[Info-vax] Trying to boot a MicroVAX II with VMS 7.3

[JF Mezei]

Robert Jarratt wrote:

> I am sure it was you who told me that I could boot standalone backup over 
> the network. Perhaps I have been doing it wrong.

Theoretically, it should be doable. But I am not sure if the
stabackit.com procedure puts enough file to allow MSCP over ethernet in
the kit.

Remember that MOP apends a couple files into one file and sends it to
the booting host. This has to be sufficient to allow the booting host to
connect back to the boot node and access its disk via MSCP to fetch the
other files.

There was a discussion not long ago here about NISCS_LOAD.EXE and an
older one and both had slightly different ways of allowing a node to
boot from ethernet. You might wish to search deja news (google group
search) for NISCS_LOAD in the past couple of months in this newsgroup.

It could be that for 5.* versions, you might need to feed the other file.


> I could not find anything 
> specific on how to boot standalone backup over the network and so I have 
> been assuming that you use the same method as a satellite boot.

Does your standalone backup directory have a VAXVMSSYS.PAR file ? If
not, you might want to create one with all defaults, and then set proper
SCSNODENAME and SNSNODEID parameters. You also need to copy the
CLUSTER_AUTHORIZE.DAT file into that directory tree so that the MOP
server can properly append those to the NISCS_LOAD.EXE file it feeds to
the booting node.

> I am going back to suspecting the hardware again. I had thought that because 
> it could read a TK50 and get me to the SYSBOOT prompt in a conversational 

I this point in time, I would be rather suspect of the TK50 MDM quality
and you may be getting errors simply because the tape is bad.