Move an old NT 4 application to Windows XP?

February 22, 2007 12:18 PM

We have a perfectly working NT 4 application running on Windows NT4. We need to put it on new hardware running Windows XP. Possible?

We have some voicemail software called Solo voicemail made by callware technologies. We purchased it years ago as software that ran on a simple Windows NT4 workstation computer and interfaced with a PCI card based "voice" card in that machine, which communicates with our Mitel digital phone switch. We love the software, as it does all we need it to do, and simply works. We don't worry about it being NT4 since it's not connected to the internet, only the phone switch.

Problem is, the hardware that it's running on is getting old, and we'd like to move it all over to new hardware, but are pretty sure we can't get windows NT 4 to like the new computer hardware, and hence the software won't run. The original software was designed to run on NT4, and no where does it say it was tested to work on XP. Besides, if we re-installed it from the install disks, we wouldn't know how to get all the configuration working the way it is now, as I don't know the software, the registry settings, or config files.
Our vendor wants us to just trash the whole system and spend in excess of $10,000. for digital cards that go directly into the Mitel switch to handle the voicemail, and the vender is fairly sure the new digital cards would lose some important functionality we current have with the current system.
So my question is: is there a way to move an existing Windows NT4 application installation to an XP environment with all the settings and configuration intact?
Thanks for any thoughts.

posted by jldindc to computers & internet (10 comments total)

You could do a complete backup or ghost of the system, do an in-place upgrade to XP and if it doesn't work, restore the backup. But honestly, why move it to a new machine? Just because it's old? That's really not a good reason. Some machines that are well built will run for a very long time. As the old saying goes - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That PC may run forever. Just perform regular backups just in case the hard drive dies.
posted by internal at 12:39 PM on February 22, 2007

Virtualization? Run VMWare Server or Virtual PC on a Win 2K3 box, hosting a virtual NT4 box. Only issue is access to the PCI hardware. Not sure how well that will work.

Both virtualization providers have live-to-virtual migration tools, or check out PlateSpin, a company that makes virtual migration tools.
posted by GuyZero at 12:42 PM on February 22, 2007

What parts do you think might die from being worn out? If it's the hard drive, you could get a compactflash card.
posted by rbs at 1:10 PM on February 22, 2007

" Run VMWare .... Only issue is access to the PCI hardware. Not sure how well that will work."

It won't. Virtualization is exactly the opposite of a productive approach to this problem, because you're interested in preserving (not abstracting!) an interface to a hardware device.

I strongly suggest not trying to use XP for this purpose. XP is a workstation platform, and it's not intended for the purpose of running production applications like telecom. In some ways it is indeed an improvement over NT, but the idea of supporting an XP based server gives me hives.

Why not just build another NT box? NT4 drivers are still available for all manner of hardware -- most importantly your telecom card -- and it really shouldn't be too hard to construct a server that will run it.
posted by majick at 1:17 PM on February 22, 2007

Could asterisk maybe do what NT box is currently doing?
posted by stereo at 1:36 PM on February 22, 2007

"If it's the hard drive, you could get a compactflash card"

Erm, they have limited lives as well, especially if you write to them. 10,000 writes is the oft-quoted figure. I imagine anything that does voicemail certainly does a lot of writing and rewriting.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:55 PM on February 22, 2007

seconding not bothering. you seem to be OK with the lack of support you've got for the software, so it's just a matter of keeping the hardware running, and chips really don't wear out that quickly. you'll probably only have a few things that'd go wrong in there - stuff like fans and the hard drive - which can be easily replaced. make sure you have an image of the system - using Symnatec Ghost or similar is good for this - so that when the drive dies it'll be easy to restore and continue, as you'll literally have a bit-for-bit copy of the drive as it is. fans you can go in and replace every so often (maybe once a year or two - or, just have someone walk by and see if it's making weird noises), and PSUs can be usually be replaced as well, unless it's a name-brand computer, in which case it's iffy (if it's a Dell, for example, you have to use a Dell power supply).

otherwise, I'd go looking for another vendor to get quotes from. I wouldn't want to put down that much cash without getting some quotes from a few places.
posted by mrg at 3:25 PM on February 22, 2007

If it talks to hardware, forget about the upgrade without support from the vendor (ie a driver for the new operating system). Why not ask Callware Technologies about it? They seem to be alive and well.

Finding new hardware that runs NT4 is probably really, really hard since it's now six years since Windows _2000_ came out.
posted by themel at 3:26 PM on February 22, 2007

The vmware tool Converter, required to make a VM out of a physical machine, is located here. Since it and the player software are available free, seems worth trying before you spend any money on something else.
posted by nomisxid at 3:51 PM on February 22, 2007

Actually, getting a new NT4 box to run your app isn't all that difficult. It's not like you need a DVD writer, USB ports or even good video. Run IDE instead of SCSI. But you won't be able to just migrate your app unless it's self contained in it's own directory(s). Which is quite possible with an NT4 app for custom hardware. I'd build a NT box and try just copying your software over.
posted by Mitheral at 8:45 PM on February 22, 2007