I have several Alphaserver 1000 4/200 with OpenVMS 6.2 and we experience sometime problem with the console system Opa0 (vt520). The device is blocked with a black screen and a blinking cursor in a corner.
To solve the problem we have to reboot the server.
When logged in on the node, do $ sh us/fu/int/noclus
If someone is logged in on terminal OPA0: then the console was in use. You can see what program he started with sh proc/con/id=x and stop the process with stop/id=x.
This type of Opa0: are often due to multiple processes with the SHARE privilege who access the console.
Otherwise you may try to enable error logging on OPA0: $ set dev /error opa0:
There had been some problems around 2000 with OPA0: hangs in 6.2 but i don't remember if it was fixed by a new image or by installing the V6.1 sys$opdriver.
Anyway have you installed the latest opdr ?
"o Operators at console see timeout errors under heavy usage."
Also check if control-p is still reacting. Once had a machine that was still reacting but didn't show anything, so be carefull. Test after control-p if telnet is still possible to the node.
Did you upgrade console firmware recently? Long time ago (1999) I upgraded all customer's alpha servers to firmware 5.1. Just one alpha server (AS 1000) made problems simular to yours. I downgraded this alpha server to firmware 3.6 and server worked OK. This alpha server is dead now and I don't know if it was the real reason of problem. This AS1000 worked OK for few years.
On how many AS1000 you have the same problem? When did it happen first time?
You might want to try running a "keep-alive" DCL script from OPA0 immediately after a reboot. It can just be a simple loop that displays the time once a minute. This way you will be able to tell exactly when it stops working, and possibly make it keep working. See if the behavior is the same on the two consoles with the problem.
If this happens to be a valid workaround, you'll want to make the script a little fancier and shift the output a few characters for each display line so you don't get any screen burn.
Hi Guillou, when console is unavaiable, do you see noowner after sho term opa0? I remember, openVMS V6.2 had a problem when some process crashed while was writing on console. Opa0 was locked by noowner until system rebooted. In my mind you have to disable all messages to console, such as operator.
