UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Here's the setup:

IBM RISC/6000 server running AIX

The server currently feeds 4 dumb terminals and 2 pc's via multiview 2000 software emulator.

Now, the server is about 9 years old, and need to be replaced. There is not enough money to buy a new IBM AIX server to replace it, and I need to know if it would be possible to relace the server with a windows based server, linux based server or OS X based server. And if so, could anyone provide any links to information regarding such a migration. Ideally the new setup will be 6 new PC's running the multiview 2000 emulator, and 1 windows server feeding the program to the pcs.

anyway, thanks for any help, and if you need some more info, let me know and i'll reply back.

cheers

It seems you have 2 choices that I know of. You can either migrate to A Windows2000 server and user there Terminal Services to emulate client PC's. You will have to pay for the various license's and not sure how that is, but at work it seems to be going well with LAN connectivity. That is connectivity of <10Mbps.
The other choice is through the Linux Terminal project. I have not implemented this yet, but it seems good in theory and less having to do with licenses.
Here is the LTSP URL
http://www.ltsp.org/index.php

You will also likely use OpenMosix to increase performance in your Linux cluster.
Here is the URL for info on OpenMosix.
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/

And finally you can get the desktop Apps such as Openoffice/Staroffice to read your Office 2000 docs and save in XML format if desired.
http://www.openoffice.org/

Here is the link for installing a Windows Manager and Icon's to emulate Windows2000 with fvwm95 installed
The Screenshot

http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screensh...wm95-horen.jpg

Then actual download
http://www.plig.org/xwinman/rc/fvwm2rc95-horen

and the Window Manager
http://www.plig.org/xwinman/fvwm95.html

Giga,

What do you use the server for?

right now the server runs a spreadsheet program that is filtered out to the various connecting clients. this data is then backedup nightly to the IBM TBU. What i would like to do is offload everything from the server HD's, store it on the PC's, then reload it on the PC through a terminal emulator; the backup would then be to a 0+1 array, instead of the slow and manual TB. and essentially, the final goal is to cut the IBM server out of the loop. the reason why we won't simply switch spreadsheet programs is because of the time loss involved.

thanks for prior help, and any more suggestions/questions/comments are absolutely welcome.


cheers

Giga,

What other OS's does the spread sheet programme run on?

As you dont want to migrate away from this programe then this will prity much decide what your options are.

As far as terminal emulation goes, I am sure that you can achive what you want with eather Linux or Windows.

I am sure that this will cost you a fair amount to upgrade all this infastructure, are you sure you cant afford that R6000 upgrade? Have you looked into buying second hand (loads of stuff on ebay)/ remanufatured?

AIX is the only OS it will run on.

The idea is to exchange the servers and dumb terminals now, while maintaining the current spreadsheet program. and as people work on their windows terminal with the new program, eventually shelve the old one. in the mean time though, there is just too much information that needs to be tranfered into the new program to not run a hybrid network for awhile.

the reason for the switch is that we want to dump our hardware maintenance contract, and provide a far less expensive upgrade path.

plus the worker bees want lcds

cheers