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We have several Datapower Appliances machines like XG45, XC10, X152 ready to be dismantled because their applications have reached end-of-life. When opening the boxes, the hardware inside looks pretty amazing even today, 8GB DIMMS in all banks, huge capacity build-in SAS disks, 2 processors and multiple ethernet ports.

Administrative login is possible via a serial/usb connector cable as there is no Keyboard or VGA connector.

Question 1: Is it possible to install an alternative OS on a DataPower machine like Linux or BSD Unix, or is the hardware so much customized around it's firmware that it is even too exotic to let run anything else on it than "DPOS"*?

Question 2: Does it even make sense to reuse the machines outside their original use cases - eg. could they be reused as appropiate master/headnodes in a hadoop cluster?

a lot of further information exists, but nothing very specific to the inside OS and HW (Board, Processor, etc.) - any info is appreciated

matz3
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3 Answers3

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Ok, the answer is that NO, you can't run anything else on them because the box (hardware-wise) will only accept IBM's signed and encrypted firmware.

Secondly, I think you should be very careful and study the license agreement with IBM (even for out-of-support boxes) before you get too crazy with the boxes...

IBM has good trade-in agreements so you can benefit from the boxes if you get new, both Appliances but also virtual (VMware or Docker).

Anders
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from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_WebSphere_DataPower_SOA_Appliances:

DataPower Appliances operate a single digitally signed firmware containing a linux based operating system and application stack. DataPower's firmware runs on a flash storage device. IBM refreshes and enhances the DataPower firmware image every 10–20 weeks. Users cannot run 3rd party applications on DataPower as they would need a traditional server and operating system. Instead of a traditional filesystem, DataPower runs with a collection of isolated virtual file systems called 'Application Domains'. As a result, DataPower can appear to its client connections to be any type of network file system with any type of folders and links.

DataPower firmware is mostly used to perform electronic messaging functions. It can perform transformation and routing of messages as an enterprise service bus or protects web services interfaces and the architecture behind them from attacks. It helps to integrate any two applications by considering them as services. It is platform and language independent.

Community
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matz3
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  • more infos on DPOS here: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=77777777-0000-0000-0000-000014609203 – matz3 Apr 14 '16 at 09:25
  • Regarding reengineering highly customized non-standard hardware watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIYxMdtmG3w – matz3 Jan 02 '17 at 12:16
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from https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=77777777-0000-0000-0000-000014609203

  1. What is the OS does DataPower uses? DPOS ... DataPower is a black box. You can easily see that on a serial line connection to a DataPower box while booting: DPOS Loading system.......... I guess its an encrypted firmware. Yes.
  2. Does DataPower can connect with Linux or windows Servers? if yes how?

Over any of the supported protocols, HTTP(S), FTP(S), NFS, ... 3. How dataPower communicates with other servers(windows & Linux) using NFS protocol.

Please search for "NFS" in DataPower Information Center. There is a "NFS Poller Fronst Side Handler" to receive data, and you can access a backened via dpnfs: protocol.

matz3
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