[HECnet] Oldest VAX/VMS for VAX-11/730 on HECNET

[Mark J. Blair]

I'm trying to find the oldest VAX/VMS version which:

* Supports DECnet Phase IV over ethernet
* Supports the VAX-11/730
* I can get my hands on images of the OS installation and anything (licenses?) needed for DECnet Phase IV

I found a .tap image of the VAX/VMS 3.0 distribution at the Russian mirror site. Version 3.0 interests me because I think it was the one that was released to coincide with the VAX-11/730 release. I was able to install it on a SIMH emulation of the 730. I gather that the normal VAX/VMS 3.0 distribution for the VAX-11/730 would be on an RL02 pack instead of a magtape, and I hope that I might figure out how to reconstruct an RL02 pack distribution from what is on the tape image.

I have not found any scans of the DECnet-VAX Software Installation Guide or the DECnet-VAX System Manager's Guide yet, and I don't know what needs to be done to install and/or configure DECnet in such an old VMS version. I see that stuff related to DECnet is present after installation, such as STARTNET.COM and NCP.EXE, but DECnet-VAX is referred to as an optional component which must be licensed separately. I gather from discussions elsewhere that there may be at least one critical file missing that serves as the "license" for DECnet-VAX?

STARTNET.COM comments instruct that it can be run after creating the permanent database, and trying to run it generates errors like:

    $ @sys$manager:startnet.com
    %OPCOM,  8-DEC-1982 13:55:13.31, message from user NETACP      
    DECnet starting
    %NCP-I-NMLRSP, listener response - File open error, Permanent database
    
    %RMS-E-FNF, file not found

I don't know how to create the permanent database under VAX/VMS 3.0 yet. I tried running NCP.EXE and issuing a SET EXECUTOR command. It asks for a node address in the range of 1..255, so does that imply that whatever (incomplete?) DECnet code is present there is for Phase III?

I'm experimenting with SIMH VAX-11/730 simulations for now. Eventually, I'd like to downgrade the OpenVMS v7.3 installation that came on my real VAX-11/730's R80 drive to something less bloated and more contemporary with my system, but still able to connect to HECNET over ethernet.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
https://www.nf6x.net/