Re: changing node name: RENAME/IDENTIFIER SYS$NODE_oldnodename

From: John Santos (john_at_egh.com)
Date: 04/23/05 

Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 22:59:07 GMT

Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply wrote:
> In article <9hV9e.4350$Lj3.1192@news.cpqcorp.net>, hoff@hp.nospam (Hoff
> Hoffman) writes:
>
>
>> No shared SCSI support on VAX. DSSI was the option for various of the
>> low-end VAX boxes, where a DSSI controller was available.
>
>
> I have a DSSI controller on the VAX 4000/100A, but only on that machine.
> Thus, no possibility to share anything (though I do use a disk on it).
>
> Which reminds me: that DSSI disk has a different allocation class than
> the machine itself (which is used for the SCSI disks). Everything works
> fine. Is there any reason to prefer them to be the same? To prefer
> them to be different?
>
> Which also reminds me: it also has an adapter so that one can connect
> SCSI disks to the DSSI bus (it also has a completely independent SCSI
> bus as well). Is there any limit on the size of such SCSI disks one can
> connect? This is low on my priority list, but once when testing things
> out I saw some RZ26 and/or RZ28 disks show up with substantially less
> than their real size.
>
>
>> For a hobbyist cluster, one disk per architecture will usually work just
>> fine, and it's less maintenance -- and more experience with cluster
>> operations and with common cluster configurations, too.
>
>
> For various reasons, my hobbyist cluster is located 500 km from where I
> am most of the time. At the non-cluster location, I have a couple of
> standalone VAXstation 4000/60 machines connected to a really nice old
> |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| 21-inch monitor. Essentially, I use them just to run
> DECwindows, so that I can log in remotely elsewhere (usually into my
> hobbyist cluster). (I also use it as a display for Mozilla running on
> another remote cluster where I have an account, since none of my
> machines are powerful enough to run Mozilla. A bit slow due to the
> low-end DSL connection, but usable. LYNX or Netscape 3.03, even on VAX,
> is good enough for many sites. But I digress.) Thus, I want my
> hobbyist cluster, which I use for essentially everything I do, to stay
> up no matter what. Thus, I want to be able to survive the loss of any
> node; with non-shared system disks, this means that each node needs its
> own system disk. Also, when I am on-site doing maintenance etc, I want
> the cluster to be up so that I have internet access etc should I need to
> consult with some online documentation or whatever. Also, with just a
> 10 Mb/s LAN for all the traffic, it's probably more efficient for each
> node to have a direct SCSI connection to its system disk, as opposed to
> being a satellite.

Even 10Mb/s is surprisingly fast for lots of stuff. One key is to
make sure you have an ethernet switch, rather than just a hub.
This can make a huge difference.

> Since I have just a low-end DSL connection, if there is a failure such
> that the dynamic-DNS update isn't performed, I can't get in to repair
> anything from outside. Thus, the batch job which does the DNS update
> has to be rather robust (SUBMIT/RESTART, failover queues etc and of
> course coded to handle failures), and of course the cluster has to stay
> up.
>
> I also have an ISDN router which I can dial in to, and thus access the
> cluster independent of DSL and even independent of the internet.
> However, to make use of this I think I will have to add a node (perhaps
> a satellite) or two which have the ISDN router as the default TCPIP route
> so that I can actually log in via the ISDN router and have a functioning
> connection. (Once inside, of course, I can use LAT (or Telnet, or
> DECnet when I finally get it configured) to get to the other nodes.)

You might want to consider getting a cheap old DECServer (should be
cheap on Ebay), and connecting one port to a dialup modem, and the
rest via null-modems to the console ports of your other systems. Then
you could dial in and reboot things, fix network routes, etc. if
necessary. The server could offer the various console ports as LAT
services, so you could connect to a dead or down system from any working
system, using SET HOST/LAT. (If you have a DS90/DS700 (or later) that
supports TCP/IP, you could also TELNET in from the outside and do the
same.)

A sort of poor-man's VCC.

Obviously, you would need to carefully consider security, firewall
access to the DECserver from the outside, etc.

> Which reminds me: can one have more than one TCPIP cluster alias in a
> VMS cluster, one for three nodes, say, and another for another two
> nodes, and of course have them both work simultaneously?
>
> Nevertheless, I plan to use some VAXstation 3100 machines I have (some
> quite slow, such as the model 30, and/or diskless) as satellites, mainly
> just to get some experience with cluster operations and common cluster
> configurations.
>
> Which reminds me: is the limit on the size of the system disk for a
> VAXstation 3100 only applicable if it is a boot server, i.e. is it OK to
> network boot a VAXstation 3100 satellite off of a 2-GB VAX system disk
> on a boot-server node?
> 

-- 
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539

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