The new VAX is alive!

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_aracnet.com>
Date: Fri Jul 27 16:42:35 2001

> 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.

Unfortunatly this is something I'm not able to offer suggestions on, I've
still not figured out how to boot my 200, mainly thanks to lack of time :^(

> 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
Received on Fri Jul 27 2001 - 16:42:35 BST