The Old VAX Server

Update: The VAX 4000/200 is now also off. The power supply's fan speed controller somehow broke, and it's just too damn loud to leave on.

My blog and related websites are currently being served from a VAX 4000/200 minicomputer. Here's some details:

The Hardware

The VAX 4000/200 is a relatively common, entry-level minicomputer in a BA440 cabinet:

• CPU: KA660 running at 32MHz
• Memory: 32MB
• Storage: 4GB SCSI via Emulex UC08 SCSI Controller
• Network: 10Mb/s

This VAX is apparently the fastest Qbus CPU available, which isn't saying much. Some benchmarking shows that it's about 800x slower than an Intel Core 2 CPU.

The Software

This computer is running NetBSD/vax without any issues. The onboard DSSI disk controller is not supported, but I don't have any DSSI drives anyway. All other hardware, including the Emulex SCSI card, is supported.

• OS: NetBSD/vax 8.0
• HTTP Server: bozohttpd

I don't have any interest in trying to get OpenVMS working on this just based on the licensing hell that it would invite. I definitely don't want Ultrix; I already have an AlphaServer running Tru64, which is considerably more modern and absolutely terrible to try to use seriously these days.