Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

405.0. "Minor Oracle/VMS upgrade problem" by CGOA01::LMILLER (Now try it once more ......) Fri Aug 18 1989 18:57

    This is sort of a gotcha warning - I have a customer, er um, at
    best naive, at worst doesn't listen (not maliciously, sort of absent
    professor type).  
    I had to upgrade his system (MVII) to V5.1 VMS.  He was running Oracle 
    5.1.22, at VMS V5.0-1.  He swore blind that ORACLE said their version would
    run on VMS V5.1 without reinstallation or anything.  I also checked
    and he was correct.
    
    Needless to say it was a remote location with a TK70 so... several 
    hours later VMS V5.1 (because he didn't do a B/U properly) was up 
    but you know what wasn't.  It had a base address error because it
    links on base address.  Of course it was late and the client had
    no simple instructions and NO proper media.  He phoned their hotline
    and the guy said he knew nothing about VMS and was VERY snotty and
    would get someone back tomorrow.  Needless to say, the client was
    not happy, so I tried to relink ORACLE.  This was successful BUT
    the client had not backed up his DB or done a recent export so I
    could not re-populate his DB.  So back to square one (V5.0-1).  
    Moral of the story - don't believe anything they say and be prepared 
    for the worst case.
   
    By the way the client, is not at all happy with ORACLE either its
    people or the product, unfortunately, due to the very specialized
    nature of the 3rd party customized software, RDB is not a fit. 
    This software apparently only uses ORACLE or INGRES.
    
    P.S.  I have got one good word - I had to deal with the ORACLE hotline
    (same client another problem) and got a lady, who really knew the
    product and VMS.  After the initial cautious confrontation, she
    was very off to start with, she realized that I wouldn't bite or
    beat her products up and that we had a common cause (a difficult
    client - she had dealt with him before) we actually solved the problem
    and parted "respected collegues".
    solved the problem
            

    Can you tell us more about the third party application that can
    use Oracle or Ingres, but not Rdb/VMS?  Should we be trying to get
    the developer to support Rdb?
    
    And does anyone know *why* Oracle uses a based image?  This problem
    is going to keep biting Oracle users until they change it...

    The only thing I can say concerning the based image is that it is there
    since the very beginning of ORACLE on VMS. When you link ORACLE you get
    those linker option files that tell you where to place ORACLE within
    you virtual address space. If you get problems with your virtual
    address space running into that used by ORACLE, you get some problems
    (of course, you can relink ORACLE, but then you have to relink all
    applications bound to the ORACLE images as well).
    
    Erwin

We have a very aggressive program to attract 3rd parties to Rdb/VMS. ANY
3rd party product using a database system should be brought to the
attention of the RSVP program!

    
    I just found out that the product is RS/1 and that RDB does somehow
    work with it.  I am very short on details, as this is new to me.
    The client did not buy the products from us, I don't exactly know
    how it was obtained, either corporate strategy, outside knowledge
    from other companies or what.  They also have tailored software
    for their communications, maybe RS/1 was a requirement for this
    particular application - the company was SAE in Houston.       
    
    Anyone heard of them?