[Simh] Migration utilities.

[A.Bucher at alcatel.de]

Hi,

> Unfortunately they are not SCSI discs; it is a VAX 7000 system
> with DSSI discs.
> I'll try with LDDRIVER.

Booting any VAX disk on any other hardware should be not problem, because
VMS installs _all_ necessary files ("drivers") for all systems and all
architectures. If you did not "tailor-off" any system files - but this
should be unlikely on a 7000, since usually there was enough disk space
available (compared to a 70MB VAX2000) - it should boot.
if you did tylor-off, simply add (tailir-on) the removed files to have the
complete set available.

copying an installed VAX disk to another machine is as easy as could be -
forget all the images, connecting-disks-to-foreign-machines and other fancy
stuff !

--> think in VAX terms - you are using VAX/VMS, not any funny unix or
windooze OS :-) sorry, folks ;-)
there is nothing hardware-related, which VMS does not take care for you !

since you have a running VMS system (I assume !) on your "real" VAX, simlpy
configure a remote-boot cluster node on the 7000 (this is the only
modification neccesary to the original system, and can be undone later),
and set up the simh VAX to have one or more local disks large enough to
hold a copy of your sysdisk. then, net-boot the "virtual" VAX as satellite
for the 7000. now, you have proof that the emulated VAX will boot from your
system disk - simply because it shares and uses all the system files from
the 7000. this is common practice with VMS, and the emulation is nothing
but a plain standard 3xxx workstation.

now, initialize you local disk, mount it, and copy the big VAX sysdisk to
your local disk.
shut down the emulated vax and reboot from the local disk - and you're done
!

if you want to migrate any operative service and have your "live" system
configured as cluster (I would recommend this ALWAYS, even if the cluster
consists of only one node), use the "cloned" emulated VAX to join the
cluster and take over all services. then you can operate both in parallel
or shut down the original system - and all this works WITHOUT any
interuption of service !!

for more details about the procedure (DCL commands, etc.), contact me or
post a reply.
of yourse, you need to adjust some things like licenses, addresses,
startup-config, device-specific things, etc.


>    http://www.xasamail.com/
what's that line good for :-) ?
security advisory: beware of sending/using/storing mails at mail providers
claiming to store mail "forever" and offering gigantic storage for "free",
since this will be used for data mining and profiling - detailed
information might be drawn out of that data pool about each user! (see
discussions about google-mail and the like) and email addresses might be
used for advertising. for the operators of that service, there is allways a
return of investment - nothing is for free ! remember, not only the users
of this service will be affected - all information about ALL people sending
mail to those receipients will be stored, too !
(sorry, this is O/T, but I had to mention it !)

Kind Regards / Cordialments / Saludos Cordiales / Vriendelijke Groeten /
Cumprimentos / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Andreas Bucher