Apollo Date Bug Problem
by Ray Whiteley
The date of Sunday 2 November 1997 wasn't anything special as far as most people on the planet were concerned, however, if you had an Apollo network, especially an Aegis network, it soon became a 'day to remember'.
To those Apollo users with maintenance contracts, with contacts within the Internet community or membership of the User Group fraternity, it came as no great surprise that Aegis and Domain both had a date bug problem which HP had known about for some time and for which distributed patches and information was available to enable users to upgrade their systems. Aegis would not be supported but Domain 10.3.5 and 10.4.1 would be patched.
It never ceases to amaze me when I look at the number of companies who are still running Aegis as their primary product support system, but have no maintenance contracts with HP or any other third parties. They were totally oblivious as to what was about to happen to them. Quite a few of these companies who are running Aegis 9.7 (or even earlier versions) and are 'mission critical', rang me for some advice. I explained what I had done for one company - which was to build a loan 10.4.1.2 gateway machine which connects to their token ring but allows data transfer to their SUN via ethernet. Historical archive data being loaded from cartridge tape onto the Apollos and then passed by NFS or FTP to the SUN network.
I myself have one machine at Aegis 9.7.5 which cannot be changed to Domain as any software built on it has to match the original build specifications of 1989 when the product went into the field. I have to support that product until 2002 at the earliest which is a concept which HP seem to fail to comprehend.
I had patched my networks some time previously so was not unduly worried as the day arrived but I had noticed that one standalone machine was exhibiting strange behaviour for a week prior to the big day. I didn't have time to investigate further. It was just a real nuisance having to change my password at every logon.
I arrived at work on "Black Sunday" to find my backup script hung at an Aegis print command. I tried to run it manually but it hung again. It certainly looked like the Aegis print system within Domain wasn't working anymore. Hmmm. I know, I'll look at the newsgroup comp.sys.apollo and see if I am alone in having print problems. No, I'm one of many! I'll ring the HP Support Centre. Bad move!
Press star one NOW, drone, drone, drone.... For all other products, drone, drone, drone.... Monday to Friday, drone, drone, drone.... Ring this number instead, drone, drone, drone.... I rang the number. Same annoying messages, drone, drone, drone....
The result was I never made contact with a human but I wasted time listening to recordings telling me absolutely nothing at my expense! I concluded that all of the HP Support staff were on battery re-charge so I e-mailed the wonderful customer-listening@hp e-mail address. This was set up some time ago but I don't think it is monitored anymore - part of HP's Customer Charter? I later found out that Brian Cox and others were in the Support Centre awaiting calls. It was VERY quiet wasn't it Brian! I would have to contact HP on Monday morning.
I re-checked comp.sys.apollo. Yes! More users were having the same problems despite having state of the art patched machines.
Hmmmmmm. Printing + registry problems = 2 + 2 = NCS!! Of course! Everything registers with NCS!
I checked my GLBD clocks only to find they were out of synch which is hardly surprising as I was changing the TIMED clocks to reflect the loss of British Summer Time at that particular moment. When all the network was in synch, that is, NCS and TIMED, I tried to print again. Still no joy! It would have to wait until Monday.
I rang HP on the Monday morning. 'Yes it was tied in with NCS so re-register the print system and it will work'. I did and it worked fine and so did the registry problem I had previously experienced.
Great! 'Now about my Aegis system'. 'Well you could put the clock back 10 years and we'll send you a 1987 calendar!' Ha, ha, very funny.
All Domain systems were now functioning normally but what to do with my Aegis 9.7.5 system. It hadn't crashed on 'Black Sunday' so I wondered what a reboot would do. Oh dear! Poor old 17154. Stack mapping problems meant a serious problem to be resolved. Well! Sorry old pal but it is 1996 for you whilst I think what is best for the future.
I also have a couple of 'stock' 10.3 machines which remain unpatched but still boot. They are not updated but SALVOL does recognise that there is a problem.
SALVOL with switches -afs set
Time of last mount (80596BCE) is after the current time (8059422D). This indicated that the calendar time was probably wrong; mount time reset to now. You may wish to run the calendar program to verify the calendar time.
So there you have it. All running again happily except those which didn't get upgraded. I understand that there may be problems with year 2000 compliance so I hope HP are beavering away on fixes for that. I wish they would fix SNOOP as well as I'm sure that //thunder went to silicon heaven a long time ago. Or did it? Perhaps someone will let me know.
Aegis "Rumours of my demise are a little premature"
I think it is time to reflect upon 'Apollo and Aegis' and their contribution to the advancement of mankind. 'Aegis' which literally means the shield of the god 'Apollo' was designed to be just that. The interface to the hardware and 'BOY OH BOY' what hardware!
When 'Billy the kid' was still at school, engineers, 'REAL' engineers with vision, foresight and creativity developed Apollo and Aegis. Soon there weren't many universities or large corporations who hadn't benefited enormously from the technological leaps and bounds created by Apollo and Aegis.
Hardware - 4 plane, 8 plane, 64 plane graphics, 2D, 3D imagery, graphics accelerators, token ring, diskless workstations, etc. Software - BSD4.2 and SYS5.2 simultaneously, virtual memory beyond the local disk, network-based storage system, on demand paging, etc.
The advancements made in aeronautical engineering, space research, manufacturing, medicine, CAD, CAM, digital mapping, weather research, construction, air traffic control, engineering and many other fields are impossible to calculate or even comprehend. Every part of the modern world that we now take so much for granted, benefited from, or wouldn't have happened at all, if it wasn't for Apollo and Aegis.
So when you reflect back on your life since the eighties, on how the kids have grown, on how you seem to be a little slower than you once were, on the passage of time, on your hopes and aspirations and what became of them, just remember Apollo and Aegis and maybe at this time of year raise a glass of good malt whisky to the company and the operating system which led mankind into the 21st century.
Postscript
At this time of year, as you watch the raindrops fall against the window, you possibly ask yourself the following questions:-
I will explain:
The quickest raindrops are the Apollo ones. Always first to get the job done, always the leader, always moving onward to better things. The raindrops who wander about in an erratic fashion as if they don't know in which direction to go are the HP ones. Always joining up with others to discuss the pro's and con's of continuing the journey but with whom and with what. And what about the raindrops that stand still and not move at all? They that have no vision, no foresight no creativity. They that number less that one hundred. What becomes of them? Well they become a source of irritation and disappointment to many. They become known as the 'Windows 95'.
Some Light Relief For The Festive Season 
