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Applications must operate
across a wide range of physical computing. The goal of standalone or
clustered configurations is to present the user, and application,
with a consistent operating environment regardless of the physical
technologies actually used to implement that environment.
Many OpenVMS Cluster systems include a multitude of different
processors, each with different peripheral configurations and
capabilities. Many organizations also have multiple standalone
OpenVMS systems running identical or nearly identical applications
on different hardware configurations. Disaster tolerant (DT)
configurations can further complicate the environment by introducing
propagation delay and other consequences of physical differences
into the environment.
OpenVMS clustering technology was introduced before the
popularization of object-oriented terminology and the codification
of its concepts. However, object-oriented concepts, particularly
inheritance, well describe OpenVMS in clustered environments.
Principles of inheritance are particularly apt when implementing
functionally identical environments upon different physical
environments. Architectures employing inheritance realize
significant reductions in total cost of ownership (TCO) and
correspondingly large improvements in portability and operational
transparency.
In contrast with many other operating systems, the iterative
nature of the OpenVMS logical name facility enables the use of
multiple levels of translation with corresponding default values for
each level. This flexibility permits OpenVMS systems to assimilate
dramatic changes in operating environment with a change to a single
logical name at a variety of levels, dramatically reducing TCO.
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© 2004, Robert Gezelter Software Consultant, All Rights Reserved