OpenVMS Image backup on CD

[Volker Halle]

Geir,

you're missing a step: You cannot burn an .BCK saveset to CD and expect OpenVMS to then be able to mount that CD !

You need to use LD to create a DISK CONTAINER file on OpenVMS, then copy and burn that DISK CONTAINER file to a CD.

Sure it's possible to burn a CD on a Windows system (from an OpenVMS disk container file) and mount/read that disk later on an OpenVMS system, but you are now in Windows land and things may get a little bit vague ;-)

There is a nice 'little' writeup in ATW 9820:

Create Bootable Optical Media (CD, DVD)?

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_9820.html

From own experience:

- you need a CD burning application, which can burn 'raw' images (I used NERO 6, but there are other possibilities as well)

- depending on your OpenVMS CDROM drive, don't use CD-RW - the older CDROM drives can't handle them

- use low speeds when burning the CD

Volker.

[Volker Halle]

Geir,

LD is available as freeware and works on OpenVMS VAX (V5.4 or higher) and OpenVMS Alpha (V6.2 or higher):

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware40/ld062/

Volker.

[John Abbott_2]

Geir, you can use LD on VMS V6.2

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware50/ld063/freeware_readme.txt

Read Volkers reply and links. The ATW article should give you all the info you need to succeed.

Best Regards
John.

[Steven Schweda]

> 2) After the backup finished, I copy the
> image backup to disk with the copy
> commands from tape to disk0.

Why not simply do the BACKUP to disk0? COPY
can have problems when copying a BACKUP save
set from tape.

> Sounds crazy, but I want to try it:

It sounds especially crazy if it means that
you expect to get "apporx 1.2Gb" onto a CD.

[Jan van den Ende]

Geir,

on the 1.2 vs 0.7 Gb issue: maybe (just MAYBE) the situation is not as bad as it looks from the previous answers:
- how full is your 1.2 Gb disk? Image backup only saves actual data, NOT unused disk space.
- are your page- swap- and dump-files on your system disk? Those SHOULD be marked NObackup (check with DIR/FULL), and then that data is also not copied.

Whether this helps (enough) you will have to check on the actual system.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Steven Schweda]

Yup. The size of the BACKUP save set is the
important thing.

But we don't know what that is.

[geir_2]

Hi,

Thanks to all. Since I'm a OpenVMS novice it would be nice if you could give me a cookbook:

1) The backup image on tape is less than 700Mb.
2) What applications do I need if I want to make a mountable virtuell disk partitions on VMS?? Is it LD?? Since OpenVMS is not connected to Internet, I must download the exe-file to USB-stick, and then use ftp from a PC to OpenVMS. I donn't have zip or other commands on VMS. I do not need header files, source code +++

3) The disk on the Alpha server, is big enough to contain the image file. Is it possible to copy the virtuell disk + image backup to a PC if I want to burn the disk+contents to a CD.

Hope that someone could help me. Thanks


Geir

[Karl Rohwedder · Accepted solution]

Geir,

- install LD using SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL. Volker gave you the link
- logout/login to active LD command
- create a dir to hold the container file, best would be not the systemdisk, if available, e.g.
CREATE/DIR disk:[BACKUP]
- create container file,
LD CREATE BACK/SIZE=1400000
set to nobackup
SET FLE BACK.DSK/NOBACKUP
- connect it to a LD device
LD CONNECT BACK ! -> LD returns device
- mount it
MOUNT/FOREIGN ld-device
- backup
BACKUP/IMAGE/IGN=INTER SYS$SYSDEVICE: ld-device: {/LOG/VERIFY]
- dism/disc LD device
DISMOUNT ld-device
LD DISCONNECT ls-device
- transfer to PC (binary mode) and burn it in raw format, e.g. using Winoncd

regards Kalle

[geir_2]

Karl,

Thanks for the e-mail. I'm running OpenVMS 6.2, so I must copy the all commands via Internet to USB-stick.

If possible, It would be great if I could copy the needed program, and not a whole zipped library. So if someof you have the needed program available it would be nice.

Thanks

Geir

[Karl Rohwedder]

Geir,
the directory Volker mentioned contains a ZIP file LD062.ZIP, which contains all savesets to install the kit.

(http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware40/ld062/)

regards Kalle