topic Re: Cloning a system in Operating System - OpenVMS

Cloning a system

Trace Trembath — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:49:19 GMT

I have a need to make a copy of a production OpenVMS 7.3-1 system to another piece of hardware. In order to get the cloned system on the network, I know I need to change the DECnet address and nodename as well as the ip address and host name.

To change the DECnet nodename and address, I was going to remove the cloned system from the network and boot it. Then run

$@sys$manager:netconfig advanced

and change the nodename and address when prompted.

However, I am wondering if there is somewhere else I need to change the nodename.

Now I can think of

scssystemid
scsnode

Is there any place else?

Thank you.

Regards,
Trace

Re: Cloning a system

Robert Gezelter — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:55:47 GMT

Trace,

That should do it. You will need to deal with the queue names and any explicit references to nodenames that are floating around.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

Re: Cloning a system

Jan van den Ende — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:26:17 GMT

Trace,

I concur with Bob.
_IF_ you have not hard-coded the nodename in the bootstrap (let alone applications....), then that should do it.

Please also give some thoughts at device naming. Depending on the config, you may run into inconsistencies there too.
You may also have to give some extra attention to licenses that are NO_SHARE. But logging in as SYSTEM from the console, you can alter those.

But basically, to be able to get the bare VMS running, you got it.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

Re: Cloning a system

Trace Trembath — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:43:35 GMT

Thank you both for the confirmation.

Regards,
Trace

Re: Cloning a system

Martin Vorlaender — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:40:33 GMT

Trace,

the VMS FAQ has a good listing of places to look at when changing the nodename:

http://64.223.189.234/vmsfaq/vmsfaq_007.html#mgmt9

Things that haven't been mentioned here are e.g. the identifier SYS$NODE_nodename and the TCP/IP configuration.

HTH,
Martin

Re: Cloning a system

John Gillings — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:33:20 GMT

Trace,

Don't forget to adjust your license data base (LDB) to ensure you comply with your license agreement.

In particular, your OS PAK (usually OPENVMS-ALPHA these days) is bound to the particular hardware it was sold with. It is not transferrable. You should therefore delete that PAK from the new system disk and register the PAK sold with the target hardware.

Other PAKs may be transferrable, but you may not use them concurrently on multiple systems.

If you're concerned about duplicate DECnet and/or IP addresses, that presumably means you want to run them on the same network at the same time. If that's the case, you should delete the whole LDB and replace it with PAKs for the new system.

Re: Cloning a system

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:41:52 GMT

If you use performance advisor, you may need to change the name in that config too.

And I also have to do a mc ncl flush ses con nam cac entr "*".

And don't forget to delete files containging the old node name (accounting, audit, oper log at our site).

And do a search on the whole system disk for the old name.

Wim

Re: Cloning a system

Heinz W Genhart — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:02:15 GMT

Hi Trace

In case the original and the cloned machines are OpenVMS Clusters and cluster communication is enabled over the lan, you should also change the cluster authorization of the new machine(s).

$ MC SYSMAN
SET env/cl
conf set cluster_authorize -
/group=new-group-number -
/password=new_password

Otherwise if the original and the new system are connected to same lan the are able to form one Cluster containig all the machines (old and new)

Regards

Geni

Re: Cloning a system

DECxchange — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:49:40 GMT

Hello,
In case you don't know this, when changing scsnode and scssystemid, you will want to do this in sys$system:modparams.dat. This is a text file that can be edited with TPU, etc. You can then run autogen:
$ @sys$update:autogen getdata reboot feedback

or similar to that. I would check the VMS system manager utilities reference to be sure of the exact syntax usage.

Also, make sure scssystemid equals your DECnet address. E.g, 10.10 = 1024*10 + 10.

Also, you said you were replacing your current system with another hardware? If that's the case, you may not need to change your parameters. You can just use the VMS boot CD to duplicate your system disc. After the CD boots, you can just choose execute DCL commands from the CD menu. Then issue a BACKUP command, such as:

$$$ backup/image/ignore=nobackup dka0: dka100:

Or substitute your correct disc drive naming convention.

Also, changing your IP addresses requires an additional procedure involving the system supplied command file, TCPIP$CONFIG.COM. I've found it necessary to first delete all of the TCP/IP services .DAT files first, then rerun TCPIP$CONFIG to avoid any problems.

Good Luck!