[Info-Ingres] Experiences with Charon and Ingres 6.4?

[Michael Leo]

tkupp.nospam at sasktel.nospam.net wrote:
> We're currently running Ingres 6.4/06 applications (ABF, embedded SQL,
> embedded QUEL, VAX C 3.1) on VAX 7820s running VMS 5.5-2.  We're looking
> at modernizing and are considering various things including emulation,
> migration.  With the Ingres port to Itanium not due until December, that
> option has moved to the back burner.
>
> Does anyone have any experiences they'd like to share running Ingres 6.4
> apps on a Charon-VAX emulator under Windows, Linux, VMS (Itanium,
> Alpha), etc.?  Is there support from any vendor for such a thing?
>
> TIA
> _____
Wow!  This is the greatest post I've seen in quite some
time.   It make me smile to remember when I ran on this
stuff in the not too distant past.

I'm extremely familiar with VAX C and DEC C, so my first question is
how well written is the VAX C code?  Do you think it would compile
and run under DEC C on an Alpha?

Like you said, VMS on Itanium is not fully baked, so I would suggest getting
the most modern Alpha machine I could and run 6.4 on it.  I've run 6.4 on
some fairly modern Alpha hardware, and it performs quite well.

Actually, unless your app is really extensive and uses a lot of keywords,
I would try living on the edge an instead try moving directly to Ingres II
on Alpha VMS.

Most folks worry this would change the hardware, the OS, the compiler,
and the RDBMS all at once, but I say anything worth doing should have
a few risks!  ;-)

Seriously, from such a platform you could seriously look at moving to
Solaris or Linux on some commodity hardware.  Both are mature and
good hardware is available at decent prices.

But take this advice with a grain of salt.  I am always a bit ambitious.

Cheers,

Mike Leo
Kettle River Consulting Inc