[Simh] Imaging SCSI HD's

[Jeremy Begg]

Hi Zane,

>Thanks Jeremy, if I'm understanding what you're saying
>correctly, I'm going to feel really stupid.  Am I correct in reading
>this that I don't have to boot into Standalone Backup, in order to
>backup the system disk?  I've thought that was a requirement for
>cloning a drive for well over 20 years.

Standalone Backup is not required.  It's recommended for use when you need
to be 100% certain that no file at all will change during the backup (e.g.
to make an archival copy for the auditor) but for day-to-day use a
$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTERLOCK will work fine.  (Thanks to Mark for
reminding us about /IGNORE=INTERLOCK>)

Of course, it's good to have as little running as possible at the time.

Regards,

	Jeremy Begg

>> On Apr 21, 2019, at 9:09 PM, Jeremy Begg <jeremy at vsm.com.au> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Juust noticed I may have got your DKA100 and DKA200 around the wrong way,
>> but the mechanism is still a useful one to know.
>>
>> 	Jeremy
>>
>>>> One of the main systems that I want to Virtualize is a VAXstation 4000/60
>>>> with a BA350 shelf.  The only HD connected to the system is a RZ28-VA SBB
>>>> (2GB) as DKA200:, so yesterday I added a RZ29-VA SBB (4GB) as DKA100:.  I
>>>> setup Standalone Backup on the RZ29 and booted into Standalone backup.
>>
>>> Does your VAXstation/60 boot from the RZ28?  Does it run VMS 7.3?
>>> If so, you might like to try this instead:
>>
>>> 1. If you don't have it installed on your VAXstation already, download and
>>>  install LDdriver from https://www.digiater.nl/downloads/lddriver_v83.zip
>>
>>>  LDdriver implements a VMS disk driver mapped to a VMS flat file, a sort
>>>  of "virtual disk" utility.
>>
>>> 2. Start LDdriver ... $ @SYS$STARTUP:LD$STARTUP
>>
>>> 3. If you haven't already done so, connect your 4GB drive to the VAXstation
>>>  and initialise and mount it, e.g.
>>>     $ INIT/SYS DKA200: BIGDISK
>>>     $ MOUNT/SYS DKA200: BIGDISK
>>
>>> 4. Create a virtual disk the same size as your DKA100 drive, or bigger:
>>>     $ LD CREATE DKA200:[000000]DKA100_IMAGE.DSK /SIZE=4213968
>>>  will create a 2GB container file.
>>
>>> 5. Then prepare it:
>>>     $ LD CONNECT DKA200:[000000]DKA100_IMAGE.DSK LDA1
>>>     $ INIT/SYS LDA1: VAXDISK
>>>     $ MOUNT/FOREIGN LDA1:
>>>     $ BACKUP/IMAGE DKA100: LDA1:/INIT
>>
>>> 6. Dismount and disconnect the LD disk
>>>     $ DISMOUNT LDA1:
>>>     $ LD DISCO LDA1:
>>
>>> 7. Transfer the disk image file DKA200:[000000]DKA100_IMAGE.DSK
>>>  to your SIMH host, e.g. via FTP in BINARY mode.
>>
>>> The disk image created by LD and transferred to your SIMH host is ready for
>>> use by SIMH.
>>
>>> Regards,
>>
>>> 	Jeremy Begg
>>
>>
>>>> I tried to run the following:
>>>> backup/image/verify dka200: dka100:[000000]20190420-system.sav/sav
>>>>
>>>> I ended up with a very strange "No valid storage bitmap found" error, and it
>>>> failed to copy anything.
>>>>
>>>> Facility: BACKUP, Backup Utility
>>>> Explanation: Software bad block data is not present on the volume. The
>>>> volume has been initialized with no bad blocks.
>>>> User Action: Execute the Bad Block Locator utility before using the volume.
>>>> NOBITMAP, no valid storage bitmap found on 'device-name'
>>>>
>>>> I tried ANALYZE/MEDIA, but may not have been doing things right.  This is a
>>>> Genuine RZ29-VA, but it was originally used as part of a disk array for a Sun
>>>> Sparc system.
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