🚀 go-pugleaf

				LUGnotes
			      February 1996

NEXT MEETING
============

Monday, February 12th
Topic: OpenVMS/Windows NT Affinity
 
The January meeting focuses on the affinity between OpenVMS and Windows
NT.  It is being held at a special date and time at Microsoft's office
in Northwest Washington.  Speakers from Digital, Bristol Technologies
and Microsoft expand on the technical information provided at the
January Destination Alpha/Affinity Roadshow.

Agenda
     10:30 Welcome & Introductions
     11:00 Overview of the OpenVMS/Windows NT Affinity Program
     12:00 Lunch (provided)
     12:30 Windows NT Server Directions
               "Shell Update Release", Cairo Update, NT Cluster Update
      1:30 OpenVMS Technical Update
               64-bit support, Kernel Threads, Spiralog File System,
               Win32 API support
      2:30 Meeting Close

If you work with OpenVMS and Windows NT, this meeting is for you!
Designed as a technical followup to the recent Destination Alpha
Roadshow, this meeting provides information about OpenVMS V7.0 and the
next Windows NT Server releases, and describes how OpenVMS and Windows
NT can work together.

The meeting is being held at Microsoft Corporation, 5335 Wisconsin
Avenue, in Chevy Chase Pavilion (see directions below).  IMPORTANT:
Please call Ed Herold at Digital (301)918-5690 to indicate how many
people will be coming from your organization and leave a contact phone
number.  Preprinted visitor badges will be waiting for you at the 
Microsoft reception desk on the sixth floor. Bring your parking stub to
the meeting; Digital will provide you with a parking voucher that will
cover the parking fee.

The LUG would like to thank Microsoft and Digital for hosting this
meeting.


RECAP: THE NOVEMBER MEETING
===========================

The LUG met on the afternoon of November 28 at Digital Equipment
Corporation in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Support for the LUG from Digital

Dave Baker (Digital) announced his support for Local User Groups, which
includes funding. He also announced the Destination Alpha Roadshow, a
day-long event on Microsoft and Digital, Windows NT and OpenVMS, and
related subjects to be held in January.

OpenVMS Focus Group

Jim Becker (System Solutions) described the OpenVMS focus group he
attended. Digital had organized focus groups to discuss the direction of
OpenVMS, particularly the Affinity program (OpenVMS/Windows NT
integration). The focus group formed consensus on several issues: that
tight integration between VMS and desktop systems was critical, that a
full and robust implementation of TCP/IP was important, and that VMS
should try to augment Windows NT, not compete with it.  VMS engineers
were behind one-way glass observing the focus group, and the session was
recorded for their use.

Featured Topic: Oracle's Rdb Strategy and Business Practices


Joe Meeks (Rdb Product and Business Manager, Oracle Corporation)
made two presentations:

* Rdb Strategy Update & Rdb Release 7
* Oracle Rdb Business Practices

Highlights are presented below.

Mr. Meeks stressed that Oracle is committed to continued support and
development of Rdb. There will be a new release approximately once a
year.

Oracle's positioning for Rdb is that it is the high-end database
package for the Digital environment because of its high availability
and high performance, whereas the Oracle database would be preferred
for multiplatform or midrange needs. Mr. Meeks noted that there have
been few new Rdb customers.

Rdb will have greater integration with other Oracle technologies for
application development and client/server environments. The emphasis
will be on client/server tools for Windows clients, not VT terminals
or X Windows.

The Oracle and Rdb products both will be ported to the Windows NT
environment, perhaps by the end of '96. Mr. Meeks said it was too
early to predict the relative positioning of the two products.

Rdb Release 7 achieves high performance by utilizing the 64-bit very
large memory features of OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. A number of other
performance and availability features are included in Rdb 7. There
will be a WebServer option for Rdb that allows HTML presentation of
Rdb data; this option might be back-ported to work with Release 6.1.

Rdb 7 and Oracle 7 will converge over time by sharing a development
environment and a common set of SQL statements, but there will not be
a common set of file formats.

Oracle offers two licensing approaches: "named user" and "concurrent
device." There is also a Network Server Option in which users are
licensed by the network, not the system. There is no license manager
for Oracle. Rdb support will probably be removed from DSNlink on
February 28. Oracle offers a similar facility. Rdb customers with
licensing and support questions can call 415-506-5578.

Mr. Meeks can be reached for more information at jmeeks@us.oracle.com.

The LUG thanks Mr. Meeks for taking the time to discuss Oracle Rdb
issues with us.


FROM THE CHAIR
==============
by Jim Becker

ESILUG: Our New Name!

The Capital Area OpenVMS LUG has been renamed to the Enterprise Server
Integration LUG (ESILUG, pronounced "easy lug"). This name change
reflects the LUG's increasing focus on matters that go beyond just
OpenVMS. While OpenVMS remains a very important aspect of the LUG, we
will start providing more focus on supporting client/server and
enterprise computing with both OpenVMS and Windows NT.  The LUG's
subtitle will be "serving the OpenVMS and Windows NT communities in
the Capital area."

The LUG's mission is expanded but intact. The LUG seeks to promote the
exchange of information about OpenVMS, Windows NT, and related
products, services, and technologies. The LUG remains affiliated with
the Digital Equipment Computer Users Society, DECUS.


JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS AT LUG MEETINGS
=================================

Job announcements will be allowed during LUG meetings. During the
general Q&A part of each meeting, attendees will be allowed to give
brief descriptions of job openings or jobs desired.  Interested
parties can pursue the matter "off-line".

In past years, DECUS rules prohibited using DECUS-related events (such
as LUG meetings) as job-search forums. DECUS has relaxed those rules
considerably, allowing each LUG to set whatever policy it wants on the
matter. The Steering Committee has decided to allow brief job
announcements. We decided not to provide a clearing-house service,
because other organizations would have more time for it and do it better.


LUG MAILING LIST ON THE INTERNET
================================

The LUG now has an Internet mailing list, where you can receive
announcements about LUG and DECUS events.

To subscribe to the list, send the command

  subscribe capvmslug-list

in the body (not Subject:) of a message to Internet address
mailserv@decus.org.  The automated list server will add your address
to the list, and send you a welcome message.  Note that the list of
subscribers is not available to the public.

If you were already on the LUG's e-mail distribution list when
capvmslug-list was created, your address will be automatically
subscribed.  (Note: the name of our list will eventually change to
match our new LUG name (see above).  You can get a directory of
decus.org mailing lists by using mailserv command dir/list.)


DIRECTIONS TO MICROSOFT
=======================

Microsoft's office is located at 5335 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 600,
Washington, DC 20015, in Chevy Chase Pavilion.  Our thanks to Charles
Kelly of ASUG for making these directions available on his Web site.

By Metro 

Take the Red Line to the Friendship Heights station. At the top of the
escalator, follow the signs to Western Avenue and then to the Chevy
Chase Pavilion.  Take that doorway from the station into the Pavilion
and turn left. Look for glass doors to the office building. Take the
elevator to the 6th floor.

From Virginia (west)

Take the Capital Beltway I-495 east/north across the American Legion
Bridge into Maryland. Take the River Road Exit toward D.C.  Follow
River Road approximately five miles to Western Ave.; there will be a
traffic light at this intersection.  Make a left at the light and
follow Western Ave. to Wisconsin Ave.; you will see Microsoft's
building directly in front of you. Go across Wisconsin Ave. to
Military Road and look for the parking garage on the right just after
the Embassy Suites.

From National Airport

Exit the airport onto the George Washington Parkway northbound toward
D.C.  Follow the Parkway until you see signs to Key Bridge. Go across
Key Bridge to M Street. Make a right on M Street.  Make a left onto
Wisconsin Avenue and follow Wisconsin approximately four miles. You
will see the Chevy Chase Pavilion on the right. Turn right into the
parking garage.

From Baltimore

Take I-495 West and exit at Connecticut Ave (turn left toward D.C.).
While on Connecticut you will reach a traffic circle. Take its Western
Avenue exit and follow Western until you see Embassy Suites on your
left. There will be a parking garage before the Embassy Suites.

Another option from Maryland is to exit I-495 at Wisconsin Ave. toward
Bethesda and follow Wisconsin for approximately two to three
miles. You will see the building (Chevy Chase Pavilion) directly to
the left. Look for the Western Avenue intersection and turn left. The
parking garage is to the right.


Preprinted visitor badges will be waiting for you at the  Microsoft
reception desk on the sixth floor. Bring your parking stub to the
meeting; Digital will provide you with a parking voucher that will cover
the parking fee.


***************************************************************************
* Debbie Driesman                      Phone: 301-794-2822                *
* Computer Sciences Corporation        Fax:   301-794-9530                *
* 7700 Hubble Drive                    Email: ddriesma@nastg.gsfc.nasa.gov*
* Lanham-Seabrook Md. 20706                                               *
***************************************************************************