On 01/04/2024 00:45, W2HX wrote:
Hi all, I am completely ignorant when it comes to VMS
licensing and how it works (or worked).
I purchased a MicroVAX that is running VMS V5.3. Do I need to worry about it ceasing to
work at some point?
I don’t have any paperwork for the license, just a running machine.
What should I know about this?
You should know how to take a standalone backup and make sure you have
done that. I'd suggest restoring it on a SIMH instance to check that it
is bootable and works as expected.
You could use the LMF commands to dump the PAKs with checksums but that
(iirc) disables them so you have to re-enable them afterwards. That
would allow you to rebuild your system, assuming you have install media
for VMS and all the layered products. A standalone backup would be
better though.
Your VMS installation will certainly keep running for as long as you are
likely to want to run it, but the hardware may fail at any time.
Antonio
--
Antonio Carlini
antonio(a)acarlini.com