[Info-vax] Databases versus RMS

[Paul Sture]

On Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:18:40 +0000, VAXman- wrote:

> In article <4f931b44$0$1548$c3e8da3$92d0a893 at news.astraweb.com>, JF
> Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes:
>>Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>
>>> I wonder - does VMS have code to handle a restart, or will it go and
>>> reboot itself anyway?
>>
>>There were a couple of VAX models that had battery backed up RAM memory
>>and there was code that would allow the machine to more or less continue
>>when power came back on.
>>
>>There was also a function (not sure if still in there) that allowed you
>>to save memory to disk, power down and power up and restart from memory.
>>The goal was to get to a running system quickly after power failure.
>>(you'd save a "good" system image to disk and used that when booting to
>>fill the ram, processes etc so the system could essentially continue to
>>run from that saved system image.
> 
> Fast-boot, implemented by Ed Los et al.  It was there in V6.x of VMS for
> VAX but it was quickly made an obsolete feature.  I used to use it on my
> MicroVAX-2000 and VAXstation-2000.  It would have VMS up and running in
> under 15 seconds on my 2000s

I could have definitely used that on my VAXstation 2000, but I never took 
it to V6.  Was that functionality in V5.n?
 
>>I know that OS-X has that functiolity for laptops. It goes to sleep, but
>>if batteries go below certain level, RAM is saved to disk and the unit
>>totally shut down. When you power it up again, it restored RAM from disk
>>and continues where it left off.
> 
> Some Linux have a very similar feature as well.  It's great for laptops
> which will be quickly put to sleep when one closes the display and moves
> elsewhere with the laptop.  However, and this may only apply to me, I'd
> prefer my VMS systems to NEVER go to sleep! ;)

And it's also useful for virtual machines.  Mind you, VirtualBox has that 
functionality even if the client doesn't.  The Linux and Windows clients 
that I tested VirtualBox suspend on so far have come back fine.  A FreeBSD 
client OTOH loses its track of time :-(

-- 
Paul Sture