how to find if disk has vms installed and also the vms version

[Scotty HD]

i been given a disk and told that it has v83 vms installed.
the disk is not having proper label. it says OSINS.
before i change the volume label or even boot with this disk
i want to confirm
- disk has vms installed
- disk has v83 version of vms
how to do it ?

Scotty

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Scotty,

$ MOUNT/OVER=ID/NOWRITE disk:

$ DIR disk:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR

Only an OpenVMS system disk should have a VMS$COMMON directory.

$ DIR disk:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]*-vms-v*.pcsi$database

You should find an appropriate PCSI product database for *VMS-V0803*

Volker.

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] not having proper label. [...]

What makes that not a proper label?

> how to do it ?

Why not try to boot from it, and see what it
says at the system console?

[Robert Gezelter]

Scotty,

To MOUNT the disk without bootstrapping it, you will need to boot from the DVD/CDROM.

If you have other disks attached to the system, I would recommend caution. Bootstrapping an incorrectly configured volume could lead to difficulties.

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

[Shriniketan Bhagwat]

Scotty,

If itâ s an IA64 disk, then the machine does not have the boot option set for it. Hence the machine will not come up automatically when booted from it. You have to manually navigate the VMS_LOADER to boot the machine or you need to set the boot options for the new disk using below script.

@SYS$STARTUP:BOOT_OPTIONS.COM;1

Regards,
Ketan

[Steven Schweda]

> To MOUNT the disk without bootstrapping it,
> you will need to boot from the DVD/CDROM.

Or some other disk. Or some other system
(cluster member). Or ...

It's unusual to find a situation where one
"will need to" do any one particular thing.

[Bob Blunt]

Scotty, let's rewind a bit... What sort of system do you have? VAX? Alpha? Integrity/Itanium? Both Alpha and Integrity have valid releases of OpenVMS V8.3, so it's important to know which.

What have you tried with the disk so far? Your comments imply that you've tried to $ MOUNT it on a system currently running OpenVMS. Is that how far you've gotten with it?

There's no *real* need to change the volume label unless you've got another volume, either on one node or in a cluster, using that exact volume label in use now. That step can wait.

If you have a VMS system and you're trying to look at this disk you can $MOUNT it privately with /OVER=ID and you can look at the contents. If you're worried you can add /NOWRITE to make it less likely that you might scrozzle it. I would suggest that you only mount this disk on a system running OpenVMS V8.3 or newer. Look in the [000000] directory at the files present for starters. Volker's suggestions should help to verify if V8.3 is present but you should also consider that someone might have given you an original or copy of a "FIS" (Factory Installed Software) disk. If you (are able to) boot from that disk I'm pretty sure it has a special startup procedure that would complete an installation as part of the first boot so there is some need for caution.

Let us know what you find...

bob

[Scotty HD]

thanks to all for help

Volker>>
you gave me the exact information i wanted.

Steven>>
we generally use policy to define volume label proper.
the label should be as per what data present on disk.
if node name is burger and it has v83 then we name it bur83.

Robert>>
correct. i boot it up and then have to configure it based on the new system
and only then it will work. i have done it before and will use same method.

Shriniketan>>
this is alpha machine.i only want to know if vms is installed on disk.

Bob>>
machine is currently in 732, i got disk and was told it had v83.
i mounted it but did not know how to confirm it has v83.
the disk is a image backup disk. after boot i have to change
configuration as per new machine.

Scotty

[Bob Blunt]

My main concern, Scotty, was that mounting your V8.3 disk on previous versions of OpenVMS might not give all the details, particularly if this was a disk from a different architecture. Your disk could still be an image copy of a FIS disk. In any case it seems like you were able to get the information you needed.

bob

[Scotty HD]

bob>>
yes it worked right.
i reboot the system and configured it also.
will remember your point about FIS.

thanks again all.

Scotty