[Info-vax] Tertiary VMB?

[H Vlems]

On 13 jan, 21:35, gerr... at no.spam.mail.com wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:34:22 -0800 (PST), H Vlems <hvl... at freenet.de> wrote:
> > Off the top of my head, the tertiary loader is used only in network
> > boots.
>
> Yes, it's indeed a network thing, at least when speaking about VAXen.
>
> > database. I suppose there must be a guide to local area vax clusters that
> > covers this topic, or perhaps the cluster management manual?
>
> The cluster management manual has examples about setting up a system as a boot
> server for VAX satellites, and in such examples there are mentions about
> TERTIARY_VMB.EXE as a tertiary loader, but I've never found anything that
> actually explains which are its functions. On the other hand, a simple Google
> search locates a good number of references (among them a paper on cluster
> internals by Keith Parris) about the satellite boot steps, and they all list
> only NISCS_LOAD, in the very same way as in the papers I cited two days ago.
>
> I'm stuck! :-\
> G.

This is what I found on a VAXstation 3100/GPX. This is the hardware:

$ sho lic/char
VMS/LMF Charge Information for node RADON
This is a VAXstation 3100/GPX, hardware model type 59

This is the VMS version:

$ sh sys
VAX/VMS V5.5-1  on node RADON  10-APR-2005 08:41:51.70   Uptime  0
00:20:16

This system is a boot host for two VAXstation 2000's. Believe it or
not, these are even older and slower than the 3100/GPX
and they boot over ethernet. The NCP characteristics for one of the
VAXstation 2000's are:

$ mc ncp list node jodium char


Node Permanent Characteristics as of 10-APR-2005 08:44:48

Remote node =   1.6 (JODIUM)

Service circuit          = SVA-0
Hardware address         = 08-00-2B-07-7A-68
Tertiary loader          = SYS$SYSTEM:TERTIARY_VMB.EXE
Load Assist Agent        = SYS$SHARE:NISCS_LAA.EXE
Load Assist Parameter    = SYS$SYSDEVICE:<SYS10.>

And sure enough, there it is:

$ dir sys$system:tert* /date

Directory SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE]

TERTIARY_VMB.EXE;1   17-OCT-1991 13:42:03.95

Total of 1 file.


So the file does exist, as it does on VAX/VMS V7.2. I didn't start a
V7.3 machine but I gues it'll be there too.
The purpose of the file is to load all the required VMS files off the
boot host into local memory of the satellite.
The reason it is absent on a system may be because during the
installation the question "Is this node part of an LAVC cluster"
was answered with no.
Hans