[Info-vax] VMSKITBLD.COM fails with CREATE_SYSDIRS cannot locate product description file.

[Chris Scheers]

I'm not sure if you can do a full install of VMS on an RD53 with the 
installation files also present on the RD53.

Since SimH is involved here, I would set up a configuration with an 
approximately RD53 sized disk and a second disk holding the installation 
files.

Then install to the RD53 sized image.

When everything is to your liking, shutdown, and remount the RD53 image 
on a SimH instance that can be a cluster boot member

Finally, boot the VS2000 as a satellite and BACKUP/IMAGE the RD53 image 
to the physical RD53.  You now have an installed and configured RD53 
without needing to take up space for the installation files.


Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2019-01-13 14:58:33 +0000, Andrew Back said:
> 
>> Attempting to get OpenVMS 7.3 installed on a VS2000 via a SimH VAX 
>> running on a Linux host. I've created a cluster and added the VS as a 
>> satellite node, with page and swap on the SimH node. OpenVMS 7.3 was 
>> installed via the Hobbyist kit ISO and opted to install everything in 
>> full.
>>
>> Everything seems fine up until trying to use VMSKITBLD.COM to build a 
>> system disk on the RD53 installed in the VS (KEN)...
> 
> 
> Well..... VMSKITBLD is used to build bootable OpenVMS installation kits, 
> not OpenVMS installations.  VMSKITBLD is relevant here, nor used here, 
> and is only rarely used in general outside of OpenVMS development or the 
> few folks that are looking to build installation kits from a template 
> environment.
> 
> VMSINSTAL is far more commonly used than is VMSKITBLD, and VMSINSTAL 
> will be used here, and will be used to install TCP/IP Services and the 
> rest.
> 
> Boot the VAXstation 2000 as a diskless satellite member of the SIMH 
> cluster environment.
> 
> Once the box is booted as a diskless satellite of the SIMH system 
> (configured as a boot and disk server via CLUSTER_CONFIG or (better) 
> CLUSTER_CONFIG_LAN to set up the boot and disk server on SIMH),  you'll 
> be able to BACKUP /IMAGE restore the VMS073.B backup saveset onto the 
> RD53 device, then manually copy the other VMS073.% savesets onto the 
> root [000000] directory that same soon-to-be-a-system disk (since you 
> don't have an installation disk handy, you'll need to stage those folks 
> and then tell VMSINSTAL where the rest of the kit is when prompted after 
> you boot that RD53), then boot that infernal, err, internal RD53 disk 
> and complete the remainder of the VMSINSTAL installation.  VM073.B is a 
> BACKUP/IMAGE of the core files of the boot, and the restoration of that 
> saveset onto the target disk is path for an installation such as this.  
> The VAXstation will need to be instructed to network boot from the 
> console, and—if the emulations and the emulated network and the rest of 
> the giblets are all working the same as actual hardware (usually) does 
> and (usually) did—the VAX will download the files it needs and will boot 
> and run from the SIMH boot/disk server into the cluster, operating 
> across the network.
> 
> Once you get the system disk installed and get the VAXstation back into 
> the cluster, you'll want to mount the HPE OpenVMS VAX disk image on the 
> SIMH system (MOUNT/SYSTEM, MOUNT/CLUSTER, etc),  akin to an NFS or SMB 
> mount, though with a completely different protocol, and tied to access 
> only within a cluster) and also mount the HPE OpenVMS VAX distribution 
> disk on the VAXstation remotely (MOUNT/SYSTEM or maybe MOUNT/CLUSTER), 
> and that'll provide access to the rest of the kits you'll need.  Not the 
> least of which will be TCP/IP Services installation kit.
> 
> This whole thing is easier if that VAXstation had a CD reader or a tape 
> device—and a compatible tape device elsewhere, and VMSKITBLD might even 
> be useful for this specific need-a-tape-installation-kit case—or if you 
> had a newer OpenVMS Alpha or OpenVMS I64 system that could act as a 
> host-based InfoServer and the VAXstation 2000 could boot from that.  But 
> you're pretty well back in the bad old days of the 1980s and early 
> 1990s, and without the right mix of hardware to do what the 
> then-available OpenVMS VAX installation documentation describes.
> 
> This stuff has all been discussed before here in the comp.os.vms 
> newsgroup, too.  There's very little to do with OpenVMS VAX that hasn't 
> been discussed here in the newsgroup.  Poke around in the archives, and 
> in the old OpenVMS VAX.FAQ for further details,
> http://www.hoffmanlabs.com/vmsfaq
> 
> 


-- 
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Chris Scheers, Applied Synergy, Inc.

Voice: 817-237-3360            Internet: chris at applied-synergy.com
   Fax: 817-237-3074