Changing logicals on VMS?

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Mon Oct 2 22:21:27 2000

Hi Paul,

This isn't an allocation class issue. Its something I brought on myself,
and for that am paying the price :-). My true question is whether or not
I'm going to be stuck re-installing VMS, however given the way VMS works
I'm sure there is some voodoo to fix it.

I got in this mess as follows:

I installed an RF72 drive into my 4000/200 and proceeded to do a 'sho dev'
on it. It showed up on the DSSI bus as $24$DIA264:

I then installed VMS 7.2 on to this drive, followed by a bunch of layered
products.

Then I read in the KA660 technical manual how to "talk" to the DSSI drives,
(which is very arcane using the KFQSA but a snap on the KA640 and KA660)
and proceeded to tell the drive to call itself node SYSTEM and unit 0.

This worked fine, and I noted that I could now boot the system by
specifying DIA0: rather than DIA264: (which I never could remember anyway).

Then I went to install another layered product. That installation failed
because it couldn't find a file is was expecting in
SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SY0.SYSTEMP] (or something very similar). So I did a dir
SYS$SYSDEVICE: and sure enough there was nothing there, then I did a SHOW
LOGICALS and from there discovered that SYS$SYSDEVICE: was defined to be
$24$DIA264: (the original name of the DSSI drive)

Now I could name it back again. But I'd rather tell VMS where the SYSDEVICE
now sits (for all the system, like on a permanent basis). If I 'define' it,
it changes for the current process but doesn't change universally and more
importantly other things are stuck that way to.

Nothing is SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM defines these so they must be in a parameter
database somewhere else. That is where I'm looking now ...

On a somewhat related note, I went out and forked over $100 for a true 5
port switch so that I can put my VLC cluster on a switch! Now all I need is
a console multiplexor.

--Chuck

At 08:35 PM 10/2/00 -0500, you wrote:

>The system$dia0 isn't especially newer or better. It is the name of the
>disk with the allocation class set to 0. Check your drive firmware to
>make sure that the alloclass on that disk didn't get changed to 24 wen you
>changed the node name.
>
>There is also a MSCP_ALLOCLASS parameter in SYSGEN but that is less likely
>to be the culprit.
>
>The allocation class is a mechanism to prevent like-named devices (i.e.
>machines on a CI or DSSI each with a DxAxxx device) from confusing one
>another.
>
> On Mon, 2 Oct 2000, Chuck McManis wrote:
>
> > I know, I should ask info-vax. But I'm not subscribed there :-(
> >
> > I changed the nodename on my DSSI drive (looks like an HSC50 to the VAX)
> > and it still boots VMS but SYS$SYSDEVICE is set to $24$DIA264 not the
> > newer, more friendly SYSTEM$DIA0: I tried doing an autogen but that didn't
> > seem to change anything :-). Clues?
> >
> > --Chuck
> >
>
Received on Mon Oct 02 2000 - 22:21:27 BST