30-Oct-2004

7.3-2 upgrade

Just like the cobbler's children, my personal machines always seem to be the last to get the upgrades applied.

I have finally upgraded my venerable AlphaServer 800 to run OpenVMS 7.3-2. I will need to reboot one more time to apply the latest update patch that was just released, then I expect I shall by done until I get a hold of 8.2.

To upgrade a machine that doesn't have a workable CD drive is a bit of an exercise (yes, yes, I know I should fix it). Fortunately, the machine has a spare disk drive bay, so the way around it is to take an image copy of the CD from a machine at work onto a disk, plug the disk into the AS800, and upgrade from there.

Too bad the disk didn't have enough space for UPGRADE-V0300 on it. That took me 6 hours to download over my horribly slow modem...

Posted at October 30, 2004 8:27 AM
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VMS on Alpha without a working CD drive is an unsupported configuration. But I guess as its your home box...

8.2 has an undocumented,unsupported software infoserver built into it, so if you have multiple machines your VMS upgrades to your non working cd box should be easier.

Posted by: Alex Daniels at October 30, 2004 9:55 AM

Yep, if I had it under a maintenance contract, I'd have the CD fixed ;) Each time I have it apart, I can't figure out how to remove the carrier box the CD drive is in, or I'd replace it myself.

One of these days, I will need to place a call on an AS800 at work, and I will watch carefully so I know how to break it apart. Until then, I will get by.

Thanks for the pointer on 8.2. I believe someone mentioned that at HP World in Chicago, but it hadn't quite sunk in.

Posted by: Jim Duff at October 30, 2004 10:28 AM

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