[Info-vax] DECwindows no longer starting on satellite

[smithfarm]

> What do you do in NODE_SPECIFIC_START.COM ?
> Does it e.g. SET DEFAULT to some SYS$SPECIFIC directory ?
> And not resetting back to SYS$COMMON before exiting ?

I have two nodes: LIVVAX (SimH) and PEAR (VAXstation). At first, each 
had its own disk and everything was fine. Then I installed the VAX 
Cluster package (and license) and turned LIVVAX into a bootserver and 
PEAR into a satellite. The two nodes share the same system disk, which 
is on LIVVAX. PEAR does not have its own physical disk.

With a lot of help from my friends, I got this configuration to work. 
First I boot LIVVAX, then PEAR. Everything was fine until after two (I 
think it was two) reboots. Suddenly, the VAX-VMS license was gone from 
both nodes. As we all know, this isn't a good situation: no TCPIP, no 
DECwindows.

So, I asked my friends and was told that since the VAX-VMS hobbyist 
license is "NO_SHARE", I can't use a single license for two nodes. So, I 
tried to make two licenses as follows:

On LIVVAX:

$ LICENSE MODIFY VAX-VMS /AUTHORIZATION=[...] /INCL=LIVVAX
$ LICENSE LOAD

On PEAR:

$ LICENSE MODIFY VAX-VMS /AUTHORIZATION=[...] /INCL=PEAR
$ LICENSE LOAD

Then I rebooted both nodes. Everything started to work again. Even after 
another reboot, it was OK. It may even have survived *two* reboots. But 
after the third reboot (at the latest - it might have been after the 
second), the licenses were gone again.

So, after a few rounds of typing in the LICENSE MODIFY and LICENSE LOAD 
commands on each node, I dreamed up this NODE_SPECIFIC_START.COM script 
to automate the process. I thought that once I was executing the 
appropriate LICENSE MODIFY and LICENSE LOAD commands for each node on 
each startup, automatically, there wouldn't be any license problems 
anymore. But it seems that's not the case. Even now, with these commands 
running at every startup, it seems that the nodes are still coming up 
without the VAX-VMS license once every two or three reboots.

I realize this sounds strange, but this is the behavior I am seeing.

This might be a clue:

$ dir dua0:[000000...]lmf$license*.*

Directory DUA0:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.SYSEXE]

LMF$LICENSE.LDB;1

Total of 1 file.

Directory DUA0:[SYS10.SYSCOMMON.SYSEXE]

LMF$LICENSE.LDB;1

Total of 1 file.

Directory DUA0:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]

LMF$LICENSE.LDB;1

Total of 1 file.

Grand total of 3 directories, 3 files.

It appears that there's one license database for LIVVAX (in SYS0), one 
for PEAR (in SYS10), and one in VMS$COMMON.

Gratefully,
Nathan