OpenVMS on RX2660 with HP-UX preinstalled.

[Zahid Ghani]

I am having a bit of difficulty trying to install OpenVMS8.3 on a RX2660 that has HPUX previously installed on it.
I can not find a way to present the disks to VMS at the install time. EFI boot manager shows HPUX disk. using VMS_SHOW command from EFI shell i get the VMS disk name as DKA-1 but VMS install does not see it. (The disks are all internal)

[Hoff]

EFI was arguably designed and intended for system builders and integrators, and it is comparatively ill-suited for use by system administrators and end-users.

Arguably, none of the three consoles (or four, if you count POSSE separately) are particularly user-friendly, and they're unfortunately mutually inconsistent UIs.

Regardless, we're stuck with this stuff and this UI. So...

When EFI aliases go weird, always remove and re-add them. You can do that several different ways. I usually use the boot options maintenance menu tool to remove any aliases other than the DVD stuff. You can also boot OpenVMS (booted off DVD or such) and use the BOOT_OPTIONS.COM tool, or you can use the console's bcfg tool.) The aliases just don't work like many folks might (or do) assume they work.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/83final/ba322_90045/apbs05.html

And to start using OpenVMS I64 with a disk that has previously had a bootable copy of any other operating system, boot the DVD (or an existing copy of VMS on the box or elsewhere) and issue an INITIALIZE /ERASE and erase the disk. (There was to be some work to make the basic INITIALIZE do the "right stuff" for operating with EFI, but I don't know if that is available; to overwrite some number of disk clusters at the lowest and highest range of the disk, and thus to quite deliberately clobber any existing GPT partitioning data structures.)

There's a second-level issue with boxes with the internal RAID controllers, in that you need to follow procedures specific to the RAID controller to initialize the configuration. This is needed before VMS can particularly see the device. Details are in the documentation for the particular RAID controller that might be installed. It's best to get that sorted before you install VMS, as the RAID controller configuration can happily nuke and pave the whole storage universe.

[Zahid Ghani]

The problem seems to SCSI driver. I am getting '%PKA0, failed to initialize port' message.
I have read the previous posts by Hoff that recommend installing the FIBRE_SCSI patch v6.
BUT my problem is that I have not yet installed VMS on this server.
BTW this is a loan server HP have provided to recompile application in preparation for Itegrity migration. Ony they shipped a server with HP-UX preinstalled.

[Hoff]

I don't know why you're here, really. Call up HP. Grumble. Then if they can't figure it out, ship the box back to HP.

As for your goal, you could try loading V8.3-1H1 on the box, or V8.4.

You might be able to get where you want here with a locally-customized DVD kit (more effort) or by loading V8.3 and patches onto a disk on another box and transferring the disk over to this server (less effort), presuming you have an external disk and compatible external disk storage connection.

Or swap one of the disk bricks over to another box with compatible disk bays.

[Bob Blunt]

I'll be a little more specific. Call the SALESPERSON who sent or brought you the system. If they dropped a useless (for OpenVMS) box on your doorstep then they need to find a resource to help you get it working. Although I can imagine that they expected *you* to be the OpenVMS guru that would setup the system. You should be able to boot the installation DVD pretty easily and the installation procedures should *help* you get the system setup correctly, within reason.

Just out of curiosity... were you given ANY directions about getting the system booted to do the installation of OpenVMS at all? Were you given any license PAKs, operating system and layered product DVDs? There's a very remote chance that they've provided you with a multi-boot system that has more than one O/S loaded. I setup a seed unit for our sales area that had VMS, HP-UX and Windows bootable disks so I know that its possible. Most sales people are at least courteous enough to tell you how to boot what you want. The sticky wicket is that you don't really have a machine that has a support contract so you're stuck using sales resources to get what you need.

AND you shouldn't be using VMSINSTAL at all for the O/S on an Integrity system. Everything for OpenVMS is handled by the installation DVD which will present you with a menu of installation or action items when it boots. Some few layered products, more possibly those from other vendors, might use VMSINSTAL but most will use PCSI (PRODUCT INSTALL) commands.

bob

[Zahid Ghani]

Problem resolved. You need 8.3-1h1 to be able see the de pka devices.
Thanks to a nice man (Ray Turner) at HP was able to lay my hands on 8.3-1H! media.

[Zahid Ghani]

need Open VMS8.3-1H1