porting from v.7.2 to v 8.3

[Cynthia Bowen]

I am not doing a standard upgrade. I need to port software from an existing system - DEC 7000 series 700 running VMS v 7.2 to a whole new computer - DS25 running 8.3.

I cannot see how installing the VMS 7.3-2 and recompiling my code on the new DS25 is worthwhile.

Since I have to move my code from the old machine to the new machine and recompile anyway, why can't I just move straight to the 8.3?

We are running RDB, COBOL and C code with some FMS and Forms. There is nothing fancy in the code. Read some data, update and send it back with a lot of report generation.

We believe we can migrate the code and compile without any real issues. We need confirmation on this.

HP support sent links about upgrades. This is not a standard upgrade.

Please help. Thanks

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Cynthia,

I think HP means that you need to upgrade in 2 steps. 1 going to 7.3-2 and 1 going to 8.3. You don't have to "port" to 7.3-2. Only get the system running and upgrade again. And compile on 8.3.

Wim

[Cynthia Bowen]

Again, why?? When the 8.3 will be on a new computer? Why not just installt he 8.3 and go from there? Why waste time to achieve the same end result?

[Volker Halle]

Cynthia,

welcome to the OpenVMS ITRC forum.

If you know all the details for your system setup, including accounts, logicals, startup procedures etc. then a new install of V8.3 and all the layered products should give the same result as an upgrade.

The upgrade (via V7.3-2 to V8.3) on the other hand, preserves all your setups and procedures on the system disk, which sometimes is easier than trying to integrate all site-specific changes after a fresh installation.

Volker.

[Cynthia Bowen]

Once again... New computer. New system disk. I have to move most/all of my functioning system files over to the new system. Disks will be named the same. Using existing startup files, print and batch queues will get named the same. The only real issue is compiling the code. Will there be any pitfalls in recompiling the code??

[Volker Halle]

Cynthia,

you would probably need to install a new version of RDB on V8.3 anyway. And new versions of the compilers and FMS/FORMS.

So you will be compiling in a different environment and yes, there could be problems.

Regarding the upgrade, at least the first step needs to be done on the existing DEC 7000 system, as V7.2 does not support a DS25. After that, you could do the rest of the upgrade on the DS25.

Volker.

[Hein van den Heuvel]

Hi there Cynthia, fancy meeting you here :-)

The DEC 7000 is one of the early, bigger (physically :-) Alpha's in a VAX compatible frame. It's just an EV4 @ 185 Mhz. So even 'loaded' with 6 CPUs (especially with 6 CPUs :-) the performance while 'high-end' in 1992 will be very modest by DS25 Standard.
So this customer can look forward to a massive performance improvement.

Anyway, yeah you can just install 8.3, but you'll need to carefully bring over stuff like SYSUAF, Rightslist and VMSMAIL_PROFILE and so on. An upgrade brings all that along.

The do not HAVE to compile/link the code. They can just copy over the images and be happy.

IF they choose to compile and link, THEN they should do so aggresively with /ACH=EV68 *check spelling!) or some such and not look back.


Cheers,
Hein.

[Cynthia Bowen]

Hein!

You are wonderful. That is what I was hoping to hear.

If you still have my personal email, please stay in touch.

Thank you so much all of you for this help. I really appreciate it.

[John Gillings]

Cynthia,
(DEC Edu in Oz sometime around '89 '90?)

As Hein said, you don't need to recompile or relink your applications.

You CAN install V8.3 and copy all your system "personality" files to the new disk, BUT you need to know exactly which files to copy. See the comments in SYLOGICALS.TEMPLATE for the most complete list of files to consider.

You also need to worry about licenses. You can't move your OPENVMS-ALPHA from the 7000 to the DS25. Even if it were legal, it probably wouldn't work. You may be able to transfer other license PAKs.

It MAY be simpler and faster to go the upgrade path. If you go via V8.2, do a minimal upgrade for V8.2 to save time, and one extra reboot before starting the next one.

[DECxchange]

Hello,
You might want to check what versions of the layered products you're running. You may not necessarily need to reinstall those, because you may be running the latest version already. For example, if you are running FMS ver. 2.4, you probably won't need to reinstall it, as there probably has been no new versions issued since then. Check your layered products CD and compare it to the versions you are currently using.

Also, an upgrade will be easier than a clean VMS 8.3 install. You will essentially be starting over all of your command files that get invoked at startup, layered products, etc.