27 Jul
2001
27 Jul
'01
9:42 a.m.
I've got a VAXstation 2000 with SCSI; I think
it's running ULTRIX.
Perhaps I should order the hobbyist VMS distribution, put a different
hard drive in the system, attach a CD-ROM to it (will any SCSI CD-ROM
drive work?), and install VMS. Could I then do a backup to SCSI tape
over DECnet? Is there much of an advantage to upgrading to OpenVMS
from VAX/VMS 5.5?
Is this one with patched ROMs to use SCSI disks? Otherwise all it will
probably talk to is the braindamaged TK50Z (I think it's the -FA varient).
As for the question of weather or not there would be an advantage to moving
up to V7.2 or higher, I'm really not sure. It largely depends on what you
wish to do with the machine. I keep one system at V5.5 for software builds,
as software built on V5.5 will in most cases run on all higher versions of
OpenVMS.
If you've got more than 16MB of RAM, and you're wanting to learn OpenVMS,
then I'd say install V7.2 at this time, and once V7.3 has had more time to
mature, you might want to move to it.
In my case I'm using my main OpenVMS machine as a SMTP server, Samba server,
Appletalk Server, NFS server, etc. So, for me running the current version
of the OS, and the latest TCPIP stack is a good thing.
Argh! I'm
so used to my 90L+ that I forgot about that, yes, the DECserver
200 needs to boot off of the VAX, and who knows if you've got the software
needed to do that on the VAX.
Not sure. I do know that DECnet software is installed. Perhaps I should
write down some of the message that I get while booting and jot down some
things found while poking around the system. Ok, I guess that SCSI is the best choice, but, those
Q-bus SCSI boards
are still way too expensive. It looks like using a smaller VAX with
SCSI (hopefully it's not also DSSI), connected to the VAX 4000-200, is
the way to go.
Another choice would be an early Alpha, such as one of the DEC 3000's, or an
AlphaStation 200. The cheapest is probably a older VS3100.
Zane