OpenVMS Alpha
 

Do we have any members that are pretty good with VMS?

In the dim, distant past we used Open VMS exclusively. I am okay on the command line but less so on networking. Happy to field questions though

We still have two DEC alpha systems where I'm at and I have a dd image one that I wanted to play with but finding that it's not that easy to manage a ODS2 disk image. I do have easy access to the second one so the problem is if I can load that image to this other server or will the license stop me?

Was looking at emulators and running linux on alpha and non of it seems too easy at first.

Just wondered about ideas to use. All this is getting hard to support. The one x86 system I had to use scsi I donated to goodwill a few months ago.

Is there any way to view and manage this disk image?

I think this is branching off from where I was at, I didn't use ODS2 or DD on VMS. We used the tradition BACKUP utility to take disk images - slow and reliable. Working through a disk image was sequential, there was no easy way of flicking back through the image other than going back to the start. And extraction was designed around the while image and not individual files. I used to dump a copy of the contents to a file so I could flick around.

My old boss runs a firm now which utilises a ubuntu server & SMB to set up seedboxes (for code) and just backs up ubuntu. I guess though you are talking about images relating to the alpha systems - data and operating system. For these he still uses BACKUP and DDS2 (or DDS4?) tapes. I think the problem though is that VMS views these as backups and not something for everyday manipulation

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but feel free to ask again if I missed the point

OpenVMS Alpha
 

I developed on this platform for about 5 years. Long time ago. Glad to help if I can.

Thanks for the input and replies.

I downloaded an alpha emulator and ran my image on it. Seems that about the most simple way to access this filesystem.

Other than the command analyze is there any useful way to maintain the filesystem?

Note that LQ might be the wrong forum for it. OpenVMS is not even remotely trying to be a UNIX system.

Can't say what it is trying to be.

From wiki page.

"In 1991,[15] VMS was renamed to OpenVMS as an indication for its support of "open systems" industry standards such as POSIX and Unix compatibility,[16] and to drop the hardware connection as the port to DIGITAL's 64-bit Alpha RISC processor was in process. The OpenVMS name first appeared after the version 5.4-2 release. "

Used to be a VMScluster system manager and DCL guru. Haven't touched in quite a while though; the last employer that had any VMS presence decided to turn those systems off rather that update them for Y2K.

I seem to recall that VMS was one of the first OSes that was POSIX-compliant; before most of the big iron UNIXes managed to be.

There are parallels between some VMS ideas and UNIX: Logical names are pretty UNIXy: SYS$OUTPUT == stdout, SYS$INPUT == stdin, etc. There were even ways to do pipes though I don't think that ever became a standard VMS feature; more likely a 3rd-party add-on or something that some genius distributed via a DECUS Symposium tape.

Did you look at vtAlpha? Seems to be a pretty thorough recreation of an Alpha on Intel. I did short project with a friend who has a consulting business that still does a lot of work with VMS. That emulator is what he's been deploying at client sites who have old applications that they can't afford to--or don't want to--pay the increasing costs of HW support. I was really impressed that it saw the 4mm tape as a standard DEC TLZ tape drive and I was able to boot from CD, configure disklabels (I was helping him do a DEC UNIX build), and do the bare-metal restore using the same commands I would have used on a genuine Alpha. No hitches. If memory serves, they had a flavor of emulator that mimicked a VAX hardware as well. There's Charon-VAX and Charon-AXP as well. That VAX emulator's been around since the late '90s, I think.

Sorry for the extra reply...

Give this a look:

http://www.justskins.com/forums/how-...ad-136653.html

It looks the software at the ftp link might fit the bill. (The http site is dead.) I have no idea if the software described will compile on Linux, though, but at least the tapes are readable on some form of UNIX. Might be worth the time to check out.

I have OpenVMS 8.4 running on my DEC Alpha PWS via the hobbyist program. But I'm not a VMS guru (yet) and for technical questions turn to the info-vax mailing list: http://rbnsn.com/mailman/listinfo/info-vax_rbnsn.com.

Man... I haven't stalked that list for ages---not since I was reading the newsgroups via my account on delphi.com. For some [ahem] "light" reading try either edition of "Writing Real Programs in DCL". I still have the first edition and you can get a copy for under $7 at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...rograms+in+dcl

Have fun...

I used a different emulator than vtAlpha for the image and got what I needed. It is such an old system we don't expect too much when a part shows up.