[Info-vax] Reconfiguring VMS 6.2 - Shadow set question

[John Wallace]

On Oct 22, 5:27 pm, supervinx <ness... at libero.it> wrote:
> Well, folks ... you're right ... you missed some details ;)
> (I didn't provide them, sorry !)
>
> 1) I have a small collection (online museum)http://www.supervinx.com/Retrocomputer
>
> 2) I like to keep the machines working and, if possible, in the state they
> were when I acquired them.
>
> 3) I already opened the Jensen, cleaned and did a photogallery.
> It's the first thing I do, always ...
> So, if I say that DKA200: and DKA400: are missing, they are really missing !
> There are only two disks in the inside, one put under the PSU, since it hasn't
> the required bracket and cage.
>
> 4) DKA300: has a working Oracle 7 installation. I'll clear personal data
> and keep it. This is an argument against "pave and nuke" ;)
>
> 5) Startup DCL scripts are very simple. SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM has been heavily edited:
> are left only some symbol definitions, then it calls a customized DCL
> script heavily, and I mean *heavily* commented, so it's easy to know
> what to do.
>
> 6) I prefer, since it's not a production machine and I own other DEC workhorses
> to leave VMS 6.2 and the Digital logo.
>
> 7) Apart of startup error and informational messages (can't connect to
> some servers, some script missing, etc ...) the machine is running fine and
> it responsivity is more than acceptable.
>
> 8) I had from you the needed answers. I can remove the DKA200: and DKA400:
> references from the MOUNT command (in the customized script), leave the
> one-disk shadow sets DSA0: and DSA1: and live happily !
>
> 9) Jensen is a (may I say so ?) "scrappy" machine. Looks like a
> out-of-the-shelf PC. Cables are very messy in the inside. The other DEC
> machines I own are very clean, instead. The EISA bus is another story :(
> But, with an historical perspective, I can include it in my collection,
> right ?
>
> Thanks to you all, obviously ;)

I suspect even the Jensen designers would be fairly happy with the
description above. My recollection is that Jensen was really a
marketable (mostly) proof-of-concept done away from mainstream (ie New
England) hardware engineering and brought to market on very very
limited budget, to show an unbelieving HQ (and maybe an unbelieving
market) that a reasonable performance Alpha at a reasonable price was
a practical possibility, especially if some up front investment was
subsequently made available to reduce the ridiculous number of off the
shelf chips iin a Jensen down to a much smaller number of semi-custom
or fully-custom glue logic chips. Which is pretty much what happened
later with the PCI-based Alphas.