[Info-vax] VSI Licence doesn't seem to work on AXP (OpenVMS 7.3-2)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2022-07-26 19:41:41 +0000, Single Stage to Orbit said:

> On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
>> On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
>> 
>>> Any ideas?
>> 
>> V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
>> 
>> You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.
> 
> I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able to 
> install it over the current installation without losing my user files? 
> I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or I'd have 
> copied all my user files off.

Upgrade to V8.4-2L1.

Burn the bootable installer onto a CD or DVD and boot that from within 
the emulated environment, and you won't have to use a second OpenVMS 
box to get the VSI OpenVMS kits online in the old environment.

Or use the underlying emulator to transfer and load a disk image and 
connect that as an emulated CD or DVD available to the emulator, and 
avoid the second OpenVMS box.

Once booted, select UPGRADE, and not the ERASE / INSTALL path.

You'll get all your user files, preferences, and customizations 
preserved. OpenVMS upgrades do a good job of preserving the existing 
contents, and (as some have discovered) also preserves existing 
configuration bugs and corruptions.

You'll also get an upgraded environment and access to newer tooling and 
APIs, and a whole lot of bug fixes.

As for any corruptions, OpenVMS lacks a means to migrate files from a 
backup or from a previous server into a new install, which makes 
manually de-corrupting much more effort. Some other platforms routinely 
provide this migration path.

You will not get licenses to any DEC, Compaq, HP, or HPE tools, though 
VSI has their own replacements for most of those. You might have to use 
the kit-repacking tool provided by VSI for third-party kits that have 
DEC OpenVMS product prerequisites.

OpenVMS is not good at re-generating an environment, unless the people 
administering the server have intentionally maintain that capability 
locally. That's all a manual process, and variously creating installers 
for local apps and tools.

Details on most of this are in the install/upgrade manual available in 
the VSI documentation set.



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