Mounting VMS drives on PC

[Kallen Zhao]

Hi,

Anyone have any ideas how to mounting VMS drives
on PC's to allow PC tools to work against VMS files?

Thanks,
Kallen

[Uwe Zessin]

A PC operating does not understand OpenVMS' ODS file system. Another problem is that most applications on OpenVMS operate on records and thus use the record management system (RMS) that is layered on top of the file system. Most operating systems operate on byte streams and would get confused by the embedded meta data if you made a file's contents available as an uninterpreded byte stream.

The OpenVMS system can act like a Windows (NT) server if you use the Advanced Server product. In that case you do not directly mount the disk, but you can access it's contents through a 'network share'.

[Kallen Zhao]

Hi Uwe,

Thanks your reply.

I'm just wondering whether Advanced Server is only option? any alternatives?

Kallen

[Uwe Zessin]

You could use 'SAMBA' which is a bit like a freeware implementation of Advanced Server or you could OpenVMS' NFS server, but then you would need an NFS client on the PC.

A more complicated way would be to use FTP to transfer the file between the OpenVMS system and the PC so you have a local copy that you can work with. I don't know what your OpenVMS system looks like, but if it's a rather recent one, you won't require any additional products or licenses. The only downside is that an FTP transfer is a bit more work for the user.

[Kallen Zhao]

I'm going to try samba. Thanks your help.

Kallen

[Ian Miller.]

samba for vms V2.2.8 is available
http://www.pi-net.dyndns.org/anonymous/jyc/

[Willem Grooters]

If you look around on the Internet and freeware CD's, there are some utilities around that allow you to read native VMS files on on ODS-2 formatted floppydisk or CD drive. If you are so happy to be able to connect VMS-native disks (ATAPI or SCSI) to your PC directly, you can use these too. I don't think it will accept ODS-5 - but won't rule it out either.

Of course, AS of Samba allow you to access the files on the VMS box immediately.