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Ask Slashdot: Finding Legacy UnixWare Installation Media?

Posted by timothy on from the check-the-wine-cellar dept.

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?"

33 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Virtualize as bare metal by chaoskitty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about doing a dd of the entire drive from the current system to a virtual disk and trying to make that work? Is the Unisys hardware that special? If not, you might be able to get it working by manipulating the virtual hardware of your VM.

  2. no p2v for unix? by alen · · Score: 2

    on windows vmware has a utility that copies your physical installation to a virtual one. even sets it as the same computer account so you don't need to drop and add it to the domain. don't need any install media.

    nothing like that for unix

    1. Re:no p2v for unix? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, it's called dd.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:no p2v for unix? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:no p2v for unix? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously, systems this old need to be retired.

      Seriously, that isn't always an option.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    4. Re:no p2v for unix? by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Informative

      dd works just fine with VMWare in most cases. I've used it dozens of times.

    5. Re:no p2v for unix? by Nimey · · Score: 2

      It isn't, but if something's so old it's completely unsupported then you're fucking stupid to bet your business on it not failing.

      If the hardware's not virtualizable, the only responsible course IMO is to port the business-critical functionality to something new and standardized. Yes, bugs are expensive to fix, but so's bringing back ancient hardware.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    6. Re:no p2v for unix? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously, systems this old need to be retired.

      1. That's exactly what OP is trying to do.

      2. Seriously, have you ever worked on anything in the real world? like maybe, telephones? electrical systems? You'd be amazed how many systems are out there payin' the bills every day that are older than most slashdotters.

    7. Re:no p2v for unix? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A system doesn't need to be supported to be able to fully work. If an environment is completely stable why does it need support?

      Back it up, make sure you can still buy hardware for it to run on, and you're set. There's no point in upgrading a system which simply works as designed and is never modified. And I say this as someone who has applied the paddles of life to a machine running DOS at my work this year to keep an old proprietary system up and running. It's due for an upgrade in 2015.

    8. Re:no p2v for unix? by Nimey · · Score: 2

      The point is that you probably /can't/ buy the hardware this stuff runs on anymore and quite possibly it's exotic enough that you can't easily virtualize on modern hardware.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  3. UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 8 !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You will be glad you followed this advice !! Think of it, No More CLI !! Now, everything you do, everything you COULD EVER DO, is done simply, and easily, with finger gestures !! You are welcome !! Now go shave that beard, and run home !! Run as fast as you can !!

    1. Re:UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 8 !! by damn_registrars · · Score: 2

      I've got a finger gesture for that.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. dd by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

    With dd you can create an exact image. Unfortunately you need to figure out if your hard drive can be read in a modern system. Xenix aka OpenServer was far more popular than Unixware in the x86 arena so I wonder what kind of architecture it is?

    Here are the steps
    1. Create a Linux system
    2. Hook up the hard drive to it and mount it (Can Linux read Unixware formatted volumes?) and then run dd off the old hard drive and output it as a binary to the new hard drive.
    3. Find a Virtualization solution that is compatilbe to load the image in

    I doubt VMWare supports Unixware but it might. This is going to be a challenge and I know you may hate me for saying it but keep the server. Unless there is a new version of the software that is Linux compatible why fix what isn't broken? Keep in mind old SCO is Tarantula and owns Unixware. New SCO aka SCO Group does not own Unixware but is a just a licensing troll.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:dd by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Informative

      Update

      You need Unixware 7.1 to run. 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.

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    2. Re:dd by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:dd by Billly+Gates · · 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

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    4. Re:dd by caseih · · Score: 2

      To a file. Did this the other day with an old FreeBSD box. dd'd the drive to a file, called freebsd.raw. Then I used qemu-img to convert it to vmware or virtualbox, or whatever format you need. Then copy the result to your VM host.

      With Unix and Linux it really is that easy. With Windows, not so much.

    5. Re:dd by Anonymous Coward · · 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"!

    6. Re:dd by bertok · · Score: 2

      Linux box, install VMWorkstation (VSX or VSPhere is waaaay too expensive unless you run a server farm/data center)

      Wrong solution. You don't use a workstation hypervisor for servers when there are free server hypervisors out there.

      There's a free edition of ESXi, a free Citrix XenServer, and lots of places with Windows Server licenses are probably already licensed for Hyper-V, even if they don't realize it.

      All of those are far superior to running a desktop program on top of a full install of Linux!

  5. Re:Is old Unisys server x86? by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If that server is truly ancient, qemu might handle it at speeds comparable to your old hardware -- or perhaps even faster.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  6. Re:Private Message Me? by AdamHaun · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'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?

    --
    Visit the
  7. UnixWare v1.1 here, never used, if you want it. by macraig · · Score: 4, 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.

  8. Re:Private Message Me? by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, 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?

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  9. Old SCO by iCEBaLM · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Slightly off topic but I'd like to share it:

    Old SCO was pretty classy, they had their "Free license" Unixware 7 advertized on their site, but you had to pay for a "media kit" for about $100. Being a poor uppity teenager, I emailed them asking where I could download the media in order to take advantage of their free license. They asked for my address.

    Three days later I had a DHL shipped media kit box with over 20 discs in total. I was sad to see them sell Unixware off.

    1. Re:Old SCO by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      I never worked there, but know tons of people who did, and old SCO was great in every way except for being competitive. Once the free *BSDs took off, and then double especially once Linux took off, there was no reason for it to exist any more. They completely failed to keep up with the world.

      They played beer baseball in the parking lot, they had a variety show every year, they were a generally interesting bunch of people. But SCO UNIX sucked on toast, from a user's perspective. Too many differences, wacky daemons, slow, high requirements, more expensive than even the for-profit competition.

      The last really impressive thing from SCO was Xenix 2.3.2 for i286, IMO. That was by far the best OS you could run on a 286 with a meg of RAM.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Old SCO by david.given · · Score: 2

      I remember hearing from one of the last real engineers at SCO. He said that one day he arrived at work and realised that he was the only person in the entire building who wasn't wearing a suit. It was then, he said, that he knew that SCO was dead.

  10. What does this server actually do? by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 2

    What does this server actually do? Can you tell me? Is it a Sun Yellow Pages server?

  11. Just buy SCO by marciot · · Score: 3, Funny

    > SCO isn't much of an option.

    Why not? Just buy them out. By now you can probably buy the company for a few hundred bucks...

  12. Go back to 1999 and www.freebird.org by tlambert · · Score: 2

    And then download the free version of UnixWare 2.1.2:

    http://web.archive.org/web/19990117023208/http://www.freebird.org/freeUW.html

    Otherwise, time to update your OS, and keep copies of the installation media this time.

  13. G18) Is there a UnixWare user's group? by mattr · · Score: 3, 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

  14. Binary compatibility by ulzeraj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Linux got some binary compatibility tweaks on the kernel to run programs for other operating systems. I've worked on a similar issue in the past and the relevant services running on an OpenServer were just copied into the Linux system with a patched kernel with their dependences. Luckily the program was simple enough to make it without minor bugs like glitches with the linux terminal.

    If dd -> image conversion with qemu-img -> virtualization is not an option you could research a bit about binary compatibility with your old server.

  15. "... SCO isn't much of an option." by sk999 · · Score: 2

    SCO (or The TSG Group, as it is now called) is no option at all. The UnixWare/OpenServer business was sold to a new company called "UnXis Inc" over a year ago. (TSG retained the lawsuits.)
    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unxis-completes-purchase-of-sco-unix-assets-119609744.html
    The new company does advertise migration consulting services for UnixWare 2.x.

    How much is this old server worth to you?

  16. Re:$10,000 CHALLENGE to Alexander Peter Kowalski by tqk · · Score: 2

    Ann Coulter will stop by your house and dry hump you like a desiccated [praying] mantis in heat.

    She will bite my head off when she's done, right? Then, I think I'm okay with that.

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.