[Simh] Imaging SCSI HD's

[Dave L]

as Jeremy says, best to limit what's running in you can and have the  
system as quiesced as possible. I'd also recommend (if practical) stop all  
batch queues and the queue manager as the QMAN database can get messed up  
when you boot that image. Easily sorted with a start/queue/man/new but of  
course you then lose all defined queues and need to be able to recreate  
them and any scheduled jobs... hopefully the queues etc you'd have scripts  
to create/recreate should the need arise, if not list them so you can  
replicate if needed.

HTH


On Mon, 22 Apr 2019 05:34:45 +0100, Jeremy Begg <jeremy at vsm.com.au> wrote:

> 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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>
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