[Info-vax] Clustering on VMS 4.7

[Richard B. Gilbert]

David J Dachtera wrote:
> Robert Jarratt wrote:
>> I have set up a VMS 4.7 machine on SIMH (using the 3900 emulation) but I
>> can't see how to set up clustering. The only cluster-related procedures I
>> have in SYS$MANAGER are MAKEROOT.COM, BOOT_CONFIG.COM and
>> SATELLITE_CONFIG.COM. They all tell me "This system disk is not set up as a
>> cluster system disk." I cannot see how to get started to make the system
>> disk a cluster system disk, can anyone tell me what the first step is?
>>
>> NB For those of you following my MicroVAX II saga, while I wait to see if I
>> can get a replacement CPU and memory, I want to get 4.7 going on my
>> simulated 3900 so that I am 100% sure that the DEQNA is supported when I try
>> to net boot off it.
> 
> As others have no doubt pointed out, VAXcluster was originally issued as
> SIP (System Integrated Product) to be installed under later
> point-releases of V4.x VMS for VAX. Starting with V5, it was provided as
> an install-time option. I think V6 saw it start to be installed as part
> of the base o.s., and enabled by a license key (PAK).
> 
> I saw one respondent comment about Y2K readiness of V4. If the system
> disk was not built prior to the year 2000, I doubt it would be much of
> an issue, but caution would still be advisable as there may still be
> some dependencies.
> 
> D.J.D.

The Y2K problem, AIRC, was that software that originated in the years 
1955-1999 frequently wrote dates such as 4/17/09 and, with the 
millinium, this became ambiguous!  Did it mean 4/17/1909 or 4/17/2009? 
As early as 1975, people realized that this would become a problem.  Of 
course nobody did anything about it until late 1999 when everyone panicked!

For the most part, the reality was a big yawn.  Pretty much everything 
continued to work without problems. The company I worked for found and 
fixed a couple of places in our order entry and billing systems that 
needed to be fixed.  VMS, itself, did not use two digit years until some 
genius added that feature sometime in 1999-2000!

The entire IT group was on hand at midnight 12/31/99 just in case.  The 
year rolled over, everything still worked, and we all went home.