[Info-vax] VAXStation 3100

[dthittner at gmail.com]

On Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 12:04:44 PM UTC-6, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> OK, this one probably isn't plainly written anywhere in the
> docset but I'll bet most of the people here will have a good
> guess.
> 
> While I could run them diskless from the Infoserver I fear
> the performance would be pretty bad, even for a VAX, with
> more than 1 doing it, so.....
> 
> 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?
> 
> 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.  :-)
> 
> bill

I agree that VAX/VMS will easily fit on a 1GB disk drive. Remember that many of the older VAX/VMS MV3100 systems "wrapped" the logical block numbers at 1.07GB, so be careful when using drives larger than that.

You can experiment with disk sizes by firing up a copy of SIMH VAX and seeing which sizes of disk drives would suit your needs for a system drive with your software load. The SPD's for VAX/VMS and the layered software products will tell you exactly how much space is required if you really want to know. Don't forget to add in page and swap file space if you try to hand calculate it. ;-)

Regarding GFCI, the UPS is designed to level out voltage, boosting low voltage (brownouts) and "throwing away" high voltage (surges) to protect your equipment. These will throw a GFCI when the GFCI detects a difference between incoming current and outgoing current. You should not plug a UPS into a GFCI if you want power stability, and it violates fire code in some areas. In addition, many expansion enclosure power supplies of that era had power supplies that would dump excess voltage on to the ground wire to help protect the equipment from surges, which would also trip the GFCI.