USB Memory stick access from VMS

[Andrew Rycroft]

Hi,

I see with OpenVMS v7.3-2 there is a USB manager USM utility. Here you can add devices that could be plugged in to the USB port. If I plug a memory stick into the USB port, will VMS see it ?

With regards
Andrew

[Keith Cayemberg]

Hi Andrew,

there was a long thread about this in the C.O.V. Newsgroup in March.

Fred Kleinsorge from OpenVMS Engineering immediately answered with the following:

Do you have a requirement for one?

We have some code, but it isn't shipping or supported. By letting us know
that there are real customer requirements, we can determine if it is worth
qualifying the logic and supporting it.

So you could promote that this feature gets a higher implementation priority by contacting your OpenVMS Rep about your need.

The C.O.V. Thread is on Google here...
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=2o71c.47%24GG1.7%40news.cpqcorp.net

Cheers!

Keith Cayemberg

[Ian Miller.]

as far as I know USB storage is not supported in V7.3-2
It may be supported in V8.2

[Uwe Zessin]

I have tried a USB memory stick on an RX2600 with OpenVMS V8.0. The system recognized it and froze solid :-(

[Stanley F Quayle]

At the Itanium porting class in Bedford MA this week, it was reported that a prototype of VMS 8.2 on Itanium booted successfully from a memory stick.

Completely unsupported, of course.

The previous comment remains -- if a paying customer needs it, HP will be interested in supporting it. If it's just for hobbyist use, they might release some un-supported freeware eventually.

[Ian Miller.]

"At the Itanium porting class in Bedford MA this week, it was reported that a prototype of VMS 8.2 on Itanium booted successfully from a memory stick."

A similar demonstration was performed at the VMS Advanced Technical Bootcamp

[Stanley F Quayle]

They didn't demonstrate it at the Itanium class, just reported it. It may very well have been the Bootcamp demonstration that they were reporting.

The issue remains that all the cool USB gizmos will need a business case before they get supported status.

Since HP doesn't make memory sticks for servers, it would seem doubtful...

[John Gillings]

Re: Stanley's comments

>The issue remains that all the cool
>USB gizmos will need a business
>case before they get supported status.

It costs money to support stuff. These days, nothing comes free, so please keep those cards coming...

>Since HP doesn't make memory sticks
>for servers, it would seem doubtful...

On the other hand, the concept of a service engineer being able to walk onto a site with a USB pen drive dangling from his ID badge, plug it in and boot a random system to a known, useable state is VERY attractive. All kinds of interesting possibilities there.

On my third hand, this might scare some customers, as it has interesting implications for system crackers too.

[Anton van Ruitenbeek]

Re: John
'On my third hand, this might scare some customers, as it has interesting implications for system crackers too. '

VMS is always and only 'crackable' if you have -PHYSICAL- access to the machine. So there is no difference in this case. You can also replace the real systemdrive whith you're own and put the original in another slot etc.

AvR

[Stanley F Quayle]

> On the other hand, the concept of a service engineer being able to walk onto a site with a USB pen drive dangling from his ID badge [...]

Yes, interesting. But a full-loaded DVD with VMS and hardware tools isn't too big...

[Stanley F Quayle]

How about assigning some points to the responses?

Pointer to help on points:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33

Thanks in advance.

[Ian Miller.]

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/freeware/freeware70/usb_freeware/

[Peter Quodling]

re John Gillings post...

I currently keep all of the VMS, and LP related documents, manuals, PDFs etc on a 512MB USB Key. Very handy - moreso than a CD or DVD...

q

[Willem Grooters]

What I learned on the bootcamp is that it does not depend on the VMS version, but on the underlying hardware. My PWS has USB, but the wrong chipset under it, so 7.3-2 doesn't see it. I know of systems where a PCI card containing the right chips has been added and 7.3-2 is very happy with it. Since cost is low, it's worth a try. (I forgot which is the right one: Intel or Lucent, or yet another one)
Usage? On the bootcamp, USB's (5Gb, IIRC) were used to install VMS on integrity systems, in stead from DVD.

Willem

[Willem Grooters]

@Stanley:



I'd rather wear a memory stick than a DVD. However, a female sysmgr could wear DVD's as jewelry (earrings). I know one who did once :-) (well, CD at the time)