[HECnet] Boot VAX from Alpha host Infoserver?

[gerry77 at mail.com]

On Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:16:24 +0200, you wrote:

The needed HW consist of a MicroVAX 3100 (model 10 or 20, not the newer 
ones), one or two suitable SCSI disk drives (narrow) and a SCSI CD-ROM 
drive (also narrow).

It was my understanding that although the hardware is the same, the ROM
firmware would have to be different. Or it was just the real InfoServer
which had a crippled firmware just NOT to allow booting VMS on it?

The needed software is available on OpenVMS Freeware 8, disc 1. There's 
a Zip file where the needed images are. You just have to burn two CD's, 
the Infoserver software CD and the Disc Function CD.

Kari, do you know the meaning and use of the various files inside the
software CD? In the [SYSD] root there are SYSBOOT.EXE, SYSLOCS.EXE, and
LOCSUPDATE.EXE which is functionally equal to the IS1000_V35.SYS file
present in [SYS0]. Moreover, in the [SYSD] root there is also a ESS$BOOT.PAR
file which is an ODS-2 image containing again SYSBOOT.EXE and SYSLOCS.EXE
(exactly equal to the former) and LOCSUPDATE.SYS which is identical to
IS1000_V35.SYS in [SYS0]... Chineese boxes indeed!

When you have the HW assembled and burnt the CD's you just boot from the 
Infoserver software CD like:
B/R5:D0000000 <cd drive>

Then the MicroVAX will boot the Infoserver software from the CD and then 
you will be able to install the software on the disc drive.

Something like:

InfoServer> SET SERVER STATE OFF
InfoServer> INITIALIZE DK1
InfoServer> UPDATE SYSTEM DK2 DK1
InfoServer> SET SERVER STATE ON

DK2 Should be the first CD-ROM and DK1 should be the system disk. See the
following "InfoServer System Operations Guide" (file name mismatches):

http://h30266.www3.hp.com/masterindex/installation_guide/installation_guide_006a2764.txt

Then you can create a partition on the disc sufficiently big to have 
space for the OpenVMS VAX CD contents. Do remember to enable MOP. When 

Wouldn't it be enough to directly serve the VAX OpenVMS CD-ROM off the
InfoServer without copying its entire contents into an Infoserver partition?
The InfoServer would use the ISL_SCRIPT.ESS file found in [000000] to
automatically MOP-serve the ISL files.

Cheers,
G.