[Info-vax] VAXStation 3100

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/16/19 1:27 PM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <ga9a1pFj4muU1 at mid.individual.net>, Bill Gunshannon
> <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> What is the smallest size disk one would recommend for
>> VAX/VMS 7.3 and all the layered products the Hobbyist
>> Program provides Keys for?
> 
> 4 GB is luxury.  2 should be enough.  I ran 2-GB system disks on VAXen
> for about 15 years.  Maybe 1 GB if you are careful, but go with 2.

4GB and 2GB will not boot on a VS3100.  Not really sure about 1GB
I was hoping maybe 340M as I have a bunch of them.

> 
> If you have no disks other than the system disk, go with 4.

I can have lots of bigger disks after it boots.

> 
>> And, I guess I need to go get a current set of Hobbyist
>> PAKs as I am sure when I fire up the boxes in a few
>> minutes here I will find them all expired.  :-)
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> I really, really, really, really recommend HBVS.  The only real
> disadvantage on VAX is that MINICOPY doesn't work.  (Well, technically
> it works between disks which have direct connections only to VAX systems
> as long as the corresponding (DIS)MOUNT commands are issued from a
> non-VAX in the same cluster.)

Let's bhe realistic here.  It's just going to be me.  I doubt I
will be setting up a cluster.  Haven't had one of those since I
got rid of the Big iron at the University.  Even in an environment
with potentially 50-60 simultaneous users I don't really think it
was necessary.

Realize, I  have something building on a Sparc64 right now that
has been running for over 24 hours.  I'm retired, I have all the
time in the world.  Unless someone is going to offer me a job I
can actually accept (based on location, not salary! :-)


> 
> Just set the system up on a single disk, change MODPARAMS to turn on
> HBVS, shut down, enter both disks as the boot device, and reboot.
> 
> At least I think the above will work.  What definitely works is the
> above without adding a second disk as the boot device at the console,
> then MOUNT/SHADOW to add a new disk then, after the copy is complete,
> shut down, add the second disk (and the first, of course, if not there
> already) as boot device, and reboot.  The shadow set will automatically
> reconstruct itself after a reboot (i.e. don't have any MOUNT commands
> for the system disk in the startup---but you do need them for other
> shadow sets).
> 

I suspect you may not have much experience with he VS3100.  It's
more of a toy than a mainframe. Although there was a time I and
others considered it quite the system.  :-)

bill