Number 99 (Update of Volume 9, Issue 8)

MPE’s future growth may not lag much behind HP-UX

The expiration date of OpenMPE’s newest confidential disclosure agreement has something in common with the future for HP’s favorite 3000 replacement, HP-UX. Both systems will be in declining growth by the time the OpenMPE CDA runs out. A recent report from IDC predicts that while server revenues will improve by 5 percent this year, nearly all of the growth is going to the HP-UX alternatives Linux and Windows. In fact, by 2008, IDC expects that Windows-based and Linux-based servers will make up 89 percent of all servers shipped. As for this year’s results, HP’s sales ranked No. 2 measured by server revenue, 26.9 percent of the market. IBM again held onto its lead, gaining 3.3 points share to end the first quarter with $3.41 billion in server revenue and market share of 29.7 percent. HP shipped more units than IBM in the first quarter.

On that new CDA between HP and OpenMPE, board member John Burke was speaking for himself when he outlined what OpenMPE could say over the next few years. “I am disappointed it took us over two months to put the CDA issue to bed and to craft a statement to the membership,” Burke said on the OpenMPE mailing list. “But we finally have done both and can now move forward,” And when Adager’s Alfredo Rego asked if OpenMPE could craft regular messages outlining “lack of progress,” Burke replied, “Absolutely. Speaking for myself only, the jury is still out as to whether HP (the company, not necessarily the individuals left in vCSY) is willing to work with OpenMPE or some other group to create a situation where MPE can exist in some supportable manner post-2006, or whether the corporate HP is just stringing us along. If the latter is the case, there are ways we (I) can communicate that without violating the letter or spirit of the confidentiality agreement.”

WebWise secure server patches updated

Beta test patches that updated the 3000’s only secure Web server have been moving slowly off the vendor’s shelves, reports HP’s Mark Bixby. So slow that the Apache open source group released a newer version of the server, before the 3000’s WebWise could make it into general release. Bixby, who brought Apache to the HP 3000 before he joined the HP 3000 division, saw the newest Apache releases and incorporated them into a fresher set of patches for WebWise.

WebWise was once an extra-charge product, but now it’s included with MPE/iX. Now the secure Web server has been rebuilt with Apache 1.3.31. “I took the opportunity to rebuild WebWise on 1.3.31 and issue new beta patches,” Bixby reported. The current beta test patch IDs are WBWHD95A for MPE/iX 6.5, WBWHD96A for MPE/iX 7.0 and WBWHD97A for MPE/iX 7.5

HP first rolled out these beta patches in late April, and “Few customers have shown any interest in the old beta patches,” Bixby said. “If new versions of WebWise/Apache are important to you between now and 12/31/06, please help the above patches move towards general release status by contacting the HP Response Center, and asking them to send you a beta test version.” HP’s 3000 patches are available without a support contract, but beta-test versions are only shipped to supported customers. One way to look at it: customers on support can help everybody else, by getting these patches into general release.

HP’s Web support makes top 10

Some of the best support that HP offers comes over its Web pages, according to the Association of Support Professionals (ASP). Support has become one of the only HP 3000 products the company sells, and ASP selected HP’s as one of this year’s “Ten Best Web Support Sites.” Five ASP judges — customer support managers and support professionals — gave HP one of the ten best scores in the Open Category for its IT Resource Center (ITRC) and the Business Support Center. The ITRC delivers HP’s patches for the 3000, along with a knowledge base on the system. HP calls the Business Support Center a site to “solve problems quickly, whether they're related to HP PCs, printers, storage or other desktop computing devices.” HP said it scored well on overall usability, design and navigation; knowledge base and search implementation; interactive features, and personalization.

HP landed a spot on the top 10 list for the second straight year, but the ASP doesn’t reveal exactly where a company’s Web support places against other leading firms. Cognos, makers of PowerHouse and Axiant software for HP 3000s, and Apple Computer also earned places among the top 10 companies. Who’s best is something ASP doesn’t want to measure. “We discourage the notion that Web support can be measured on a simple linear scale,” said Jeffrey Tarter, ASP executive director. “We identify a group of ten companies that embody overall excellence, and we show individual participants how they compare against category averages.” ASP sells a book that details the scores and features of the top 10 winners.

Tarter said HP’s online support is richer than just working with its phone-based services. “Web support is no longer just a way to save on the cost of answering the phone – it’s now recognized as the gateway to a much richer choice of support-related services than customers can get from a live agent alone,” he said. “HP exemplifies this shift.”

HP is buying itself back

HP’s board of directors has authorized the use of $2 billion to buy back the company’s stock. Analysts asked about the stock repurchase plans during the last quarterly report briefing, and HP’s CFO Bob Wayman said the surplus cash at the company had to be put to work somewhere. A stock buyback can lift share prices by reducing the number of outstanding shares. But another goal of a buyback can be to transfer shareholders’ profits to employees. HP’s had a generous employee stock purchase plan for many years, and its executives hold millions of dollars’ worth shares.

At the last HP annual meeting, shareholders approved a resolution asking HP management to expense the stock options it gives its employees. That would drive down HP’s earnings, the most closely-watched metric of the HP-Compaq merger. HP CEO Carly Fiorina said the company would only consider expensing the options.

At the same time HP announced it would buy back its own shares, the company paid an 8-cent-a-share dividend to shareholders. The $2 billion would have raised the dividend closer to 9 cents. In the meantime, enough money to buy 95 million shares of HP stock has sailed though the board’s approval. That’s less than one half a percent of all HP shares, but more than enough to reward employees.

And speaking of employees, HP predicted that it will be hiring 1,400 more of them over the coming two quarters. The massive departures of more than 26,000 HP staffers have been countered by outsourcing acquisitions since that merger in 2002. HP ended its latest quarter with 145,600 employees, up more than 3,500 from the previous quarter. Most of the new hires came through acquisitions and outsourcing deals, where HP hires on the computer administrators of customers like Procter & Gamble.

TSG brings on MANMAN vendor expert

While large vendors make adjustments to their business models for older systems and software, those shifts can make opportunities for third party support. The Support Group inc., which provides independent MANMAN support, announced it’s hired Robert Bruce, who worked for eight years at the support desks of CA’s InterBiz and SSA Global Technologies. Bruce turned down an offer from SSA to move to Grand Rapids, MI, where we know he will be greatly missed,” said tSGi’s Shaggy Carey. “Their loss is our gain, and we are very excited to have him join our team of experts. Now that he is on board, we can extend our support to VAX/Open VMS Customers.”

Carey added that tSGi will offer half-price support contracts “for those companies stuck with the usage clause in their current contract with SSA. We at tSGi feel everyone is entitled to the best quality support for the support dollars they pay. Our technical support team can support any release of MANMAN, with years of experience supporting all releases.” Contact tSGi at 512-266-4400 or www.supgrp.com

PatchWatch: Preventing hangs on large file IO

Although HP has been finding it harder to get MPE/iX patches through the beta test process, some are moving more quickly than others. The vendor put a 7.5 patch, MPEMXN6B, into general release this month after about three months of testing. The patch stops system hangs that have been occurring during IO of files greater than 4Gb.

“If the large file resides on a mirrored user volume set, mirrored volumes can become disabled,” HP’s patch instructions advise. “These problems are caused by improperly formed file extent entries for files that are greater then 4Gb in size and have all of their file extents pre-allocated. This patch prevents the improperly formed file extent entries from occurring when a new file is built.”

Another patch, MPEMXP5, allows the system to work properly with those files that have already been built with improperly formed file extent entries.

PatchWatch: Minidumps work again on Autorestart

In another patch pushed through to general release, HP has fixed an MPE/iX problem with Autorestart/iX.

When the minidump feature of Autorestart/iX is used, minidump can be configured to take a full memory dump under certain circumstances. In MPE/iX C.70.00 and C.75.00 this feature no longer works and SAT (the program that performs a minidump) fails to invoke DUMP to take a full memory dump.

Patch MPEMXK7A for MPE/iX 7.0 and 7.5 corrects the problem in SAT, so that DUMP is correctly invoked when so configured.