[Info-vax] New rx2800i6 with 16Gb FC HBA, VMS not preinstalled, have I640842L1U1.ISO

[Jon Pinkley]

TL;DR summary: Can an image copy of the I640842L1U1.ISO on an FC connected disk be booted on a virgin rx8200i6 with a 16Gb HBA, or must a physical DVD be burned and the installation be done from the local DVD device in the rx2800i6?

It claims to be able to install to an FC disk via 16Gb FC HBA, so it seems to me it should also be able to boot from an image copy of the DVD on an FC disk.

If I can boot from FC, then I won't have to find software, burn and verify the DVD.
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I have not yet connected new 16Gb FC switches to old 4/32 FC switches with ISL link as I was advised to downgrade firmware on the new HPE SN6000B 16Gb 48/24 FC Switches before creating ISL link and merging.

I have 3Gb vdisk on an EVA6000 with the image of the I640842L1U1.ISO, and that can be mounted on the Alpha cluster when presented to the Alpha machines.

My plan was to boot the rx8200i6 directly from the EVA disk with I640842l1U1 image, but reading the cover letter, it is not 100% clear to me if this will work or if I need to burn a DVD from the .ISO (raw image burn), and boot from the DVD media.

This is the document I am referring to:  https://vmssoftware.com/docs/VSI_OpenVMS_V842L1_Upd1_CLRN_Oct2019.pdf

Here is the part that is confusing to me.
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Please note:
* If you are installing this VSI OpenVMS Integrity V8.4-2L1 DVD on a system using 16
Gb Fibre HBAs, you must install the Update V1.0 ECO kit in order to boot from or
use your Fibre Channel connected disks.
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My guess is that the bootable version of VMS on the DVD has the update already installed, because it can install to an FC connected disk, but that the kit installs the unpatched version, which must then be updated with the included Update V1.0 ECO kit. 

Later in the document, it has this on page 6:  (note it says to boot the DVD)
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3. Configure your rx2800 i4 or i6 server to boot from your 16 Gb Fibre Channel
HBA. Follow the instructions in the section titled Enabling the 16 Gb HBA for
System Booting on Page 12 in the document VSI OpenVMS 16 Gb Fibre
Channel HBA Configuration Guide.
4. Boot the V8.4-2L1 Update 1 DVD and install the VSI OpenVMS V8.4-2L1
operating environment to your Fibre Channel LUN.
Important: Use @SYS$MANAGER:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM to ensure that your
boot options are updated to include your new Fibre Channel system disk before
moving on to the next step.
5. Follow the instructions in the section titled Applying the Final HBA Setting on
Page 23 in the VSI OpenVMS 16 Gb Fibre Channel HBA Configuration Guide.