[Info-vax] VMS startup - building LLA devices

[Ian Miller]

On Friday, March 17, 2023 at 3:03:32 PM UTC, Marc Van Dyck wrote:
> Ian Miller used his keyboard to write :
> > On Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 4:18:37 PM UTC, Marc Van Dyck wrote: 
> >> Very early in the OpenVMS startup sequence, VMS builds the LLA (Lan 
> >> failover) devices. Can someone tell me which file(s) the startup code 
> >> gets the information from to do that ? 
> >> 
> >> -- 
> >> Marc Van Dyck 
> > 
> > SYS$SYSTEM:LAN$DEVICE_DATABASE.DAT
> That's also what I was thinking. But no. Let me explain. 
> 
> I have a system disk residing on a SAN that I must be able to boot 
> from two different hardwares. One is a BL870, the other is an RX2800. 
> So I built two different LAN$DEVICE_DATABASE.DAT files, one for each 
> config, and before reboot, we put in place the one that will be in 
> effect after the reboot. Should work, right ? Well, it doesn't. The 
> RX2800 has only EIxx devices, the BL870 has EIxx and EWxx ones. If 
> I'm on the blade, rename files to reboot on the RX, I still see EXxx 
> devices in the LAN config after the reboot. 
> 
> Also, in the doc, it is said that this file can be moved to an other 
> location by defining a logical name. But how can that work when the 
> LLA formation is done so early in the boot sequence, way before DCL 
> even exists ? 
> 
> -- 
> Marc Van Dyck

A quick bit of research shows LANACP started from VMS$DEVICE_STARTUP after SYCONFIG and SYLOGICALS.COM have been executed. As far as I know LANACP is the process that reads the LAN$DEVICE_DATABASE and creates the LL devices.