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

[Hans Bachner]

Chris Townley schrieb am 28.12.2020 um 14:15:
> On 28/12/2020 12:15, geze... at rlgsc.com wrote:
>> 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
>>
> 
> I still remember fondly the VAX8530 or 8550 consoles - I believe they 
> were repurposed PDPs with their 3 modes of operation.

There were various incarnations of PDP-11 technology used as consoles 
for various VAX models.

The VAX-11 /780 had an LSI-11 as a console.

On the other end, some of the VAX 8xxx models had a DEC Pro-350 as the 
console subsystem. Some other stuff between these two examples...

Hans.