[0] https://bluescsi.com/

The answer I got: "we can't. We'll lose access to the database". I did not ask for elaboration, but it is not routable to/from the Internet.

    altroot:x:0:0:Alternative Root User:/:/bin/sh

We used to do this all the time for users who needed root access to their own workstation. It allowed us to avoid telling them the common root password used on all the machines in the organization.

In your case, doing this might be beneficial in case there is a network problem because you'll have a way to log in as root locally.

It does have me thinking about what versions of SSH would run on such an old OS. I'm sure there were versions available at one time... and since it's vulnerable to remote exploit anyways the version wouldn't really matter.

In any case, as long as it’s not directly routable to the internet and there’s a plan to phase it out, probably nothing to get worked up about.

I hope the sound of the drive isn’t particularly bothersome. It’s rather impressive to still be working.

I'm surprised that when you do this, you can't then set the root password. (Also, holy cow. What a durable machine.)

This. There was also a story and a video, about 10 years ago (?), of a Commodore 64 still used at a car shop in Poland to compute stuff related to tires/wheels settings (degrees/angles, something like that). The C64 had basically been used every day the shop was opened for 30 years. It could still be in use. Or maybe it got retired because the owner of the shop retired (and hence, in a way, outlived the mechanic).