[HECnet] Itanium install media

[gerry77 at mail.com]

On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:17:06 +0100, you wrote:

Anyone know where I could borrow this, I'm picking up an rx2600   
tomorrow?

There are two somewhat "secret" URLs from which you can download BACKUP/IMAGE
copies of the original installation DVDs for V8.3 and V8.3-1H1. 

The most curious thing is that they're directly from HP, obviously not as an
official distribution, but maybe to informally spread new Itanium releases
among Hobbyists. Anyway, no one really knows why those files are there, so
it's better to keep their URLs reserved and not so publicly available.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/private/I640831H1.BCK-GZ   (1.8GB)
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/private/I64083.BCK-GZ   (1.6GB)

They were made with BACKUP/IMAGE (and not BACKUP/PHYSICAL), so they're not
directly bootable from EFI because they lack the FAT partition which is
present in the original DVD outside the ODS-2 volume. The easiest way to boot
and install from those images is to use an Alpha system with OpenVMS V8.3 to
serve them using the new InfoServer function. You'll need GZIP too.

http://docs.hp.com/en/BA322-90077/apb.html

We [1] used the InfoServer method and were up'n'running in a matter of
minutes. If you'll need further assistance (except on EFI) I'm here! :-)
If someone else offers you off-list something like Layered Products for
OpenVMS on Itanium, we'll be very grateful if you'll share with us! :-)

HTH,
G.


[1] http://decnet.ipv7.net