X86 Host Systems

VAX/VMS will not run on modern X86 hardware out of the box, due to the architectural differences between the VAX platform and modern X86 hardware.

In order to let your VAX/VMS based applications run in this new X86 environment without changes, you a need a "translator" to bridge the gap between the old and new worlds. And that is where vtVAX comes in. These products handle the connection between the two worlds, without causing complications for your software.

It is referred to as "Emulation" or "Hardware Virtualization".

Total Virtualization

vtVAX enables the original VAX software to communicate with device types that were never supported by VAX/VMS versions.

Simply attach a SATA or iSCSI disk to your virtual VAX running VMS 5.5. The VAX software won't notice that anything has changed, it still thinks it is using MSCP or DSSI storage.

Or you can use modern networking (e.g. 10 Gbps, VLAN).

In this example above, a virtual VAX runs inside the vtServer hypervisor, connecting with the modern IT infrastructure through vtVAX and vtServer. VAX/VMS interacts with what it thinks is MSCP/DSSI storage. On the host the data is stored on SATA disks or the company SAN (e.g. 3PAR, EMC, Hitachi, IBM).

Bare Metal Host

The vtAlpha and vtVAX products will install directly on top of the X86 host computer. There is no need for a separate Windows or Linux layer. Everything you need to control the virtual products via the host is included in our product (Bare Metal Installation).

The Bare Metal approach brings the following benefits:

• No purchase or maintenance costs for extra operating systems;
• No superfluous layer between your virtual Alpha/VAX and the hardware they run on, providing increased stability and security;
• No compatibility issues due to the various layers evolving independently of one another.

For those customers that require Windows as platform for their virtual VAX we have a solution also. Just ask us about it.

Virtual Machine Host

Many of our customers use some type of Virtual Machine product as the IT infrastructure in their organization. For this reason we offer support for the most popular Virtual Machine brands that run vtAlpha and vtVAX.

Special Virtual Machine functions like Live Host Migration are supported when the tolerance levels for host hardware time-outs in VAX/VMS are properly managed.

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