My DECserver 700-16 cannot startup normally

[Volker Halle]

Hoangles,

the name of the DECserver 700 V1.1A software is DS7A011. It has been released in MAY-1994 and supports DECserver 700-08 and 700-16 servers. UPI order number code is: XA5. This matches the Coypright date and version number seen in your WWENG1.SYS software.

The latest version (available from DEC) was V1.1C, saveset name: DS7C011 released JUN-1998.

Can you build a very small network segment with JUST the DECserver 700 and your AlphaServer 4000 ? Then try to load it. If that also fails, do a DECserver system reset as described in table 1-1 of the Hardware Owner's Manual as pointed to above.

The reason I'm asking for a small network segment is the bugcheck code of 0299, which you have been seeing and the reference to this code in the DNAS V2.3B release notes.

Volker.

[Hoangles]

Dear Sirs,
It's nice to go back to my DECserver 700 problem.
I just came back after a long business, our system is still in operation without DECserver 700.
We have not found any new unit so far, at the meantime we must restore this DS7 as soon as possible.
At the moment, the DS7 has the following staus:
- If power on, the LED will lights: 8->d->E then flashs at E. In this case I can not get any response message from terminal.
- If power on while pressing reset botton, the LED will lights: 8->d->E->d->b->5->4->off one minute ->1->dump failed-> E. In this case, I can get response message from port1 and from OpenVMS.
Pls see in attached file for the messages from OpenVMS.
Any one can help me steps to solve my problem?
Hope for your support soon. TKS

[Volker Halle]

Hoangles,

this DECserver 700 has a hardware problem. It either hangs during one of it's selftests or it crashes after a successful load and tries to write a dump, but there is no MOP CLIENT entry on OpenVMS for this DECserver, which would allow OpenVMS to accept a dump to be received from this DECserver.

Volker.

[Oswald Knoppers_1]

You wrote:

"We have not found any new unit so far, at the meantime we must restore this DS7 as soon as possible."

You can still by them:

http://www.vnetek.com/p-1655-decserver-700-16-usa.aspx

Oswald

[Steve Reece_3]

>>>
With the newer DECnet software, I believe
that there are two possible download server
programs: DECnet-Plus itself, and the newer
LANACP. One of these may say something
useful:

mcr lancp show node /all

mcr ncl show mop client * all
<<<

LANACP isn't part of DECnet - it's part of VMS.
VMS Engineering realized that people may need MOP DLL (down line loading) functionality without installing DECnet and that DECnet maintenance was being done by others. As a result, someone came up with the idea of LANACP which is maintained in house with the VMS code.

IIRC, there are some commands that you need to include in startup to get LANACP able to respond to MOP requests, though I don't remember the commands off the top of my head.

LANACP probably arrived at about v7.1 of VMS.

Steve

[Hoangles]

Everyone,
I can get message at PC from port1 when DS7 starts up.
I cannot get the command prompt (local>) so that I can do some commands, even the DS7 does not strat when I press Cltr+P at PC.
Do you think that the port1 is now not correctly setup?
Remember that I'm using Hyperterminal of Windows for communication.

[Steven Schweda]

> I can get message at PC from port1 when DS7
> starts up.

And what message is that? The same "Local
-913- Fatal Bugcheck" as before?

> I cannot get the command prompt (local>)
> [...]

Most things on the DECserver will not work
until it can find some usable software.

As everyone keeps saying, it appears that
either your DECserver has a hardware problem,
or there's something wrong with the WWENG2
file which it's getting from the VMS system.

[Bob Blunt]

Hoangles, Your DECserver 700 is dead. Pressing and holding the reset button as you apply power tells it to factory reset and it should default to downloading the software from a host that provides MOP services. The terminal server will broadcast a request on the network and any host that has the file it wants should respond if properly setup. However you've got console messages and messages from your VMS host saying that the server can't write a dumpfile to the host that supplied the server's software. If the terminal server is dumping there's a problem. When the terminal server stops booting with an "E" in the LED display, it's broken.

There's currently only one place you can buy new "DECserver 700s" and that's VNETEK (http://www.vnetek.com/). Some resellers and refurbishers sell used units and you can sometimes find them used on e*bay or Craig's List. Sometimes you can even get a DECserver700 processor module at the latter two services.

Your server is broken. You could try removing the memory SIMM and/or the PCMCIA card (if you have this feature, not all the DECserver700s have them), but if you still get an "E" in the display on ANY power-up, it's never going to work properly. Our accessing your system won't fix it and no amount of creative software replacement will fix it. VNETEK owns the rights to the modern version of DNAS and the current release is V3.4 or V3.8. More information is available at their website (URL posted above).

bob