Backing up VAX/VMS?

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Backing up VAX/VMS?
>   From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com>
>   Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:27:53 -0500
>     To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>Hi Guys,
>
>Recently acquired some VAXen - I have a soft spot in my heart
>for VAX/VMS as I worked professionally as a user on a VAX/VMS
>system for quite some years, however I have little to no
>experience from a system administration standpoint.
>
>What I have:
>
>VAXstation 3100, currently running NETBSD
>VAXserver 3100 - Installed hobby version of OPENvms on it.
>VAXstation 4000 VLC - Has a full VMS 5.5 installed on it.
>Datability VCP300 16-port LAT terminal server (The VLC
>appears to load LAT networking when it boots, but I haven't
>looked into it further yet)
>
>My immediate concern is that I'd like to make a full backup
>of the VMS 5.5 on the VLC, and also attempt restoring it to
>another drive. Not quite sure what the best way to go about
>this is, and I want to make sure I *DON'T* cause any damage
>to it in the process, so I'm looking for someone experienced
>in VMS who can give be a bit of advice/guidance.
>
>I've got some documentation that I've dug up on the web
>including a VMS administrators guide, and I also have the
>full VMS 4.0 documentation set (about 3-feet of paper!).
>
>I've seen reference to booting stand-along BACKUP - I do have
>the OPENvms install CD which appears to boot to a configuration
>which can do stand-alone BACKUP (at least it can restore from a
>backup image on the CD).
>
>Possible backup media that I have available:
> - A pair of Exabyte HH-CTS 8mm DAT tape drives
> - A SONY SDT-5010 4mm DAT tape drive
> - SCSI ZIP Drive
> - Another SCSI hard drive
>
>Are any of these feasable as a backup medium for VAX/VMS?
>(All three of these machines have SCSI ports) If so, any pointers
>as to how to configure the drives/media to be recognized and
>accessable to the stand-alone backup, and info on how to perform
>such a backup would be most appreciated. I'll probably pull the
>original drive and install OPENvms to another drive for a "test
>run" before I try and backup the original system.
>

For VMS:

Backup /image to another SCSI disk is easiest (I clone VMS systems 
that way).  Or backup /image to a tape large enough to hold an 
entire disk.  I have a sony (DEC TLZ04) 4mm DAT and backing up 
to a spare disk is easiest and the resulting disk is bootable
should the first one fail.

Also you can install a second or even third scsi disk and have a
multiple boot system.  Just set the console to not boot the existing 
disk.  Then you can issue a "bo DUAn".

For NonVMS OS such as NetBSD  I think you need to refer to the unix 
realm and do a backup  using TAR (it's been years).

>
>Related topic: Keyboard/Mouse emulator?
>
>So far most of what I've been doing has been via a serial console,
>however both the 4000 VLC and the VAXstation 3100 support keyboard
>and mouse - The VLC has a VGA video connector, and I've found a
>couple of LCD monitors supporting sync-on-green which work on it.
>I've also scrounged up an LK-201 keyboard which works, and I'm
>working on acquiring a DEC mouse ... I did figure out how to activate
>"dead rodent mode" which lets me do mouse movements through the
>keyboard, and DEC windows does come up and run!
>
>I found details of the keyboard and mouse protocol in the back of
>a Microvax manual, and have been toying with the idea of building
>a small embedded controller to take a PC (PS2) keyboard and mouse,
>and emulate the DEC equivalents to the VAX - would anyone else be
>interested in this?

I have real DEC Hawley mice and use them with a VT1200 Xterm.


Allison


>Regards,
>Dave
>
>--
>dave06a (at)    Dave Dunfield
>dunfield (dot)  Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
>com             Collector of vintage computing equipment:
>                http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html