Ask Slashdot: Finding Legacy UnixWare Installation Media? 193
First time accepted submitter lukpac writes "We have an old (ancient) Unisys server in production that hosts a legacy system and are attempting to virtualize it. Unfortunately we don't have a generic UnixWare (2.1.2) installation CD, just a Unisys-specific one, and given the recent unpleasantness (see Groklaw for details), SCO isn't much of an option. We're not looking at pirating it (as above, we do still have the Unisys-specific media), but do need a generic copy of UnixWare. What options, if any, are available?"
Re:no p2v for unix? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it's called dd.
Re:dd (Score:5, Informative)
Update
You need Unixware 7.1 to run [vmware.com]. DD wont work as it is not a VMWare image disk file.
I know the cost of a new license is $699 per CPU plus $1999 for a TCP/IP, but I would upgrade. The business reason is your ancient 15 year old server is going to die. All it takes is a single prolonged power outage like the one in New York City that your APC can keep on forever and your ancient PSU is TOAST! Systems that old do not reboot reliable.
So your business case it to virtualize it so it can run on newer hardware forever and you wont be caught with your pants down if something happens and it will on such an ancient beast. So buy a new shiny Linux box, install VMWorkstation (VSX or VSPhere is waaaay too expensive unless you run a server farm/data center) and install a fresh copy of Unixware 7.x on a virtual machine and over the network copy the program, config files, and database files. With virtualization you can consolidate and you can put more things on the same box to save power like your DNS Server or a Windows file share too on a different vms to cut down on the amount of servers.
Good luck.
Re:no p2v for unix? (Score:5, Informative)
Never used it with VMware but I've certainly moves physical machines over to KVM using dd images. If you want elegance, Clonezilla has a reasonably easy interface.
Re:no p2v for unix? (Score:5, Informative)
dd works just fine with VMWare in most cases. I've used it dozens of times.
Re:dd (Score:4, Informative)
Qemu comes with tools to change the formats of disk images. Use dd to create a raw file, then convert to whatever format required. I've used Qemu to convert VMware images for use in KVM.
UnixWare v1.1 here, never used, if you want it. (Score:5, Informative)
Complete with all documentation, some of it still shrink-wrapped. The diskette and CD envelopes were also never opened, though the adhesive on the perforated flaps has dried up and left them unsealed even though they were.
Re:Private Message Me? (Score:4, Informative)
've been ... oddly, collecting original installation CDs, and licenses (valid) for dozens and dozens of OSes for years. I have early versions and later ones, slackware, unixware, irix, and many others.
...
Send me a message
You know you posted as AC, right?
You know there's no way to "private message" someone on slashdot, right?
Re:dd (Score:5, Informative)
Newer Update
The poster is screwed. If it is u6000 Unisys model it uses a iAPX-86 family cpu. No it is not x86 compatible. So if something does happen your employer goes out of business! Find out asap what kind of Unisys system it is!!
Newer business plan ...
My recommendation is to migrate to another platform and start over. Your boss will hate that! Your workers will hate that! Your accountants will hate that! But you need to be able to migrate to a platform that can at least run on a virtual machine forever and ever and not be caught with your pants down again. I do not know how important this server is or what it does or hopefully does not have ancient database records needed for daily operation GOD FORBID.
Make a business case with the owners or IT department depending on size and say we have A LIABILITY. Liability gets there attention fast and explain you are one outage or parts failure from disaster that you can't recover from. It will cost money and workers who resist change will hate you and complain how great the other product is, but ask them how much it will cost when it dies?
Believe it or not there are workers who hate leaving IE 6 and 7 behind too. Just because it was what htey used for 10 years even though they used Firefox from home. Your intentions of just replacing SCO in a VM are a good one but from how I see it you just discovered a big problem that a good IT employer would recommend to fix.
Again Good Luck
My idea (Score:2, Informative)
From what I understand is the server that you have is not x86 so trying to run the software off that is pretty much not possible, unless you can get new x86 copies or have the source and can recompile. Unless you can get sources for whatever information system you are using, it seems the dd option is out of the question, you cannot just copy the system binaries , you wont be able to just copy the binaries it would appear.
One solution i might suggest is first setting up a new Linux server, then porting over MySQL or other modern database client libraries/client over to the old Unix system. Then write a program on the old server that takes reads the data off the old database on that old Unix system, whatever it is, and sends the data to the Linux server on over the MySQL or other new database driver. Then Write new software on the Linux server that can use that data or if you have the source code for the old software you may try to port.
You could also decide to forget about porting MySQl or other modern database stuff to the old Unix server, just write a simple thing on the Unix end that generates XML data from the data and sends the XML data, or some other simple format you can come up with, over to Linux, you write a program on Linux then gets that data, and stores it into a new SQL database.
One option is to write a small server that runs on the Linux end, or to use an FTP, or an HTTP server, perhaps even with a CGI script, on server on the Linux end to get the data. Somewhere involved here will be code to take that data, read it and then store it into a database.
Re:dd (Score:2, Informative)
The iAPX-86 (http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dataframe.php?file=DSA-276782.pdf&dir=Datasheets-14&part=IAPX86#) *is* an 8086 processor combined with an 80139 peripheral/ROM chip, which contained OS support code.
The application binary should use the UNIX API, and may be transportable to any x86 UNIX system with a compatible ABI (Application Binary Interface).
Booting the dd image on any other hardware is a lost cause, since the OS is certain to rely on the ROM code or the peripherals in the 80130 chip. Unless, of course, you are able to find an 80130 emulator (which a search failed to reveal).
So, grab the dd image, mount it using a compatible UNIX (virtually or physically), and see if your app will start. My Magic-8 Ball (tm) says "Signs point to YES"!
G18) Is there a UnixWare user's group? (Score:4, Informative)
G18) Is there a UnixWare user's group?
Dan Busarow writes: The SCO Users Group can be reached electronically
as scoug@xenitec.on.ca. Subscription requests to
scoug-request@xenitec.on.ca.
http://lib.ru/UNIXFAQ/faq-unixware-general.txt [lib.ru]