VM Migration

SLAC 22 July 1996

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Introduction

As described in the SLAC Strategic Plan for Computing, SLAC is moving from mainframe computing based on VM to a distributed computing paradigm. Services currently available on the VM mainframe will be made available through client-server technology to users on desktop PCs and Macintoshes, UNIX workstations, and X Terminals.

The target date for ending VM service at SLAC is December 1997. However, many services will be discontinued incrementally as replacement services are available elsewhere. The following sections describe the schedule and strategy for transferring major services from VM. Announcements will be made via VM news and on this WWW page prior to discontinuing services.

If you have concerns about the VM Migration plans, please contact Chuck Boeheim for assistance.

News bulletins

* VM Capacity Reduced (22 Jul 96)
As of July 22, the VM system has been reduced from a 3 CPU configuration to a single CPU, effectively reducing the capacity of the VM system by 2/3. The number of 4490 (cartridge) tape drives has been reduced to 4, and most of the 3380 disk has been taken out of service. These changes are in response to the drastically reduced load on VM after the shutdown of the batch system.
* 3800 Printer to be removed (22 Jul 96)
During August, the 3800 printer will be removed. It has become too expensive to operate and maintain, and the floor space is needed for an additional tape silo. Please re-direct small print jobs to your local departmental printers, using the PRT command. For larger jobs, SCS is acquiring a Xerox 4090 printer, which can print 40 sheets per minute. Instructions on the use of this new printer will be made available soon.
* Morgue for Dead Minidisks (22 Jul 96)
A morgue is now available for minidisks removed from the VM system. On any UNIX system, cd to /nfs/morgue/group/userid, where group is your two-letter group code, and userid is your VM userid. Each minidisk belonging to that account will be a subdirectory. Files from VM are usually in EBCDIC code, and need translation before being readable on UNIX. The vmfile command will translate EBCDIC to ASCII and convert VM record conventions to UNIX conventions. The morgue will provide a snapshot of files on VM when any account is closed, and will have a complete set of all VM accounts when VM is shutdown. The purpose of the morgue is to ease the transition away from VM by providing continued access to VM files after the end of VM service.
* VM Account and Minidisk closures (2 Apr 96)
On July 1, 1996, unused VM minidisks will be deleted and unused accounts will be closed. All minidisks* that have not been linked since November 10, 1995 are considered unused. All accounts* that have no remaining minidisks after these are removed are considered unused. The data from the minidisks will be recoverable from the VM backup system for the remainder of the lifetime of the VM system.

Please check the list of minidisks and accounts for any accounts belonging to you or your group. If there are any minidisks or accounts that should not be deleted at this time, send mail to boeheim@slac.stanford.edu. The mail should include the department and division responsible for the account, and the plan for moving the account function off of VM before the end of VM's lifetime.

* VM Batch and Staging systems closed (2 Apr 96)
As previously announced, the VM Batch and Staging systems are now restricted to only authorized users who have submitted justification for continued use of the system.

What are we migrating to?

SLAC has central support for Windows NT, Macintosh, and UNIX. Your choice from these platforms will be governed by the type of computing you do, and possibly by the people with whom you communicate. You may find you need a mixture of both styles of computing. Since it is relatively easy to access UNIX systems from Macintoshes or PCs, but not vice-versa, a good model for mixed computing is a Mac or PC on the desktop with X-Windows software to access the UNIX systems.

There are many classes and seminars available to help you learn about the new systems.

How are major services migrating from VM?

* Electronic Mail
Electronic mail is readily available on all other supported platforms. SCS recommends and supports the Eudora Pro  mail reader for PCs and Macs, which is freely available to the SLAC community through a site license. See the classes and seminars list for descriptions and times for Eudora Pro classes.

There are many mail readers available on UNIX, and SCS supports and recommends the elm mail reader.

* Netnews
There are many newsreaders available for all other platforms that are at least as satisfactory as the one on VM, however SCS has not yet selected the ones that it will support. Netscape 2.0 is a promising candidate for support, however it requires an upgrade to the SLAC news server to be compatible, and there are significant security concerns with the current release. The news server upgrade is awaiting hardware and manpower, and may take a few months (from March) to complete. We hope that Netscape addresses the security flaws during that time.
* Batch Computing and Tape Access
The SCS Compute Farm provides batch computing with strong similarities to the SLAC Batch system on VM, and provides mechanisms for accessing tapes in the StorageTek Silo or in 8mm or 4mm tape stackers.
* Databases
Owners of SPIRES databases have three basic choices:
  1. Discontinue providing the database; This will be the choice for many of the SPIRES databases that are to be supplanted by the new Business Information System currently being implemented.
  2. Convert the database to ORACLE, the supported database system on Unix;
  3. Move the database to uSPIRES - an experimental portable version of SPIRES;

Statistics on the current usage of all VM SPIRES databases are available.

George Crane has developed guidelines for VM ORACLE table owners migrating to UNIX. These owners should consider doing the following:
  1. Exporting and archiving existing tables;
  2. Establishing an ORACLE userid in UNIX;
  3. Moving the needed tables, forms, etc. to UNIX;
* Departmental Information Sharing
The Web is taking over the distribution of much of the information that is formally provided by departments and users to others. Classes on accessing the Web are given frequently, and classes on providing information via the Web are scheduled from time to time.

Casual file sharing, of the sort exemplified by GIME <username> commands, is more difficult to provide in a distributed computing environment. The AFS file system provides a common file system to all supported UNIX systems at SLAC (and indeed to anyone running AFS anywhere on the Internet). However, there are not yet good AFS clients for PCs and Macs, though SCS is actively investigating those and expects to provide them in the future.

What is the schedule for service phaseout?

The following services are scheduled for phaseout:

Effective immediately: Effective April 1, 1996: Effective June 1, 1996: Effective September 1, 1996: Future items to be scheduled:

Owner: Bebo