[Info-vax] Good/best version of (Open)VMS for a VAXstation 2000?

[Hans Vlems]

On 31 mei, 13:02, m.krae... at gsi.de (Michael Kraemer) wrote:
> In article <663bf324-7b06-4aa5-9d63-d4bbf5c60... at 14g2000yqo.googlegroups.com>,
>
> Hans Vlems <hvl... at freenet.de> writes:
> > So what you should install is:
> > - VAX/VMS V4.7
> > - DECnet phase IV endnode
> > - VWS : this is DECwindows classic, from a distance it looks like
> > Apple's desktop
>
> I have a (real) VS2000 sitting in my basement,
> waiting to be "processed".
> Rather than wasting my time I'd like to ask:
> I heard of binary images labelled "VMS 4.7" and "VMS 5.52H4".
> Is it true that these versions already came on CD and could
> the VS2000 be installed with them?
> From my distant memory I recall that around 1989 we had such
> a beast at work, with VWS. It was so dog slow even by 1980s
> standards that nobody liked to work on it.

VMS versions prior to VMS V5.0 were distributed in two ways: major
releases and maintenance releases.
The H-kit always contained backup savesets, and the first saveset was
always named VMSvvv.A.
This is necessary to satisfy VMSINSTAL which requires that the first
saveset in a kit is named <product><nnn>.A
where nnn represents the version.
On a major release the VMS H-kit contained three other savesets, named
REQUIRED. and  LIBRARY and OPTIONAL. (IIRC).
A maintenance VMS release followed the rules of all other products.
An odd numbered release like V4.7 had savesets named VMS047.A
VMS047.B ... etc.
Note that a maintenance release was not a full kit, it required a
major release kit to make it work.
None of these media were bootable, one uses Stand Alone Backup to do
that.

So if you have a CD with VMS 4.7 on it then you'd also need VMS 4.6 to
make this work.
The  VS2000 has no CDrom drive capability. The procedure to get VMS
installed is very timeconsuming,
then again if you want to run a VS2000 then this shouldn't bother
you ;-).
Booting Standalone Backup off a TK50 requires more patience than I
have. My procedure is:
- boot the VS2000 as a satellite in a cluster
- install SAB on DUA0/DUA1 (@sys$update:stabackit)
   if you have the luxury of two disks, put SAB on the disk that won't
become systemdisk
- copy the savesets to a TK50 cartridge
  Note 1 = use one TK50 for each VMS version
  Note 2 = put the savesets for the major release in the correct order
(not the same as alphabetical order!)
- Boot SAB on the VS2000
- backup/image REQUIRED. to the target systemdisk
- Boot from that disk and follow instructions.
All this is from memory (what's left of it) so take care!
Hans