[Info-vax] Logging systartup_vms.com progress to operator.log VMS 7.3-2

[geze...@rlgsc.com]

On Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 11:14:45 AM UTC-4, Frank Gribbin wrote:
> VMS 7.2-2 
> I would like to log the progress of the system boot. It would be neat to do this to operator.log 
> 
> I've seen examples where at the end of systartup_vms.com there is a command at the end along the lines of 
> 
> REPLY/ALL/BELL "SYSTEM UP" 
> 
> I was hoping to do something similar and have the messages recorded in the operator.log 
> 
> The background is a recent incident where a boot didn't fully complete. A script invoked from systartup_vms.com bombed because of nameserver problems (the 3 nameservers are external systems). I'll add SET NOON to this script to make it more robust, but would still like to record progress.
Frank,

STARTUP_P2 is indeed the supported way to get startup output written to a log. One can set it from SYSMAN, SYSGEN, or from a conversational boot. As a routine matter, I often enable it by default. When something goes wrong, the evidence is thus readily available.

There is admittedly a divergence of opinion on my next point. I am an advocate of fairly aggressive use of the STARTUP database, which is in SYS$SPECIFIC and SYS$COMMON as opposed to inserting additional code in SYSTARTUP_VMS. The STARTUP database is maintained using the SYSMAN utility. I did a session at the 2015 OpenVMS Bootcamp on a related topic. The slides are at: http://www.rlgsc.com/openvms-bootcamp/2015/sysman-for-improved-restarts.html

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