Net-boot and install OpenVMS 7.x on MicroVAX 3x00?

[Robert Jarratt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Sean Caron
> Sent: 22 November 2014 16:40
> To: classiccmp at classiccmp.org; Sean Caron
> Subject: Net-boot and install OpenVMS 7.x on MicroVAX 3x00?
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Now that I've got some BA23s I've been busy building up a few Q-bus systems.
> I've got one KA650 based system with a good, booting RD54 and one
> KA655 based system with a good, booting Maxtor 340 MB ESDI drive (via a
> Sigma controller). Points to Maxtor for quality, I guess!
> 
> As fun as it is to boot the vintage VMS 5.x releases on these drives and fool
> around, I'd like to get OpenVMS 7.2 or 7.3 installed at least on my KA655.
> 
> While I'm saving up my pennies for a Q-bus SCSI card, does anyone know if it's
> possible to do both a net-boot and a fresh VMS installation given an existing
> VAXcluster where I do have a SCSI CD-ROM hooked up to one of the machines?
> 
> I don't just want to boot it as a satellite node, I just want to use the net-boot to
> bootstrap an installation since I don't have a local CD-ROM on that machine to
> boot from.
> 
> If I can get it booted as a satellite maybe there's something "unsupported"
> I can do to perform a network installation?
> 
> If not I guess I'll just play with 5.x until I can get a SCSI card on hand.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Sean

The way I do this is roughly as follows:

Net boot the machine as a satellite.
Do a restore of the VMS image to the local disk. Assuming the VMS image is somewhere on your cluster.
Mount the local disk and copy any other kits to it.
Boot the machine from the disk.

Hope that helps

Regards

Rob