[Info-vax] New installment in The OpenVMS Consultant: Shutdowns using STARTUP.COM

[geze...@rlgsc.com]

On Monday, December 28, 2020 at 5:10:04 AM UTC-5, Chris Townley wrote:
> On 27/12/2020 15:30, David Jones wrote: 
> > On Sunday, December 27, 2020 at 9:26:25 AM UTC-5, geze... at rlgsc.com wrote: 
> >> The latest installment of The OpenVMS Consultant has been posted. 
> >> 
> >> OpenVMS STARTUP.COM is far more than a tool for controlling system startup. It can also be used to accomplish a phased Shutdown of a complex environment. 
> >> 
> >> See http://www.rlgsc.com/blog/openvms-consultant/shutdown-using-startup.html 
> >> 
> > 
> > The biggest hazard to an orderly shutdown is that you terminal session goes when the network is shut off, leaving your system in a partially shutdown state. 
> > I changed my shutdown symbol from "@sys$system:shutdown ..." to "$SYSMAN SHUTDOWN NODE /minutes=..." (appending /auto/save as needed). 
> >
> That is a good idea. I had this problem at work on development VAX and 
> Alpha, where the serial console terminals barely worked, so we had to 
> shutdown etc from terminal sessions (LAT or TCP/IP) 
> 
> Now, at home I will use this on my physical alpha - no need on the 
> virtual ones - they have a console courtesy of Putty 
> 
> Chris
Chris,

Quite. Console access is less of an issue on Itanium and x64, where there is always access through the console subsystem.

An alternative approach on VAX/Alpha is to not shutdown the network service, but shutdown individual services.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com