Re: New Member to newsgroup: Hi and All about VMS on MV 3300
- From: David J Dachtera <djesys.no@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:17:54 -0600
"Alistair J. Ross" wrote:
Thanks to all (especially VaxMan) for your excellent help on this matter.
I'll be sure to read the FAQ thoroughly now that I know where to find it
and then give this a try over the next few days.
Steven M. Scweda wrote:
"VAXStation 3100" is less complete than it could be. If it doesn't
say "Mxx" on the front, it's probably a 30 or 40 (the oldest).
Nope, it doesn't say anything. Big grey box with Digital VaxStation 3100.
Hhmmm... VAXstations were typically in beige boxes, though I suppose
this could have been repackaged by a third-party vendor.
Look on the back for labels with model numbers. Those will be useful in
identfying what you have. For example, a MicroVAX 3100 I have here
identifies itself as DV-31DTA-A via the model number.
That's the lot. Not that interested with this box anyway so no biggie,
it's just a basic workstation (or so I believe).
and...
Eventually, you may wish to get a Hobbyist CD-ROM kit and licenses,
and do a fresh installation, instead of using whatever was left by the
previous owner. (See the FAQ.)
Alas, that's not going to be a realistic possibility. This beast is of
the vintage just prior to CD-ROM. It contains one TK-70 tape drive and
two noisy sounding hard drives, it also has 2 add on boards with what
look like Centronics-style ports on them. I'm not sure what these are for
yet. I would also imagine that installation of an operating system the
size of VMS (even an old one) would still be impossible via Serial Link
at 19200bps.
Well, if you could arrange it, I suppose patience -IS- a virtue. At one
time VAX/VMS could be installed from 5-1/4 inch diskettes! VMS up to
about V7.2 for VAX was available on 2 TK50 tapes (TK70 is
read-compatible with TK50).
That said, at least one of those "Centronics-style" ports may be a
SCSI-I bus (single-endded, narrow SCSI) and a CD-ROM drive in an
external enclosure would be very doable. Google for RRD42. You may even
find one on eBay.
Once I've managed to break into this thing, the next thing I will want to
do is see if I can get it to play on my Ethernet based network. I'm
guessing at the moment it'll only speak DecNET. I don't even know whether
VMS was designed to speak anything else than DecNET, or how compatible
other OS's are with DECNet (I believe there is some OSS implementation
now available for Linux on Freshmeat), however I guess I'll find as much
information in the FAQ.
Perhaps, but adjust your paradigm a bit.
Yes, DECnet is provided with VMS; however, it need not be installed. VMS
runs quite happily stand-alone with no network stack at all installed.
That said, a TCP/IP stack formerly known as "UCX" (now known as "TCP/IP
Services for OpenVMS", hence, some of us still use the older, (MUCH!)
shorter name) is available from HP(Compaq(DEC)), and it's license is now
"bundled" with the base o.s. license; that is to say, you are permitted
to register/load the UCX Product Activation Key (PAK for short) so long
as you have a valid license for the base o.s. The Hobbyist license
qualifies there; thus, a hobbyist can install the current "UCX" and use
the UCX PAK.
There are also two third-party TCP/IP stacks: Multinet (formerly from
TGV and later owned briefly by Cisco) and TCPware from Process Software
(http://www.process.com/) as well as a now very aged and somewhat
obscure freeweare TCP/IP stack known as CMU/IP or CMU/TEK-TCP/IP.
VMS predates the internet and networking can be added - it is NOT
necessary.
You will likely need a 10-Base-5 (AUI) to 10-Base-T adapter for the
ethernet port once you get that far.
David J Dachtera
DJE Systems
.
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- New Member to newsgroup: Hi and All about VMS on MV 3300
- From: Alistair J. Ross
- Re: New Member to newsgroup: Hi and All about VMS on MV 3300
- From: Alistair J. Ross
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