Very Computer

by **Jonathan McCormac** » Tue, 25 Sep 2001 19:35:59

We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came across an old
VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

It is running....

VMS V5.5-1
CMU IP V6.6-5
DCPS V1.0
COBOL V5.2
PATHWORKS V4.2-1

All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

Jonathan McCormack
Educational Bodies Senior Technical Support Analyst
Belfast City Council ISB
http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/isb

by **Arne Vajh?** » Tue, 25 Sep 2001 21:48:22

> We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

> It is running....

> VMS V5.5-1
> CMU IP V6.6-5
> DCPS V1.0
> COBOL V5.2
> PATHWORKS V4.2-1

> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

There are often machines stuck at the last minor version within
a major version.

So there will be:
- many VMS 6.2 systems
- some VMS 5.5-2 systems
- a few VMS 4.7 systems

Arne

by **Michael Austi** » Tue, 25 Sep 2001 22:02:27

I have a client running an app that was ported from pdp in 1989 on a 3400 w/VMS5.1.
I am porting it to Alpha /OpenVMS 7.3.

Mike

> > We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> > VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

> > It is running....

> > VMS V5.5-1
> > CMU IP V6.6-5
> > DCPS V1.0
> > COBOL V5.2
> > PATHWORKS V4.2-1

> > All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> > So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

> There are often machines stuck at the last minor version within
> a major version.

> So there will be:
> - many VMS 6.2 systems
> - some VMS 5.5-2 systems
> - a few VMS 4.7 systems

> Arne

by **Larry Kilgall** » Tue, 25 Sep 2001 23:20:12

> We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

> It is running....

> VMS V5.5-1
> CMU IP V6.6-5
> DCPS V1.0
> COBOL V5.2
> PATHWORKS V4.2-1

> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

I run VMS V5.3-1 on one machine.

by **Dean Woodwar** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 00:48:32

> While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about.
> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

Ironic that the best advertising you can give a system is that it ran so
well it's managers forgot about it. *sigh*.s

by **Bill Gunshann** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 01:40:53

|> >
|> > While shutting down our systems we came across an old
|> > VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about.
|> > All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.
|>
|> Ironic that the best advertising you can give a system is that it ran so
|> well it's managers forgot about it. *sigh*.s

How true. I don't remember which newsgroup it came up in, but there
was mention a while back about someone coming accross a PDP-11 in the
back corner of a computer room at a Denver Lockheed-Martin facility.
It was apparently running the HVAC for the facility and no one there
could remember for how long that had been the case. The operators
never went near it.

My oldest system in regular use here is running Ultrix-11 and if you
count making binaries of Kermit as production, then it's still in a
production environment. :-)

My oldest VMS is MicroVMS-4.5, but it's not up all the time but it
has been run off-and-on since I came here 15 years ago.

[I have older machines, but I would not consider them
"production". Of course, this begs the question is any
academic use really "production"?]

bill

--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves

University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>

by **David J. Dachter** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 11:29:59

> > While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> > VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about.
> > All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> Ironic that the best advertising you can give a system is that it ran so
> well it's managers forgot about it. *sigh*.s

T'would make an excellent world-wide ad campaign, IMO...
--
David J. Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
http://www.djesys.com/

Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page:
http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/

by **Kevin Waug** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 15:23:03

VAX/VMS V5.4-3 on node METRAD 25-SEP-2001 06:23:00.60 Uptime 81
06:55:43

Quote:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

wrote regarding Whose Running The Oldest Software? :

Quote:> We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical

work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came
across an old

Quote:> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to

run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

Quote:> It is running....
> VMS V5.5-1
> CMU IP V6.6-5
> DCPS V1.0
> COBOL V5.2
> PATHWORKS V4.2-1
> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.
> So, is anybody running older software than me? :)
> Jonathan McCormack
> Educational Bodies Senior Technical Support Analyst
> Belfast City Council ISB
> http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/isb

by **Alan Grei** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 17:26:42

>My oldest system in regular use here is running Ultrix-11 and if you
>count making binaries of Kermit as production, then it's still in a
>production environment. :-)

>My oldest VMS is MicroVMS-4.5, but it's not up all the time but it
>has been run off-and-on since I came here 15 years ago.

> [I have older machines, but I would not consider them
> "production". Of course, this begs the question is any
> academic use really "production"?]

For non production use how about TOPS-20 V4.1 (latest version current
emulators boot) from around 1980. Even updated software releases for
it of Kermit for the operating system it was born on.

06 Aug 2001: DECSYSTEM-20 Kermit 5.1(264) (faster packet reading)

29 Apr 2001: 20th Anniversary of the first Kermit file transfer (on
a DEC-20)

28 Jan 2001: DECSYSTEM-20 Kermit 5.1(263) adds long packets (The
first new release in 13 years)

Now anyone working on a GEM backend for the PDP-10? :)
--
Alan

by **Tim Jackso** » Wed, 26 Sep 2001 21:04:54

VAX/VMS V4.6 on node ****** 25-SEP-2001 12:58:48.16 Uptime 20
20:42:03

------------------ Purely Personal Opinion -------------------------

Air Systems Group
Alenia Marconi Systems Ltd.

Quote:> We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical

work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came
across an old

Quote:> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically

to run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

Quote:
> It is running....

> VMS V5.5-1
> CMU IP V6.6-5
> DCPS V1.0
> COBOL V5.2
> PATHWORKS V4.2-1

> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

> Jonathan McCormack
> Educational Bodies Senior Technical Support Analyst
> Belfast City Council ISB
> http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/isb

by **Brian Tillma** » Thu, 27 Sep 2001 02:18:19

Quote:>It is running....

>VMS V5.5-1
>CMU IP V6.6-5
>DCPS V1.0
>COBOL V5.2
>PATHWORKS V4.2-1

>All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

>So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

You call that old? We have one-half dozen VAX-11/725s in our plant doing
board testing. They're running VMS V4.3.
--
Brian Tillman Internet: tillman_brian at si.com
Smiths Aerospace tillman at swdev.si.com
3290 Patterson Ave. SE, MS Addresses modified to prevent

This opinion doesn't represent that of my company

by **Richard L. Dyso** » Fri, 28 Sep 2001 14:09:19

> > While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> > VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about.
> > All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> Ironic that the best advertising you can give a system is that it ran so
> well it's managers forgot about it. *sigh*.s

I recently updated the firmware on some DECserver900TM servers. Not VMS per
say, but related. One of them had been up for almost 900 days since its last
reboot.

This is a TS that runs instruments, printers and dumb terminals 24x7x366, so
it is still used routinely.

rick

by **Neil Riec** » Fri, 28 Sep 2001 19:46:45

Prior to the Y2K thing, I was asked to upgrade VMS on two systems in a
sister department so they could install the Y2K patches for VMS-5.5-2. Two
nodes in one VAX Cluster was sitting at VMS-5.2 (and had been up for over
800 days) while another stand-alone system was sitting at VMS-5.4 and had
been up for over 600 days).

p.s. this group is notoriously cheap (they don't install upgrades) and
paranoid (they flipped out when I suggested upgrading to VMS-6.2 just for
more stability) but their 800 day up time speaks for itself.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/

Quote:> We had a full systems shutdown over the weekend to get some electrical

work done on the Server floor. While shutting down our systems we came
across an old

Quote:> VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about. It is used basically to

run and compile some legacy software that we supply.

Quote:
> It is running....

> VMS V5.5-1
> CMU IP V6.6-5
> DCPS V1.0
> COBOL V5.2
> PATHWORKS V4.2-1

> All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> So, is anybody running older software than me? :)

> Jonathan McCormack
> Educational Bodies Senior Technical Support Analyst
> Belfast City Council ISB
> http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/isb

by **JF Meze** » Sat, 29 Sep 2001 03:55:04

OK,

I have VAX-COBOL V 4.2, circa 1989. Is that very old, or still fairly current ?

by **Jay E. Morri** » Sat, 29 Sep 2001 12:01:27

> > > While shutting down our systems we came across an old
> > > VaxStation 4000 VLC that we had forgotten about.
> > > All old stuff, but it was up for 482 days and does the job well.

> > Ironic that the best advertising you can give a system is that it ran
so
> > well it's managers forgot about it. *sigh*.s

> I recently updated the firmware on some DECserver900TM servers. Not VMS
per
> say, but related. One of them had been up for almost 900 days since its
last
> reboot.

> This is a TS that runs instruments, printers and dumb terminals 24x7x366,
so
> it is still used routinely.

I've still got 200 & 300s doing that. $Diety knows when I last had to reboot
one of those. They're all on UPSes so even the power bumps we've had haven't
reset them. They're slowly being replaced when they die, but in the last
2 years I've only had 1 die. But if I get my new 732 then I think they'll
all be swapped out.
--