Tru64 5.1 CD-RW bootable image?

[stoman23]

Hello all – hoping someone here can assist.  I have an Alpha DS25 running Tru64 version 5.1.  It does not have a tape drive, but it has a CD-RW drive.  Is there a way to make a bootable image either on the CD-RW directly, or some other way so I can boot off of the CD-RW drive?  Thanks!

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] Is there a way to make a bootable image either on the CD-RW
> directly, or some other way so I can boot off of the CD-RW drive?

   A bootable image of _what_, exactly?  Boot _what_, exactly, off the
CD-RW drive?

   A Tru64 installation CD is a bootable CD, isn't it?

   As usual, it can be more helpful to describe the actual problem which
you're trying to solve, rather than asking how to implement some
particular "solution" to that problem.

[stoman23]

Hello Steven, our problem is that we don't have a bootable image at all for this server, and we'd like to generate one.  We don't have the installation CD, and the server doesn't have a tape drive.  Thanks for your help!

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] our problem is that we don't have a bootable image at all for
> this server, and we'd like to generate one.

   I still don't know what this "bootable image" means to you.

>   We don't have the
> installation CD, and the server doesn't have a tape drive.

   Are you trying to install the OS (Tru64) on this system?  (I've
always done that from a CD kit.  Is it even possible from tape?)  If you
did have a tape drive, what, exactly, would you be doing with it?

   Or are you trying to make some kind of backup of a working system?  I
doubt that there's a good way to use the usual [r]vdump/[r]vrestore
directly with an optical disc.  However, the "r" editions of those
programs may be useful with a tape drive attached to some other system.

   I assume that your system is not under an HP[E] support contract, or
you'd be talking to HP[E] support.  If you're looking for an
under-the-table Tru64 installation CD, then a forum run by the copyright
owner might not be the best place.

   Note, also, that "5.1" is rather vague.  There exist Tru64 versions
V5.1, V5.1A, and V5.1B, with various patch kits for each of those.

[stoman23]

Hello Steven - In an HP-UX environment we have Ignite tapes which can be used to boot and recover the OS and system partitions if a root drive fails.  I have little knowlege of Tru64, but I'm assuming it has something analagous to a root drive.  If that fails, we want to have a way to recover the OS and system partitions.

It looks like btcreate is what we'd use if we had a tape drive.  Looks like it can be used to make a tape that we can boot from, that also contains the system partitians.  However, it looks like it can only write to tape.  

This server is not under HP[E] support.  Thanks for your comments regarding the Tru64 version, and thanks again for your help.

[Steven Schweda]

> [...] I have little knowlege of Tru64, [...]

   I'm in a similar boat.

> It looks like btcreate is what we'd use if we had a tape drive.  [...]

   Right.  This (near-fossil) OS predates user-writable optical discs
with any useful backup capacity (like, say, DVD-R), so tape was probably
the only medium which got any serious consideration.  (Could you really
fit your / and /usr file systems into 700MB?)

   If you're serious about backups for this system, then I'd guess that
$100-$200 and a little time on Ebay could find a cheap DLT7000 or
DLT8000 tape drive, and a small pile of DLT IV tapes (and even an
additional SCSI adapter, if needed).  That'd offer 35-40GB per tape
(raw), which could be adequate.

> [...] regarding the Tru64 version, [...]

   More informative (slightly) than "uname -a":

      sizer -v

   If you want some fine print on the patch kit(s):

      /usr/sbin/dupatch -track -type patch_level | grep -i 'patch kit'

[stoman23]

Thanks for your help Steven.  We are indeed going to go down the road of using DLT drives for these servers.  Thanks again.