My boss is about to order 3 blades to run VMS. I was reading the Errata sheet for VMS Support of the BL860c Server Blade and saw that there is a requirement to have another Integrity server available to act as a boot node. Before I break the news to my boss that we need to buy another server, is there any way to install VMS on the Blade Server without using the additional machine?
You're "remastering" the V8.3 distro to get this box to boot; adding ECO kits, etc.
I'd probably ask HP or the reseller of the box here for help; to ask for help installing the bits onto a disk brick, for instance, or for a loaner. Or for a packaged deal.
If you don't have another Integrity around (eg: a loaned, leased, borrowed or purchased box), getting the requisite patch kits installed is going to be difficult. (Otherwise, loading and using the InfoServer support off of an OpenVMS Alpha V8.3 box would be feasible.)
V8.3-1H1 is due to FRS 2007H2 per the current roadmap, and I'd expect that release and the associated DVD distribution kit would far more directly bootstrap the BL860c series blade.
Last month I installed a "loaner" rx6600 that shipped with an internal sas drive with VMS 8.3 Factory Installed Software (FIS). The rx6600 would not boot the 8.3 binary DVD that I had. I assume at least one of the ECOs included on the FIS disk was required to boot the ZX2000 based systems.
I'd look into buying at least one internal drive (probably less than $300 list price) with FIS.
