OpenVMS Community License Program

Everything you want to talk about that doesn't fit to other categories.
User avatar

Topic author
ajbrehm
Valued Contributor
Posts: 62
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:55 am
Reputation: 6
Location: Zurich
Status: Offline
Contact:

OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by ajbrehm » Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:07 am

As it says on the News page.

That's good news!

OpenVMS cannot just exist, it must also be visible. And visibility requires a) support of normal hardware and b) availability.

In my opinion this ranks with choosing Visual Studio Code as a developer tool as one of the decisions that makes OpenVMS usable for the non-VMS community.


philliphelbig
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2020 3:32 pm
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by philliphelbig » Tue Sep 22, 2020 4:04 pm

I started on VMS back in 1992, paid real money and bought a new 255/233 with my own money from my first proper job rather than work under unix when I was working in research, and the experience of using it (it was at university so I had, in addition to the basic licenses I bought with the machine, the DECcampus licenses) allowed me to get a VMS job at the German stock exchange. After buying the Alpha, I started collecting VAXes (which were then free or cheap) and, later, Alphas, and so built a cluster using the hobbyist licenses. When I left research for greener pa$ture$, I set up a cluster at home, which is still running to this day (now Alpha only).

I don't plan to ever use Itanium.

I could presumably move to VSI VMS on Alpha relatively easily. My plan had been to move to x86 via a mixed-architecture clsuter (which I had for almost 15 years for VAX and Alpha), but if there is no clustering with the community license then I don't see how that can happen. I also can't imagine running a standalone hobbyist machine. While I use it only for private, non-commercial (i.e. hobbyist) stuff, I do want the flexibility and dependability of a cluster.

As far as I know, there wasn't a problem with abuse of the Alpha hobbyist license, so hopefully clustering will be included in the x86 community license (or some sort of commercial license which is affordable for a hobbyist).


reinhardtjh
Active Contributor
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2020 7:49 am
Reputation: 0
Location: Fort Worth, TX USA
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by reinhardtjh » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:13 am

Thank you for the update to the Community License Program PAKs. Opening up Alpha to unlimited units and allowing Integrity users to have access to VMS Clustering, Volume Shadowing and other HA options is greatly appreciated.
John H. Reinhardt
  • VMS user since 1981


jackson
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2020 5:29 pm
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by jackson » Mon Nov 02, 2020 6:22 pm

I choose to use VMS in my vSME consultancy. It currently runs one app, TTI's DECdocument, but I use it increasingly less. Reports, analysis and design documents have, these days, given way to Jira, Confluence, markdown, mermaid and the like. I've been using the headless DS10L as smtp and dns server too, but in 2020 it's bordering on negligence and wrecklessness to rely on it. The hobbyist licence has expired; the box has some stupid uptime

Code: Select all

# uptime
        Uptime:  1866 06:48:58.78
        Reboot:   Sep 24 17:04:36
and all but one or two VXTs and InfoServers have been decommissioned. I haven't done any development on VMS since I was in academia. I've applied for a CLP but not heard anything yet.

Keep safe.

Kind regards.


marty.stu
Site Admin
Valued Contributor
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue May 21, 2019 6:56 am
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by marty.stu » Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:52 pm

Hi Michael,

Please apply once again as we have no requests from you in our email. Probably there were some technical issues on either side.

Kind regards,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Training Team
Run to the bedroom, In the suitcase on the left You'll find my favorite axe.


jackson
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2020 5:29 pm
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by jackson » Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:41 pm

Thanks Marty, done.


jackson
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2020 5:29 pm
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by jackson » Wed Nov 04, 2020 1:39 pm

Marty, after that I received them quickly -- many thanks.

I'll ask this here in case it helps others: The first link covered the base PAKs but not the layereds. Are the layered PAKs to be found at the remaining links provided, or did I forget to request them? Thanks.


marty.stu
Site Admin
Valued Contributor
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue May 21, 2019 6:56 am
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by marty.stu » Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:38 pm

Michael,

The package contains both ALPHA-SYSTEM and ALPHA-LP licenses. The latter activates all the layered products on VSI OpenVMS for Alpha at once. The remaining links mentioned in the email are only needed to download the installation images and the software packages if one needs them.

Kind regards,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Training Team
Run to the bedroom, In the suitcase on the left You'll find my favorite axe.


vaxman65
Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:07 pm
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by vaxman65 » Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:14 pm

I am transitioning from the HP program to the VSI program for the hobbyist/community license. My Alpha system is an emulated system running OpenVMS V8.3. I requested and got licenses from the VSI program and registered and loaded them. Unfortunately, they are not doing anything for me. I tried rebooting the system and it did not help.

Is there something else I have to do to make the licenses work?

-- Peter

User avatar

martinv
Master
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 11:05 pm
Reputation: 0
Location: Goslar, Germany
Status: Online
Contact:

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by martinv » Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:57 pm

Peter,

VSI licenses are only for VSI's versions of VMS, so HP VMS versions do not recognize them. To get them recognized by the OS, you need to upgrade to a VSI version of VMS, the latest being 8.4-2L1 for pre-EV6 Alphas and 8.4-2L2 for EV6 Alphas. The good news is that from HP VMS 8.3 this is a one-step upgrade. .

HTH,
Martin
Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress;
working hard for something we love is called passion.
(Simon Sinek)


marty.stu
Site Admin
Valued Contributor
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue May 21, 2019 6:56 am
Reputation: 0
Status: Offline

Re: OpenVMS Community License Program

Post by marty.stu » Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:03 pm

Hi Peter,

It is impossible to activate DEC/Compaq/HPE OpenVMS with VSI licenses as they are incompatible at least due to licensing model changes in the VSI builds. You need to first upgrade your current installation of HPE OpenVMS to VSI OpenVMS or install OpenVMS V8.4-2L1 as a separate instance.

Kind regards,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Training Team
Run to the bedroom, In the suitcase on the left You'll find my favorite axe.

Post Reply