk repairs, fragmentation and how to find those lost-but-gargantuan files.
Session ID 10048
Integrating StoreOnce in an OpenVMS world
Track
Storage
This session will explain the benefits of HPE StoreOnce backup to disk deduplication technology and how best to integrate into an OpenVMS environment. With the launch of new StoreOnce systems in 2016 more choices than ever for integration are available to customers. A real life customer success story will be shared highlight the benefits of both disk and tape backup solutions for OpenVMS with updated best practices.
Session ID 10049
Advancing OpenVMS in an Open Source World
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Cloud
- Open Source Development
- System Management
- Programming
- Virtualization
For the past two years the author has been working almost exclusively in the world of Linux servers and small embedded systems, while maintaining a small and shrinking OpenVMS customer base.
This presentation will review OpenVMS’ strengths and weaknesses compared to contemporary Linux and considers what OpenVMS might need to survive in a world increasingly populated by easy-to-run, low cost, open source virtual servers.
This will not be an overly technical presentation but a working knowledge of OpenVMS systems management and/or software development will be assumed. Linux concepts or features which are likely to be unfamiliar to attendees will be explained where required. Attendees will be encouraged to participate any ensuing discussion at the conclusion of the presentation.
Session ID 10050
Keeping OpenVMS Environments Viable and Manageable for the Foreseeable Future
Track
- System Management
- Other
- Executive
It is not unusual to go into a legacy shop of any sort and hear that the current environment is obsolete and needs to be replaced. This ignores developments and tools currently available to make certain that these environments continue to provide the same capabilities and value that existed when the initial architectural decisions were made.
By presenting, both technically and through discussion, this session will present issues and solutions that will show real-world solutions to the primary causes of concern for these environments. These include:
- Operating System Futures
- With VSI, the operating environment continues to be developed and maintained.
- Equipment Concerns
- Both new platforms are available for a “same OS migration” and emulation provides current x86 solutions to legacy systems and storage.
- Personnel / Management Concerns
- We will demonstrate how the skillsets required to manage the environment will continue to be available at a reasonable cost, how tools are available to ease this burden, and how things like “cloud hosting and management” are even available
Key Benefit
Key benefits are: Companies built around legacy environments will learn that they do not need to execute multi-million dollar projects to move different architectures.
Session ID 10051
Implementing Network Redundancy and Failover with OpenVMS
Track
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
- System Management
OpenVMS offers several features which, used together, can provide network redundancy, fail-over and fault tolerance.
This session will detail the design and implementation of a highly available and diverse network configuration for an existing multi-site OpenVMS cluster. The design process, choices made and trade-offs will be fully detailed. Implementation steps and lessons learned will be shared.
Session ID 10052
OpenVMS and VMWare
Track
- Hardware
- Migration and Porting
- System Management
- Other
- Virtualization
There is, potentially, more to pairing OpenVMS with VMWare than just running in the environment provided by VMWare ESXi. There are opportunities to closely couple OpenVMS with VMWare. Likewise, VMWare could provide a facility for rapid prototyping using OpenVMS. Additionally, there are opportunities for VMWare itself to benefit from the high availability that OpenVMS provides.
This session will explore these possibilities.
Session ID 10054
Designing OpenVMS Software for Inevitable Failures
Track
- Programming
In a perfect world, all programs work without er
ror on the first run. In the real world, malfunctions are an inevitable fact of life, during development and during production. Unfortunately, many programs are written with a presumption that all will go well, when unplanned situations arise, those troubleshooting the problem are left with incomplete information about the failure.
This session will discuss implementation techniques, including OpenVMS exception handlers, which can be used to prevent cascading errors and improve the process of troubleshooting problems, during both development and when software is in production.
Session ID 10055
Availability Manager Overview and Futures
Track
- High Availability
- Performance
- System Management
VSI Availability Manager is an intuitive application that monitors your OpenVMS systems for performance bottlenecks and resource contention problems, It can also fix a number of problems even on hung systems, allowing systems to keep running without rebooting.
This session is meant to be an interactive session with participants to acquaint those new to the Availability Manager on what it is, and to discuss and provide feedback for future enhancements to the product.
Note to committee – I would like a conference room (not one of the main presentation rooms) for this session to allow for some setup time. Thanks!
Session ID 10056
Introduction to AST Programming
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Programming
Asynchronous Systems Traps (ASTs) are the basis for event-driven programming in OpenVMS, being generated by IO, locking, timer, and many other operations. ASTs however, are often misunderstood, leading to problematic code. This session will explain how ASTs can be used safely by applications programs written in normal OpenVMS languages to perform event driven processing.
Session ID 10057
The Fourth Porting: Preparing Sources for the x86
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Migration and Porting
- Programming
Support for x86-64 processors will be the fourth architecture assimilated by the OpenVMS community since the release of the original VAX-11/780 in 1978. Some aspects of each port have been painless, and others have proven to be challenges.
Transition to the x86-64 is eagerly anticipated. There are issues which must be addressed, but they represent fewer problems than might otherwise be expected.
This session will examine the technical aspects of the x86-64 transition. Issues will be examined both in the context of the x86-64 transition, and in terms of how the details of the x86-64 transition compares to previous transitions (VAX->Alpha; PDP-11->VAX; and Alpha->Itanium).
There will be an emphasis on the issues raised by the most recent experiences with porting from Alpha to Itanium; while earlier examples will be used to further illuminate the technical issues.
This session will be suitable for technical and managerial IT professionals and users.
Session ID 10061
More Adventures of VMS Moves, Migrations and Rehosting…
Track
- System Management
This is an update to last year’s popular session. VMS has been around for a long time and in all likelihood, you are NOT running on that same VAX-11/780 you purchased in 1980. Thanks to the fine engineering that’s gone into VMS, many VMS migrations truly are non-events. But when business needs cause changes such as moving entire data centers, requiring modern disaster recovery from your 1990s Alpha Servers, or jumping over 30 years of technological changes only to discover that the “build procedures” were not quite as robust as once imagined, the migrations become much more interesting.
In this session, we will discuss several of the more esoteric OpenVMS migration projects that we have been involved in and how we made them a success.
- A consumer goods company’s migration from unsupported VAX/VMS to OpenVMS Alpha – with only half the pieces (and they didn’t figure that out until after they started!)
- An insurance company’s upgrade of it’s aging Alpha and storage – and dealing with disappointing new storage.
- A consumer goods company’s migration from in-house to external data center and from Alpha/EVA to Integrity/3 Par
As time and audience interest permits, we can review these projects from last year:
- A healthcare company’s move from an externally hosted and managed environment to in-house hosted and managed environment.
- A semiconductor manufacturer’s need for DR that resulted in a move from Alpha Server ES45s with EVA Storage to a VMWare & NetApp environment.
- A pharmaceutical’s spinoff that required duplicating the systems prior to the sale, in a different country.
Session ID 10062
CHARON Virtualization Strategies and Techniques
Track
Virtualization
Still running your business critical applications on aging, difficult to support VAX or Alpha hardware? You’ve probably heard of CHARON emulation products that allow you to run VMS on modern, supportable x86 architecture platforms, but have you heard of the many creative opportunities CHARON allows for?
How about running on virtualized platforms (VMWare)? Connecting your old VAX to corporate SAN storage? Easily using the corporate backup solution, automated from VMS? Using your DR site without adding legacy hardware to it? And so much more… All of these things are easier to implement than you may think!
Come to this session to learn how to replace those aging VAX or Alpha servers by virtualizing them with the CHARON Cross-Platform Virtualization products and take full advantage of the modern technologies in your data center.
Using real world examples from SCI’s extensive CHARON customer base, this session will discuss:
A brief overview of the virtualization architecture and functionality
- Discussion of newest features in the CHARON product set with a focus on the new Linux utilities.
- Virtualizing the host: CHARON on VMware
- Integration with a modern data center.
- Deployment strategies including server consolidation and virtual
OpenVMS clusters
- Ease of migration
- Disaster tolerance using VMWare
Session ID 10063
My System Manager Retired – Now what?
Track
- System Management
- Executive
For years you
r systems were built and managed by the same person – we’ll call him Les. But now Les has retired and you are on your own. You believe Les has the systems configured to withstand multiple failures. Les was very good at and you know he implemented every availability feature and performance optimization he could. And, it all seems to be working because it’s been a long, long time since you’ve had an unplanned outage.
But Les did a lot every day to maintain your systems and insure availability. Who is doing that now and are you confident it’s being done to the same extent Les would do it? Your systems are continuing to evolve – are you confident changes are being implemented to Les’ standards for availability?
As the person now responsible for your OpenVMS systems, do you have Peace of Mind that if something goes wrong you can restore services and availability?
In a complex environment, there are literally 1,000’s of things that can go wrong – and they are often the result of neglect, mismanagement or operational errors – all things that wouldn’t happen under Les’ watchful eye. While not all are likely to crash the computer or cluster, many of these problems can cause unplanned outages for portions of your application – or worse. Are you confident your systems won’t fall victim to one of these possible problems?
This session discusses proven methodologies and best practice for VMS system management you need to make sure are implemented to insure your systems operate the way Les would have them operating.
Session ID 10064
CHARON as a Marvel replacement? Explorations in CHARON performance.
Track
- Virtualization
Performance is often a pivotal concern when evaluating a migration from late model EV6/EV7 AlphaServers to a CHARON emulated environment. An AlphaServer GS80, for example, presented highest level performance in the industry when it was introduced and businesses rely to this day on that capability.
When deploying CHARON emulation, numerous performance experiments are run using combinations of customer applications and synthetic tests. Results indicate a balanced configuration where the emulator is faster or slower for different tests. This information further guides SCI in tuning the customer’s application environment to ultimately provide performance similar to or superior than the physical Alpha being replaced.
This in-depth technical session provides insights into various performance characteristics of CHARON emulation as compared with the original physical AlphaServer computers. Multiple test case behaviors and results are explained and examined in relationship to ‘real-world’ application benefits.
Anyone interested in evaluating replacement of aging high-end AlphaServers with a modern x64-based emulator will find this session of great interest.
Session ID 10065
Lessons Learned on Migration to Emulation
Track
- High Availability
- Migration and Porting
- Network and Cluster Communications
- System Management
- Virtualization
Having completed a number of migrations to Charon and Vere Technology emulation there some key lessons that we can learn from:
- Vendor hardware recommendations – Processor speed vs number of cores – why having more cores does not improve the emulation when the individual core speed is less than recommended.
- Bare Metal vs Windows hosting
- How to move a half a terabyte of data from a VMS cluster to the emulated environment in record time using shadow copy.
- What about backups? Backup to virtual disk or virtual tape using native VMS backup -the dilemma.
Session ID 10066
DCL Tips and Tricks
Track
- High Availability
- System Management
How to implement a “warm” Disaster Recovery backup/restore process via native VMS backup and ftp transfer of critical data to secondary server over the WAN. Implementing a parameter-driven startup to recover the environment when the need arises.
How to speed up your system startup. Do’s and Don’ts
Collecting batch job information and mailing the log file at completion of job with status in subject line.
Session ID 10067
Re-Architecting the Early Boot Path
Track
- Hardware
- x86
Speaker:Richard Bishop, Gary Newsted and Doug Gordon
There will be many changes in the early boot path for VMS on x86 and also to the writing of crash dumps. There were three project goals: 1) always boot from memory disk, 2) never write another VMS boot driver, and 3) eliminate the need to update the ‘primitive file system’ due to major ODS file system changes. We accomplished all three with work in the BOOT_MANAGER, BUGCHECK, and the creation of a secondary kernel image. This presentation will describe the details of what was implemented and the resulting benefits.
Session ID 10068
New Advanced File System for VMS
Track
- Performance
- Storage
VSI is in the process of developing an advanced file system on OpenVMS. The new advanced file system will eliminate the 32-bit boundaries, 2TB volume and file limit, in addition to addressing some performance limitations of the current file system. Come hear the latest, including 64-bit LBN updates and how that affects the new file system.
Session ID 10069
x86 Update
Track
- x86
Up-to-date status of the port to x86 – compilers, booting from memory disk, dump kernel, 2-mode prototyping, PROBE in software, and more
Session ID 10070
Code Generation on x86
Track
- Programming, x86
Using LLVM for the x86 compilers on OpenVMS. In depth and some code examples.
Session ID 10071
Agile Modern Development Tools for VMS
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Open Source Development
- Programming
This session is particularily geared for VSI ISV partners but it also applies to all entities that develop and maintain sofware on OpenVMS. Come hear how to use a modern development environment on OpenVMS for reducing development cost and for atttracting new/younger development talent. All VMS Partners are requested to
attend this session.
Session ID 10072
Software Engineering, the VMS Way
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Programming
In this session, you’ll learn something about how software engineering is done within OpenVMS development. Based on interviews with VMS engineers (around 2008), and now his personal experience as a VMS engineer, Camiel will cover topics that include software design, documentation, coding, testing, quality control, and the importance of working as a team. Some comparisons will be made with other development methodologies.
Session ID 10073
CRTL Improvements
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Open Source Development
- Programming
This session will discuss upcoming C header changes and CRTL additions to support the C99 standard. It will also discuss future directions and solicit feedback from the attendees about the CRTL and header changes.
Session ID 10074
Layered Products Update
Track
- System Management
- Programming
- Executive
Session ID 10077
VSI Strategy and Directions
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Hardware
- Open Source Development
- Performance
- Security and Compliance
- System Management
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
- Other
- Programming
- Storage
- Executive
- x86
Speaker:Johan Gedda, Duane Harris and others
Session ID 10078
VSI Roadmap
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Hardware
- Open Source Development
- Performance
- Other
- Storage
- Executive
- x86
Latest update on the VMS rolling roadmap
Session ID 10079
Business Value of VMS
Track
- Other
- Executive
Does your manager know why you are using VMS? A variety of factors contribute to the competitive advantage of an OpenVMS computer environment. Among them are: Security, Uptime, Upgradeability, Ease of operation and Staffing size. While everybody knows the technical characterics of OpenVMS like clusters, volume shadowing, four security rings and many others, they overlook the business benefits; how does this affect me as a business: What is business value? In this session we will elevate the discussion to the business level and show how OpenVMS provides business value no other OS can provide. This is information that Managers and C level Executives needs to hear.
Session ID 10080
The Future of VSI Multi-vendor Storage
Track
- Storage
- Executive
Speaker:Eddie Orcut and Partners
Over the years, OpenVMS only certified HPE storage equipment as non HPE storage vendors provided their own certification of their storage on OpenVMS; if at all. Since VSI does not make its own storage, we are teaming up with HPE and other storage vendors as well to certify their storage on OpenVMS to provide customers a choice. To aid this effort, VSI has created a Storage Hardware Certification Lab for certifying multivendor storage on OpenVMS. This session will provide details on storage vendors we are working with including work with customers in meeting their requirements.
Session ID 10081
New VSI TCP/IP
Track
- Network and Cluster Communications
Speaker:Dick Stockdale, Mike Zaharee and Eddie Orcutt
This session will provide a comparison between the TCPIP Services stack and the new VSI TCPIP stack. Also discussed will be on VSI’s work to make upgrading to the VSI stack seamless including proviing a comon command set with TCPIP Services. VCI 2.0 will also be discussed in relation to VSI TCPIP.
Session ID 10083
VSI ISV Partner Solutions
Track
- Application Development, Modernization and SOA
- Performance
- Programming
- Executive
This session will include 10 minute presentations from VMS Partners focusing on products designed to effeciently use VMS and the solutions available to OpenVMS customers.
Session ID 10084
Comparing Architectures: VAX, Alpha, Itanium and x86-64
Track
- Programming
- x86
This session explores the similarities and differences between the X86-64 architecture and the architectures that OpenVMS ran on in the past and currently runs on. After this session, you’ll have an understanding of the architectural differences between VAX, Alpha and Itanium that OpenVMS is capable of dealing with today, and how the new-to-us X86-64 architecture fits into this picture. Some of the topics covered will be each architecture’s register set, instruction set, instruction formats, address space, memory protection features, and where the boundaries between hardware, firmware, and software are.
Session ID 10085
Why VMS is the correct choice for a Secure, Mission Critical enviroment in today’s world
Track
- Performance
- Security and Compliance
- High Availability, Executive
Speaker:Eddie Orcutt and Wayne Beeson
This session will showcase the security advantages of OpenVMS, how it relates to the unsecure cyber-world we live in and how security relates to system availability.
Session ID 10086
The Future of Alpha
Track
- Hardware
Session ID 10087
WBEM and Insight Remote Support with OpenVMS
Track
- System Management
HP Remote Insight Support, Advanced (commonly referred to as HP SIM (Systems Insight Manager)
, though it isn’t technically SIM) retired in March 2016. Its successor is IRS (Insight Remote Support). IRS is now the tool needed to report hardware issues to HPE support and automatically open cases.
There’s an alphabet soup of names related to WBEM and IRS: ELMC, WCCProxy, WSEA, WEBES, CIM and of course, WBEM and IRS themselves.
Setting up WBEM and IRS is not an intuitively obvious or straightforward process.
In this session, we will walk through installing (or updating to) a current version of WBEM on your Integrity OpenVMS hosts, “discovering” and setting them up in IRS, and testing to see that new errors in your errorlog generate events in IRS.
For those with Blade servers, an extra bonus of using WBEM is that your OA will show the host name instead of the blade model and serial number in the list of Devices and “Status is not available” for Server Host Name on the Device Bay Information tab.
Target audience
- System Managers of OpenVMS on Integrity running V8.3-1H1 or greater
- Especially if you have HPE support contracts or if your VMS nodes are running on Blade Servers
- Anyone responsible for ensuring that the “phone-home” functionality works so you don’t have to manually log support cases with HP
Session ID 10088
OpenVMS Performance and Availability Updates
Track
- Performance
- System Management
- High Availability
Learn about problems recently encountered by OpenVMS customers and solved with the help of HPE Technology Support Services in cooperation with the OpenVMS Engineering teams at HPE and at VSI. Learn about new developments and insights gained in the areas of performance, scalability, and high availability.
Session ID 10089
Oracle Database and Oracle Rdb on OpenVMS Product Update
Track
- Database
- Executive
Speaker:Kevin Duffy and Gary Huffman
This talk covers Oracle’s commitment to Rdb and the Oracle Database on OpenVMS; product strategy; release history over the last year; current development activity; current project priorities, major feature highlight and product roadmaps. The purpose is to provide listeners with an overview of the plans and direction for both Oracle Rdb and the Oracle Database on OpenVMS.
Session ID 10090
Interesting X86-64 Features
Track
- Programming
- x86
The X86-64 Architecture has grown into a very complex architecture, with a huge feature set. As we port OpenVMS to this architecture, we need to be aware of these features to determine whether or not they are useful to VMS. This session will explore some of these features – some of them brand new, like the Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX) – take a look at how some other operating systems use these features, and offer some speculation as to how these features might benefit OpenVMS development. This will offer you some insight into the kind of investigative process into the x86 architecture that’s taking place at VSI.
Session ID 10093
You can’t make this [stuff] up!
Track
- System Management
- High Availability
- Network and Cluster Communications
Murphy was an optimist. If ever you needed proof that a sense of humour was essential in our business, this session will prove it. Names have been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty) but by taking real life examples, it explores how availability and service can be affected in ways you could not predict.
While the humorous nature of this session is intentional, the serious side is to show how the unintentional could have dramatic consequences for service. If you are planning a new installation, or auditing an existing installation or system, these, perhaps unexpected, examples of issues may provide a checklist to stop the same issues occurring to you. It will explore environmental issues, backups, program logic, networking, power, security and the difference between engineers and mechanics.
It is expected to be interactive, as the “alleged incidents” which may or may not have occurred (well no lasting proof!) stimulate your experiences, lets share them. We’re professionals; we’ll offer our sympathy and understanding. In doing so, we could save you from unpredicted disaster!
Just because it hasn’t happened to you yet, doesn’t mean you are safe…
Intended audience: Anyone who cares about high availability, or just doing things right. It contains good practice from system management to data centre management, without being technical.
Open VMS Speakers
Keith Parris
Master, Engineer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
keith.parris@hpe.com
Keith has worked with OpenVMS since 1983. His specialty is OpenVMS Clusters, particularly multi-site geographically-dispersed disaster tolerant OpenVMS clusters. His experience includes OpenVMS support, work as a developer within OpenVMS Engineering, and work as an independent consultant. He acts as co-Global Lead for the HPE OpenVMS Technology Profession, an organization of OpenVMS experts within HPE, and is active in both the HPE and VSI OpenVMS Ambassador organizations.
Tom Heim
Grand Wazoo
Heim EnterpriZes LLC
OpenVMScloud@HeimNet.com
Over the last thirty plus years I have enjoyed a stimulating career in the continual evolution of the computer industry. Since my graduation from the University of Arizona I have been working with RSX & VMS in addition to other minor OSs such as *NIX and windows. Within my repertoire I possess a wide-ranging experience in application development which includes projects written in C, Fortran, DCL, HTML, Java, C++ and Pascal. I revel in sharing my empirical understanding of the design and implementation of innovative technological solutions to complex problems. Throughout my illustrious career I have submitted US & International patents championing new technologies and given guidance in documenting lessons learned while recommending enhancements or improvements to others when appropriate. Currently I am part of a small crew of explorers on a voyage to expand the role of OpenVMS in Green
Jim Mehlhop
Senior OpenVMS Support EngineerSoftware
Concepts International
mehlhop@sciinc.com
Jim started his career working for Digital Equipment in 1974 fixing hardware. He has worked with VMS since 1977 before there was a version 1. He joined the Digital Customer Support Center in 1979 and started analyzing system crashes a few years later. Jim was a charter member of the Cluster Support Group in the Customer Support Center. He developed the original Crash Dump Analysis class in 1988
for DEC before leaving in 1989. Since leaving DEC, Jim worked for various support organizations supporting OpenVMS as well as most of the IP stacks for the past 27 years. He has continued to analyze system crashes in all of his endeavors. Jim recently joined Software Concepts International’s team of VMS professionals providing Support and Managed Services to customers around the globe.
John Dite
Technical Consultant
Compinia GmbH; CO KG
john.dite@compinia.de
1972>uction Engineering and Production Management – University of Nottingham (UK). 1975 – 1976 MSc “Design of Production Systems” – University of Loughborough (UK). 1976 – 1980 Production / Industrial Engineer – Perkins Engines (UK) and Michelin Tyre Co (France). 1980 – 1986 Software Network Development Engineer – Siemens AG (Germany). 1986 – 2004 Technical Consultant in Technical Support / Professional Services / Project Services – DEC / Compaq / HP (Germany). 2004 – Technical Consultant Compinia GmbH & Co KG (Germany).
Robert Nydahl
VMS Support Engineer
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
robert.nydahl@hpe.com
Brett Cameron
Senior Software Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
brett.cameron@vmssoftware.com
Brett Cameron works as a senior software engineer at VMS Software (http://www.vmssoftware.com), helping to define and implement the company’s Open Source strategy for the OpenVMS operating system. Prior to joining VMS Software, Brett worked as a senior software architect with HP’s Cloud Services and Enterprise Services groups. Brett lives in Christchurch, New Zealand and has worked in the software industry since 1992. In that time he has had experience with a wide range of software technologies, many of which have long since been retired to the software scrapheap of dubious ideas. Over the past decade Brett has spent considerable time travelling the world helping organisations to modernize legacy application environments, to integrate the old with the new, and to better leverage Open Source technologies. Brett has been involved in several interesting Open Source projects, and he has been responsible (or should that be irresponsible) for porting various pieces of Open Source software to the OpenVMS platform. Brett holds a doctorate in chemical physics from the University of Canterbury, and maintains close links with the University, delivering guest lectures and acting as an advisor to the Computer Science and Electronic and Computer Engineering departments on course structure and content. In his spare time Brett enjoys listening to music, playing the guitar, and drinking beer.
Robert has worked with OpenVMS since 1993, and joined |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| in 1998 to work in the Swedish OpenVMS Support-team where he started off with helping customers to install ABS and develop comprehensive backup plans. He also found time between the customer engagements to teach some of the OpenVMS-courses; From Fundamentals, through System Management, to Clusters, including TCP/IP-services. Later he learned RTR and provided local RTR- and OpenVMS-support to OMX (Later OMX was bought by Nasdaq), one of the world leaders in fully electronic exchanges. Today Robert still provides RTR-support to RTR-customers worldwide as well as RTR-training when needed. Since December 2006 he is also one of the OpenVMS Ambassadors in Sweden, mainly focusing on transitioning customers from Alpha to Itanium. Since 2015 he’s also providing support for Pathworks/Advanced Server- and CIFS / SAMBA-customers. He’s also experimenting with MQTT, Raspberry Pi:s, and trying to design things in Eagle CAD.
Warren Kahle
OpenVMS Product Manager
PointSecure
warren@kahle.com
Warren Kahle has been responsible for the design and development of OpenVMS security and auditing products at PointSecure since 2002. He previously consulted on security, system management, and programming user and kernel mode code for OpenVMS since 1981. He holds CSA, CSE, Security+, and CISSP certifications.
Bill Pedersen
Consultant/OpenVMS Evangelist
Computer Consulting System Services, LLC
pedersen@ccsscorp.com
Mr. Pedersen has over 40 years experience in the DEC/Compaq/HP computing environment. His experience has ranged from the supporting scientific experimentation using computers including Nobel Prize Leaureate Physicists and multi-national Oceanographic Cruises to systems management, engineering management, project management, disaster recovery and open source development. He has worked for various educational and research organizations, Digital Equipment Corporation, several start-ups, Stromasys, Inc. and had his own OpenVMS centric consultancy for over 35 years. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Physical and Chemical Oceanography from the University of Washington. He is also the Director of the South Carolina Robotics Education Foundation, a STEM education outreach organization that is the State Affiliate Partner for FIRST Tech Challenge.
Arie de Groot
Managing Partner
AVTware
arie@avtware.com
35+ years track record in the IT-business in various companies. When at DEC as a member of the Alpha OEM team I was responsible for bringing many OpenVMS systems to the market. In the post-DEC period I focused on keeping VMS alive by creating Alpha and VAX virtualization software to replace the retired hardware. Still doing so and with great pleasure.
Stephen Hoffman
DRI
Hoffman Labs LLC
bootcamp16@hoffmanlabs.com
Business owner. User, manager, developer and consultant of and for OpenVMS software, clustering, networking, security, encryption, and OpenVMS-related hardware. Published OpenVMS author. Wrote parts of OpenVMS and its documentation. Biggest independent OpenVMS web site on the ‘net. Familiar with Unix systems. Reasoned opinions around what was, what is, and what can be.
Dan Buckley
Software Consultant
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
dan.buckley@hpe.com
I have worked with OpenVMS since 1983 at DEC, Compaq, HP and HPE. I have worked in the customer support center since 1995 analyzing performance issues, doing crash dump analysis and supporting pretty much anything that comes our way.
Ken Surplice
Category Manager, Mission-Critical Servers, HP EMEA
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
ken.surplice@hpe.com
Within HPE Europe (still including the UK), Middle East and Africa Ken is responsible for product and business management of mission-critical solutions. This spans OpenVMS and HP-UX on Itanium based servers as well as Linux and Windows on mission critical x86 servers. He has worked with OpenVMS and many other environments since the late 1970s, moving from technical support to presales to product marketing. Working with VMS, then OpenVMS, was always a pleasure and now, thanks to VSI, i
t remains a pleasure.
Carl Friedberg
President, CEO and Owner
Comet and Company
carl.encus@comets.com
I have used computers for longer than many of you have been alive. I’ve been very lucky to use VMS since its inception in late 1977, and I love to talk. I’m a physicist by training, but I will try to keep the techno-speak to a minimum. I do get easily distracted, but I will stick to the contents of my transparencies, and will get through the talk in slightly less than 1 hour (barring distractions, disruptions, and other minor events). Hope to see you all there. More details available on www.vmsperl.com and www.comets.com
Dave Sullivan
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
dave.sullivan@hpe.com
Dave Sullivan has over 25 years in support of OpenVMS systems with the combined companies of Digital, Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Dave has been a leader in the use and connection of various storage platforms to the OpenVMS suite of systems. He is a certified systems engineer as well as having received numerous awards in HP and HPE for work in the area of customer support assisting customers both remotely and at their sites to solve issues, migrate systems and help make connecting and configuring storage arrays easy. Dave has been delivering sessions at bootcamps for over a decade and while being very technical, he always tries to explain things so customers at all levels can understand and take away something that will help them.
Lorin Ricker
Senior Training Consultant
PARSEC Group
lricker@parsec.com
Lorin Ricker is a 38+ year software veteran, with roots back to a university PDP-6 in ’68. Lorin has spent decades as a software developer, delivering mission-critical corrections & law enforcement info-systems on VMS and Rdb; experience includes real-time process control on PDP-11s (laser trimming systems), velocity databases with Rdb, high-availability VMS system management, and most recently, open source, community contributions with Ruby and Linux. He is currently developing and delivering Ruby training coursework, and providing Ruby, OpenVMS and Linux consulting and training services. He is also a regular Ruby topic contributor on Quora.com, a denizen of VMS-SIG, and blogs irregularly at http://TheRockjack.com.
Greg Guthman
Senior OpenVMS Administrator
Software Concepts International
guthman@sciinc.com
Greg is a long time OpenVMS administrator for a Fortune 100 healthcare company and is now affiliated with the world-renowned VMS engineering support team of Software Concepts International responsible for integration / migration projects as well as mission critical support of OpenVMS systems and their supporting infrastructure. Prior to this, Greg has worked as a Data Center manager, Network Manager / Engineer and holds certifications in OpenVMS, HPUX, Cisco Networking and Microsoft system technologies. He has attended Laura Chappell’s WireShark University which is the premier packet analysis school in the world.
Duncan Morris
Consultant Engineer
CDL
duncan.morris@cdl.co.uk
Duncan Morris is employed as a senior VMS Engineer, with over 30 years experience. That includes 15 years of VMS support in darkest Africa! He comes from a programming/system management/systems engineering background and has a special interest in RMS performance.
Mike Schofield
Customer Support Manager
Sysgem AG
mike.schofield@sysgem.com
Mike Schofield Higher Executive Officer, Software Development Customer Support Manager Sysgem AG -January 1998 – Present (18 years 6 months) Support Manager HIS Software AG-July 1993 – December 1997 (4 years 6 months) Software development and customer support Project Manager Digital Equipment Corporation-January 1982 – June 1993 (11 years 6 months) Software development, ALL-IN-1 Programmer, Team Leader Department of Health & Social Security October 1968 – December 1981 (13 years 3 months)
Eamonn Fitzmaurice
WW Data Protection Lead
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
eamonn.fitzmaurice@hpe.com
Eamonn has worked for DEC, HP and HPE over 30 years specializing in the design and implementation of Enterprise Backup Solutions. He was a Master Level Technical Consultant with Technical Services, HPE Ireland before being promoted to the position of Worldwide Data Protection lead for HPE WW TS Storage Consulting. He has presented at previous bootcamps and most recently at the HPE ETSS 2016 event in Asia. He is an OpenVMS Ambassador and has implemented StoreOnce technology within many OpenVMS environment.
Jeremy Begg
Owner
VSM Software Services
jeremy@vsm.com.au
Jeremy Begg commenced working on OpenVMS systems in 1980 and became an OpenVMS specialist in 1985. Since then he has managed and programmed OpenVMS servers in a wide variety of industries including Government, Education, Logistics and Manufacturing, to name a few. In 2014 he changed tack to join a project developing a solar and energy monitoring system which uses embedded Linux to collect the data and a hosted virtual server to store, present and analyze the data. He continues to support a small number of OpenVMS customers and is hopeful VSI can work with customers and partners to grow the OpenVMS base. And hopeful too that he can find a way to incorporate OpenVMS into the solar project!
John Spitkovsky
CTO
MS Consulting Services, Inc.
john.spitkovsky@mscsinc.com
20+ years of multi-vendor experience performing business-focused IT activities. Advanced degrees in Computer Science. Specialties: OpenVMS, Unix. Being an agent for leading enterprise-class VAX and Alpha/AXP emulator products.
James Preciado
OpenVMS Specialist
James Preciado, LLC
james.preciado@jamespreciadollc.com
Mr. Preciado has been managing OpenVMS systems for over 35 years. He specializes in custom OpenVMS installations (especially those involving OpenVMS,HP BladeServers and Fibre Channel Storage) and has extensive experience in OpenVMS performance monitoring and reporting. Prior to forming his own company, Mr. Preciado worked for two HP Enterprise Storage and Server Partners. During these engagements, he was responsible for the design and installation of a variety of business solutions based on HP Servers, HP fibre channel storage and multi-vendor software (OpenVMS, VMWare, LINUX, Windows, etc.). He did all pre-delivery planning, on-site work and post-install support. Mr. Preciado also developed a storage inventory practice for documenting and assessing in-place storage area networks which continues to be offered today. Mr. Preciado holds HP OpenVMS, HP Storage Works and Brocade fibre channel certifications.
Robert Gezelter
Principal
Robert Gezelter Software Consultant
gezelter@rlgsc.com
Robert Gezelter has worked with OpenVMS since the initial release of VAX/VMS for the VAX-11/780. His work with OpenVMS clusters similarly dates from the announcement of VAXclusters. He has nearly 40 years of experience consulting on Information Technology matters. Mr. Gezelter has also spoken and published extensively on operating systems, networks, performance, security, tools, and similar areas. Since 1985, he has spoken worldwide for organizations including ACM, Connect (previously Encompass/DECUS), ISSA, ISACA, and IEEE. He was appointed to the IEEE Computer Society’s Distinguished Visitors Program for a three-year term in 2004. Mr. Gezelter holds BA and MS degrees in Computer Science from New York University. He was also a Contributing Editor to the Computer Security Handbook, 6th Edition (2015), 5th Edition (2007), 4th Edition (2002), the 3rd Edition (1995), and contributed to the Handbook of Information Security (2005). Mr. Gezelter is in private practice, with clients ranging from the Fortune 10 to small businesses, both locally and internationally. He maintains his offices in Flushing, New York. He can be contacted via his firm’s www site at http://www.rlgsc.com.
Barry Kierstein
Software Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
barry.kierstein@VMSSoftware.Com
Barry Kierstein is the current project leader of the Availability Manager and VMS Software, Inc and previously at Hewlett-Packard/Compaq/Digital Equipment Corporation. He comes from a system management role with OpenVMS systems at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where the predecessor of the Availability Manager – DECamds, solved particularly hard-to-find performance problems.
Brad McCusker
Vice President, VMS System Services Division
Software Concepts International
mccusker@sciinc.com
Brad McCusker is the Vice President, VMS System Services at Software Concepts International, LLC, a managed services and IT consulting company that specializes in OpenVMS, Oracle Rdb and DBMS. Brad is responsible for the VMS management and consulting aspects of SCI’s business. Prior to joining SCI, Brad worked for Hewlett-Packard in various roles related to VMS including many years in HP’s OpenVMS Engineering group where he was the Project Leader for the C Run-Time Library (C RTL), responsible for leading its port to the Integrity platform. Brad’s prior work in the OpenVMS Engineering group included a long history with PATHWORKS and Advanced Server Engineering. Prior to Digital/Compaq/HP, Brad spent eight years in an OpenVMS development environment, primarily for the US Navy in the field of real-time anti-submarine warfare simulation. Brad has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Lowell, and an MS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Norman Lastovica
Engineer
Software Concepts International
lastovica@sciinc.com
Norman J. Lastovica is a Senior Consulting Engineer with Software Concepts International. Mr. Lastovica has over 30 years of experience with large computer systems design and development including several major production, benchmark and prototyping efforts. Norman Lastovica previously worked for Digital Equipment Corporation and Oracle Corporation. As a Senior Managing Engineer within Oracle’s OpenVMS Products Engineering organization, he was the KODA project team leader, where he shared responsibility for the performance, physical data storage, index, journaling, recovery, row cache, hot standby, and LogMiner components of the Oracle Rdb product family. Designer of patented technologies, some of past projects include porting Oracle Rdb to the Itanium platform, implementing the Oracle Rdb LogMiner, Snapshots in Cache features, and benchmarking 64-core Superdome configurations. A renowned expert on OpenVMS technologies, Mr. Lastovica also specializes in application and system porting between OpenVMS platforms as well as interfacing with and porting between other operating systems. Mr. Lastovica creates and delivers extensive presentations varying from high-level business analysis to detailed technical material. His vast expertise with OpenVMS, Oracle and Rdb provide insight in to challenging opportunities within complex environments.
Andrea Arthur
VMS Technical Consultant
CSC
aarthur2@gmail.com
Andrea Arthur is an Information Technology specialist with 26 years of experience including IT Service Delivery/Support, Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, Managing Client Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) for backups and availability, and Managing Remote Support Client Sites across the US and Mexico. Andrea is a highly effective service delivery professional who ensures the mission critical requirements of the customer are met through thorough understanding of their business requirements and objectives.
Clair Grant
Director, Research and Development
VMS Software, Inc.
clair.grant@vmssoftware.com
Clair started his career at Digital Equipment Corp. and worked on the TOPS-20 operating system as a designer and implementer of many operating system features. He then moved to VMS Engineering and during 23 years was as an individual contributor, architect, Kernel Group Project Leader, and VMS Technical Director. He was heavily involved in the port to Alpha and years later the architect and project leader for the port to Itanium. Clair moved on to become a member of the HP Storage CTO Office where is specialized in integrating new company acquisitions development teams into HP. He was the HP Memristor Program Manager before retiring from HP in 2014 and later joined VMS Software at its inception as Director of Research and Development.
John Reagan
Principal Compiler Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
john.reagan@vmssoftware.com
John is a compiler engineer at VSI. He is responsible for future compiler directions and implementations. John worked on compilers for OpenVMS from 1983 to 2009. John also worked on HP NonStop compilers. He directed the backend for their x86 product as well as being the project leader for porting NSK COBOL to x86.
Dennis O’Brien
Coming soon.
Camiel Vanderhoeven
OpenVMS Kernel Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
camiel.vanderhoeven@vmssoftware.com
Camiel Vanderhoeven is a kernel software engineer with VMS Software, Inc. Prior to joining VSI, Camiel developed several emulators to aid customers in migrating to modern platforms. He also provided VMS-centered consulting services to clients across a wide range of industries, from government to manufacturing and from military to nuclear power plants. At VMS Software, Camiel’s primary focus is the low-level kernel architecture for the port of OpenVMS to the Intel 64-bit x86 platform. In his spare time, he collects and restores vintage computers, from 12-bit mini’s to 64-bit mainframes. Camiel is married and has three children.
Rob Brooks
Software Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
robert.brooks@vmssoftware.com
Coming soon.
Eddie Orcutt
Vice President, Software Engineering
VMS Software, Inc.
eddie.orcutt@vmssoftware.com
Eddie Orcutt is Vice President of VMS Software’s Software Engineering group. In this role, he is responsible for the direction, architecture, design, implementation and sustainability of OpenVMS and its layered products. Most recently, Eddie was owner and Principal Engineer at Availability Experts, a consulting company that designs cost effective, innovative and multi-disciplined computer based solutions that solve scientific, engineering technical and business problems. Prior to this role, Eddie spent 22 years working for DEC/Compaq/HP in various field engineering positions in the federal government, state and local government and commercial sectors helping customers get the most out of their HP systems. In this capacity, he wrote a Non-Cluster Aware Failover Environment application which provides an environment that enables applications that are not cluster aware to take advantage of the High Availability benefits offered by VMS Clustering. He also authored a knowledge brief on how to build an online OpenVMS software depot and solution whitepapers for various NASA and other government and commercial entities. Eddie was also a founder of Ketech Corporation, a computer consulting company, Masstech Inc., an Ada Math library software company and System Design Engineering Inc., a computer consulting and PC security software company. Eddie is based in the greater Boston area. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University.
Michelle Popejoy
ITO Service Delivery Consultant
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
michelle.popejoy@gmail.com
Michelle has been working with OpenVMS since 1989 for customers in retail, manufacturing, finance, and energy. She was self employed as a consultant for 16 years before joining HP (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise) in 2013 to support OpenVMS, SAN, and enclosures for a major media company.
Rob Eulenstein
Master Technologist
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
rob.eulenstein@hpe.com
Rob Eulenstein joined Digital Equipment Corporation in March 1987. He has spent his entire tenure with Digital/Compaq/HP supporting OpenVMS customers from the Customer Support Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He currently works as a master-level consultant in CSS ERT (Converged Systems & Solutions Engineering Resolution Team). Rob’s areas of expertise include: crash dump analysis, internals, clusters, performance, shadowing, RMS, and the file system. Rob is a member of the OpenVMS Ambassadors organization which provides a highly demanded pre-sales support function as well as an extremely important interface between customers and OpenVMS engineering. Rob holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and four children.
Kevin Duffy and Gary Huffman
Director of Software Development, Server Technologies Division
Oracle
kevin.duffy@oracle.com
Kevin Duffy is a Director of Software Development within the Server Technologies Division at Oracle Corporation. He is responsible for three database server products at Oracle; the Oracle Database on OpenVMS, Oracle Rdb and Oracle CODASYL DBMS. Kevin is also responsible for several related data-access and data management products. These server products are high-end, mission-critical database management systems that are used by major corporations and government institutions around the world. Kevin has been with Oracle since 1994 and prior to that he worked at Digital Equipment Corporation as a manager of various teams within Rdb Engineering including SQL, the Rdb Kernel Team (KODA), Rdb EXEC, Distributed Transactions, RMU Utilities and Quality Assurance. He holds a Masters in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Boston University.
Nic Clews
Senior Technical Support Analyst
CSC
nclews@csc.com
Nic Clews has worked with OpenVMS systems for around 35 years for multiple clients and has effected a number of ‘rescue’ situations.
Dan Fleury
Software Engineer
PARSEC Group
dfleury@parsec.com
Dan Fleury is a 36+ year OpenVMS veteran starting with V1.0 on a VAX 11/780 in a university environment. Dan spent many years at DEC in the field and corporate supporting VMS and layered products. He is an accomplished trainer in performance tuning and crash dump analysis, and has ported customer software from VAX to Alpha, concentrating in MACRO-32 code. More recently he has been involved with porting code from Alpha to Itanium along with general OS support. He regularly contributes to comp.os.vms and HP’s Enterprise Community as well as other OpenVMS fora.
Dick Stockdale
Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
dick.stockdale@vmssoftware.com
VMS LAN engineer since 1990, with HP-UX and Linux sabbatical when VMS LAN was done in India.
Gary Huffman
Senior Development Manager
Oracle
gary.huffman@oracle.com
Gary Huffman is a senior software development manager within the Oracle VMS product engineering organization. Mr. Huffman has over 35 years of experience with large information systems ranging from development projects to long-term sustaining engineering projects. His current assignment is to project manage the Oracle database on OpenVMS.
Mike Z
aharee
Software Engineer
VMS Software, Inc.
mike.zaharee@vmssoftware.com
Coming soon.
Wayne Beeson
Coming soon.
Wolfgang Burger
Technical Consultant
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
wolfgang.burger@hpe.com
Wolfgang Burger is a Technical Consultant for OpenVMS within the Technical Service organization of Hewlett Packard Enterprise since 16 years and heavily involved in performance analysis and troubleshooting of complex customer environments. He has more than 25 years of experience in software development on OpenVMS – from device driver development up to the design of power plant solutions. Wolfgang Burger has a PhD in Physics from the Technical University Vienna, and is the principal engineer for the development of HP PERFDAT and HP OpenVMS ServiceControl.
Roger Grant
Performance Analyst
PerfCap
roger.grant@perfcap.com
Roger Grant worked for Digital/Compaq/HP for 18 years debugging and supporting RSX and OpenVMS, implementing performance data collectors, performance analysis tools, and capacity planning modeling tools and training a generation of capacity planners. He has continued in that capacity with PerfCap Corporation. He oversees PerfCap Performance Analysis and Modeling tools, consulting, and training. His primary fields of activity are automated performance analysis, mapping of business metrics to performance metrics, analytical modeling, and predictive analytics.
Andy Goldstein
Principal
Kernel Mode Consulting LLC
on contract to VMS Software, Inc.
andy.goldstein@vmssoftware.com
Andy was a member of the original VMS design team. He designed and implemented the VMS file system, and has done considerable work in the VMS I/O system and exec. Andy was responsible for much of the VMS security architecture, and participated in the design and implementation of VMSclusters, including the cluster file system.
Andy was project leader for a couple of VMS releases and has provided technical leadership on many projects in VMS, including Unix portability, file systems, and storage management. He holds a number of security and storage management patents and consults on patent issues.
In an alternate reality, Andy spends time with community orchestras,carpentry, and airplanes.
Richard Bishop
Software Engineer
VMS Software
richard.bishop@vmssoftware.com
Richard Bishop has been a Software Engineer for almost 50 years, over half of that working on VMS. After 33 years in Digital, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard, he retired in 2012. After a brief stint working for a well-known technology company in Boise, Idaho, he jumped at the opportunity to return to VMS when VMS Software, Inc., was created in 2014. He has been a speaker at many earlier Boot Camps in the USA, and at Technical Update Days in Europe.
