The usual boot volume structures for OpenVMS are ODS-2 or ODS-5. While it is technically feasible to create a dual-format disk (either ODS-2 or ODS-5, combined with ISO-9660), that is not a path I would choose to use here.
With OpenVMS, get the LD Freeware kit (
http://www.digiater.nl/dfu.html) and connect up a logical disk. Details on creating bootable OpenVMS media are here:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_9820.html The basic sequence and the WRITEBOOT processing should look familiar, though you're replacing the firmware boot block image (APB.EXE, with OpenVMS) with the fwupdate.exe image.
If you are burning disks on another box (as I expect), I would encourage you to generate the disk master on OpenVMS, then dismount and disconnect the LD device, and copy over the backing storage file. Burn that using raw, binary, block-level, ISO-burn (not to be confused or such.
On Windows:
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/ works.
On Mac OS X: the provided Disk Image
On OpenVMS: cdrecord (freeware, and part of V7.3-1 and later), or COPY/RECORDABLE_MEDIA on V8.3 and later.
If you have a non-system-disk disk on this box (and the AlphaServer 2100A typically has an integrated StorageWorks shelf for disks), you can perform the entire operation off a disk brick. Disk bricks for this box and this shelf are generally available for not much more than the cost of shipping.
With a brick, the upgrade sequence will not harm user files on the disk -- it can't be a system disk, but a data disk is fine, and would not be damaged by the WRITEBOOT and such.
If you have a scratch disk brick, you can download the zip of the current distro, unpack it and use LD to connect and then MOUNT it, transfer the contents over to the scratch brick with a BACKUP/IMAGE, then load the bits onto the standard firmware distro.
You're rolling your own ancient firmware distribution. Everything here traditionally involved moving toward more current bits, and usually booting the provided CD firmware distro -- the firmware CD kits were and are generally shipped with each OpenVMS Alpha release.
It's unfortunate that DIGITAL and Compaq and HP didn't keep copies of the older distros around and posted, but this V5.3 stuff is from about 1998 or so. And based on what I see in the archives, there wasn't a disk image even available and posted back then.
And the other approach is to scrounge up a firmware disk of the right vintage; a V5.3 firmware disk.
I'd offer to generate a distro for you, but the files involved have non-transferable copyrights. HoffmanLabs or other folks can likely create a DCL command procedure that will generate one of these disks for you, if you're interested.
Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs
