VMS Startup

[Kenneth Toler]

Is there a way, using DCL, to capture all COM files that are being called/executed during the startup of VMS 7.3-2?

[Karl Rohwedder]

You may set the parameter STARTUP_P2 to enable logging and SET VERIFY during startup, see the help in SYSGEN or use the SYSMAN STARTUP SET OPTIONS to enable logging and checkpointing of the SYSMAN startupphases.

regards Kalle

[Donald Hill]

WRT Karl's reply, look at the "Systems Manager's Manual, Volume 1: Essentials" in section 4, "Starting Up an Shutting Down the System", look in the section "Booting with Controlled Startup" in the subsection "Displaying Startup Procedute Commands with SYSMAN" on page 115 if you are looking at the PDF version. This section describes what to do.

Don

[Arch_Muthiah · Accepted solution]

Ken,

I never tried, but you can create the logfile out of your startup procedure then I thik we will have to search all the COM procedure got executed from the startup procedure.

$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSMAN
SYSMAN> STARTUP SET OPTIONS/VERIFY=FULL/OUTPUT=anyfile.log

Archunan

[Ian Miller.]

If you just want a list of files try the /CHECKPOINTING option. See following from the manual.


SYSMAN STARTUP SET OPTIONS

/VERIFY=FULL Displays every line of DCL executed by component startup procedures and by STARTUP.COM.

/VERIFY=PARTIAL Displays every line of DCL executed by component startup procedures, but does not display DCL executed by STARTUP.COM.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/73final/6017/6017pro_010.html#startlog


/OUTPUT=FILE

/OUTPUT=CONSOLE Creates SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSEXE]STARTUP.LOG, which contains all of the output generated by startup procedures. Alternatively, you can display the output on the console.

/CHECKPOINTING Displays informational messages describing the time and status of each startup phase and component file.

[Phillip Thayer]

All of the above will work but I have to ask, what problem are you trying to solve that you need to look at all the command procedures executed during the system startup? If your having a problem maybe we can help with more specific advice on your specific problem.

Phil

[Robert Gezelter]

Kenneth,

Don't forget that you can get a full list of the first level of invoked files by using the SYSMAN utility to display the two startup databases (STARTUP$STARTUP_LAYERED and STARTUP$STARTUP_VMS).

Once you are in SYSMAN, the specific commands are:
STARTUP SET DATABASE STARTUP$STARTUP_LAYERED
STARTUP SHOW FILE
STARTUP SET DATABASE STARTUP$STARTUP_VMS
STARTUP SHOW FILE

For many purposes, this is less work than dealing with a trace of the startup process. It can also be done on live systems WITHOUT the need for a reboot.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Jan van den Ende]

Kenneth,

I rather like Bob's solution, but there you have to realise, that one of the procedures you will find is SYS$MANAGER:SYSTRATUP_VMS.COM.
Depending on the specific system setup, some or most of the work is done from there (especially in systems that were initially set up way back when, because that WAS the original way to set thing up).

So, it would be wise to also inspect that file.

hth.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Kenneth Toler]

In response to Phil's question, I am specifically trying to find where in the startup code to mount removable hard drives.

[Robert_Boyd]

Over the years that I've dealt with OpenVMS there are usually one of 4 places that I find that people like to place disk mounts:


SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM
SYLOGICALS.COM
SYCONFIG.COM
SYSECURITY.COM
SYPAGSWPFILES.COM

Many system managers like to create a SYS$MANAGER:DISK_MOUNTS.COM or something similar that contains all of the disk mounting commands and then insert a call to it from whichever procedure is appropriate for their site.

There are good reasons for each of these depending on the flavor of your system.

Have fun searching :-)
Robert

[John Gillings]

Kenneth,
You may also want to try a verbose startup trace using console flags:

>>> b -fl ,30000

20000 enables verbose startup logging, and 10000 turns on verification of all DCL command lines executed. OR them together to get both. It will take a while! Output can be captured using SYSMAN STARTUP SET OPTIONS, and/or from a console manager or PC connected to the console port.

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

We submit the startup in batch as soon as we come in systartup_vms. Thus we have a log and clean quotas.

Wim

[Jan van den Ende]

Kenneth,

once we created STARTUP.COM in )every) SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSMGR],
containing only

@SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]STARTUP /OUTPUT=SYS$MANAGER:STARTUP.LOG_

That worked OK as well.

(only have to remove/rename it during upgrades!)

Proost.

Have one on me (peheaps in May in Nashua?)

jpe

[Volker Halle]

Jan,

I normally use STARTUP_P2="D". This write SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP.LOG and also captures the early messages from SYLOGICALS.COM

See you in Nashua.

Volker.

[Jon Pinkley]

Kenneth,

I realize this is an old question...

However, I didn't see anyone suggest the following. It doesn't limit itself to command files, but is instead a way to see all the files that were accessed during a startup.

Enable volume retention (ODS2 or ODS5) or file access dates (ODS5), then after booting but before other activity starts, find files that have been accessed since boottime, using the DFU program from the freeware.

This assumes you can stop all activity on the cluster for the duration of that startup, so it isn't a good solution for many cases. However, it does catch a lot of things that may not be obvious using the other techniques.