[NCSA-discuss] SCO nfs

[Brad Oaks]

I upgraded a SCO system similar to what you're talking about sometime
in the middle to late 1990's in Brevard, NC, but I don't remember the
version numbers -- we were going from quite ancient to the then-recent
version.  It was serving an accounting application too.  I had install
media for the newer version of the OS, but the real fun was in picking
out the device driver files from the old box and moving them to the
new box.  We didn't know where the install media for the device
drivers were by then.

That company (L & B Computers) wrote in Business BASIC, but later
merged with another municipal accounting software services firm named
Logics, LLC.  http://www.logicssolutions.com/  Logics's product was
written in Micro COBOL at the time.  They were retooling into desktop
applications about the time I left over a dozen years ago.  I still
have a fondness for the VT100 interface of those old systems.

I wonder if some of their customers are still running the old servers
from back then.  I'm happy to ask them if you'd like me to.

It sounds like you have a network interface on your machine if you can
get it online, but if you didn't you could see if that version of SCO
has SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol).  If it did, you could
transfer files over a serial line to a modern Linux machine then reach
out to wherever you want from the modern box.

I hate powering off a machine that old where the Hard Drive is still
working.  But I also wonder if you couldn't boot it on a CloneZilla CD
and at least grab an image of the whole disk.  But if you're willing
to power off the machine, I'd be tempted to connect the HD to another
computer (gingerly) to make a full backup.

Best of luck to you and to them.  It's nice to remember some of where
we've been.  It's spooky to realize some are still there, but it works
for them (until it doesn't). :)

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:02 PM, Steve Wolfe <swolfe100 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The cost of the linux is the top of the iceberg.
>
> When you consider just to do the upgrade for the labor  most would
> charge you probably $800 to $1600 the labour even if it worked.if it
> didn't , it could get more expensive.
>
> And you will have the price to the business of the downtime to back it
> up before you messed with it, and the cost to the business to back it
> up again when you have the new software installed .. or to restore it
> back if it failed.
>
> And then the admins, and users would have to learn the new system ..
> OJT at what ever their rate is.
> And if you give them a kick start .. say $500/person for a class - you
> still have the On the Job training and futzin and whining.
> and probably their pay while they attended class.
>
> To port that COBOL code
> I would stick a finger in the air and say it would probably be at
> least $10,000 a month for 6 months to 12 months.
> so a port would be $60,000 to $120,000
>
> If the server is an x86 machine you might be able to port the whole pile to a VM
> yet to get the vm guy to help you port it would probably be about
> $2000 in consulting fees + the $2000 for the vm software.
>
>
> Fri, May 4, 2012 at 8:10 PM, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net> wrote:
>> On Fri, 4 May 2012, Steve Wolfe wrote:
>>
>>> At this point $1400 is darkly cheap.
>>
>>
>> I don't know the business's constraints, so I haven't a clue. You've seen
>> something I haven't seen in the price. Can you expound a bit more on why
>> this is cheap?
>>
>> The reason I suggested a NAS was for backup. Currently they're using 20G
>> tapes which don't take all their data. They've been running the same half
>> doz tapes every night for 10yrs. I can't imagine that the surface of the
>> tapes is any good still. I don't know if they do a read/verify afterwards. I
>> would expect the tape drive to be throwing checksum errors. I also don't
>> know if they've ever done a test restore. They've never replaced the disk (I
>> suggested a new one). I think they're lucky to still have a working machine.
>>
>>
>>> My concern would be - will all this stuff continue to run on the upgraded
>>> version?
>>
>>
>> They would go from 5.0.4 host (non-networking) to 5.0.6 enterprise
>> (networking). I imagine that's only patches and I would hope everything
>> would run as before.
>>
>> I don't expect SCO to be around forever. The business is quite happy with
>> their in-house accounting package and see no reason why it would have to
>> change in the next 20yrs. If they could keep running on the same version of
>> SCO, they wouldn't care at all.
>>
>> They will need to go to SATA etc as hardware changes. For that they need the
>> 15k$ SCO OS upgrade. Maybe they should buy 20yrs worth of IDE disks and
>> mobos and stay with what they've got.
>>
>> If they change to Linux, I would expect for a 10man-yr COBOL application
>> that porting could be 6mo (but have no idea really).
>>
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> --
>> Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
>> jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
>> generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
>> Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!
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