mounting disk

[Steven Schweda]

Reading further, ...

> But when I execute the same command on a
> known device I will receive the following.
> [...]
>
> NRCAVA::Theresa's:::>dir prog$disk:[000000]/tot
> Directory RMADSK05:[000000]
> Total of 54 files, 225245 blocks.

But "prog$disk" is a logical name, and, I'd
guess, so is RMADSK05 (with some slightly
exotic properties).

SHOW LOGICAL /FULL prog$disk, RMADSK05

Presumably, someone has defined RMADSK05 (and
others) somewhere, but you haven't done the
corresponding things for your new disks.

[Hoff]

Ok. OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-2. That is quite old, and one of the earlier OpenVMS releases with Fibre Channel SAN (FC SAN) support. OpenVMS Alpha V8.3 is current.

There are errors showing on some of the FC SAN disks, including one that is apparently involved here. These errors may or may not indicate a problem with these disks; these could be transient errors, or hard errors.

At the root of the failing DIRECTORY command are missing site-specific logical names. There are some logical names defined here, and they're not in place for the disks that (I'm guessing) have been added:

SHOW LOGICAL RMADSK*

The logical names typically created when a disk is mounted can be viewed with the following:

SHOW LOGICAL DISK$*

And to access your disk, you can specify the physical device name here. For instance:

DIRECTORY $1$DGA2337: [000000]

Check the system startup procedures for where these local logical names are defined. It's probably either in SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM or in SYLOGICALS.COM, both of which are usually located in SYS$MANAGER: directory. The DISK$* logical names are typically defined automatically, when the disk is mounted.

A formal configuration review and (if you're in a hurry to get up to speed) some on-site or classroom training is in order here, particularly if (as it might be inferred) you've been handed management of this OpenVMS Alpha server. If there are budgetary constraints and/or if expediency is not a requirement, then the User's Guide and the System Manager's manuals should be high up on the reading list.

I'll leave the resolution of this particular case to others here.