Booting the OpenVMS Operating System Media

The OpenVMS operating system includes procedures that allow you to easily upgrade the operating system using the PCSI utility. These tools are available once you boot the system properly. To boot the OpenVMS Alpha system CD, see Section . To boot the OpenVMS Integrity servers OE DVD, see Section .

You can use a VGA graphics device (except on an rx2600 Integrity servers or other servers that lack the firmware capabilities), serial device, or network interface for the console. For information about configuring your system console, see Section .


NOTE: When using a VGA console and upgrading from vMedia or a USB DVD drive with the keyboard plugged into a USB hub, if the keyboard is not responding, simply unplug the hub and plug it back in.


Booting the OpenVMS Alpha Operating System CD

To get started, boot the OpenVMS Alpha operating system CD either from your local CD drive or from a CD drive served by the InfoServer, as described in Section  and Section . First, you need to identify the name of the CD drive, as explained in Section . For more information about booting operations, see Section .

Determining the Boot Device

To boot the operating system CD, you need to determine the identity of the CD drive. Follow these steps:

  1. Insert the operating system CD into the local CD drive.

  2. Enter the SHOW DEVICE command at the console prompt (>>>) and look for the correct drive listed in the output (for example, DKA400). If you are booting from the InfoServer, look for a device listed with its hardware address, as in the last line of the following example (EWA0):

    >>> SHOW DEVICE
    dva0.0.0.1000.0    DVA0                     RX23
    dka200.2.0.5.0     DKA200                   RZ28M  1004
    dka300.3.0.5.0     DKA300                   RZ29B  0016
    dka400.4.0.5.0     DKA400                   RRD42  442E
    ewa0.0.0.3.0       EWA0         00-00-F8-1F-70-3D

    For additional information, see the HP OpenVMS Version 8.4 for Alpha and Integrity Servers Software Product Description (SPD 82.35.xx) and the hardware manuals that you received with your Alpha computer.

Booting from the Local Drive

To boot the operating system CD from the local CD drive, enter the boot command in the following format:

BOOT -FLAGS 0,0 source-drive

Substitute the device name of the CD drive for source-drive, such as DKA400, as listed in the SHOW DEVICE display example in Section . In this case, you would enter the following command and press Enter:

>>> BOOT -FLAGS 0,0 DKA400

Booting from the InfoServer

To boot the operating system CD using either the InfoServer hardware or the InfoServer utility, follow these steps. To use the InfoServer utility, certain configuration steps are required initially (one time only), as described in Appendix 3; note that the operating system CD must be mounted systemwide.

  1. At the console prompt, enter the boot command in the following format:

    >>> BOOT -FLAGS 0,0 -FILE APB_084 lan-device-name
     

    Substitute the name of the local area network device for lan-device-name, such as EWA0, as listed in the SHOW DEVICE display example in Section .

    The APB file name is the unique file name that was assigned to the APB.EXE file when it was copied from the operating system CD to the InfoServer. This file is the name of the APB program used for the initial system load (ISL) boot program.


    NOTE: If you are using a DEC 3000 or 4000 series system, note the following:

    • On DEC 3000 series systems, you can boot through the InfoServer using an alternate TURBOchannel device, such as a PMAD (Ethernet) or DEFTA (FDDI), by specifying the device name as n/ESA0. The value for n is the TURBOchannel slot number, which you can obtain by entering the SHOW CONFIGURATION command at the console prompt (>>>) and examining the display. For more information, see Section  in Appendix 1.

    • On DEC 4000 series systems, you must specify the ISL file name in uppercase (APB_084).


  2. The InfoServer ISL program then displays the following menu:

       
    Network Initial System Load Function
    Version 1.2
    
    
       FUNCTION         FUNCTION
         ID
         1     -        Display Menu
         2     -        Help
         3     -        Choose Service
         4     -        Select Options
         5     -        Stop
    
     Enter a function ID value:
  3. Respond to the prompts as follows, pressing Enter after each entry:

    1. Enter 3 for the function ID.

    2. Enter 2 for the option ID.

    3. Enter the service name (ALPHA084 is the default service name for the InfoServer hardware; for the InfoServer utility, ask your system or network manager for the service name).

    A sample display follows:

     Enter a function ID value: 3
      OPTION          OPTION
        ID
        1     -       Find Services
        2     -       Enter known Service Name
        
     Enter an Option ID value: 2
     Enter a Known Service Name: ALPHA084

NOTE: If you boot the OpenVMS Alpha operating system CD from an InfoServer system but lose your connection during the upgrade procedure (the system is unresponsive and pressing Ctrl/Y does not return you to the menu), do the following:

  1. Boot the OpenVMS Alpha operating system CD again from the network.

  2. Enter the DCL environment by choosing option 8 on the menu.

  3. Mount the device containing your backup copy of the target disk and the device that is your target disk.

  4. Restore the backup copy of your target disk by entering the appropriate BACKUP commands. (See Appendix 6 for complete information about using MOUNT and BACKUP commands to restore a system disk.)

  5. Log out from the DCL environment.

  6. Perform the upgrade again by choosing the upgrade option (1) on the menu and following the procedures described in this chapter.


Booting the OpenVMS Integrity servers OE DVD

You can boot the OpenVMS Integrity servers OE DVD in any of the following ways. This section gives detailed instructions on booting from the local DVD drive. Detailed instructions on the other methods are available in the appendixes, as noted in the corresponding sections that follow.

  • From your local DVD drive (Section )

  • From a virtual DVD drive served over the network by the InfoServer utility (Section )

  • From an image on a PC or Windows server in the network accessed through the HP SIM interface (Section )

  • From an image on a PC or Windows server in the network using vMedia through a browser connected to your Integrity servers iLO 2 MP port (Section )

The latter two options can be used for entry-class Integrity servers that support such means; they can be used when a local DVD drive is not available. For more information about booting operations, see Section .

Booting from the Local Drive

To boot a local OpenVMS Integrity servers OE DVD, follow these steps. To boot the DVD on a cell-based server, a DVD device must be accessible by the nPartition that OpenVMS is being installed on.

  1. Make sure your Integrity servers is powered on. If your system has an attached external device, make sure it is turned on and operational.

  2. Insert the DVD into the drive you want to use.

  3. Cycle power.

  4. From the main EFI boot menu (for cell-based servers, this must be the EFI boot menu for the nPartition on which OpenVMS is to be booted), select the appropriate item from the boot options list. Note that the EFI boot menu is timed; press any key to stop the countdown timer.

    For some systems, the boot option to select is the Internal Bootable DVD option. If that option is not listed in your EFI boot menu, move to the Boot From a File menu and select the Removable Media Boot option, if present.

    Alternatively (and this method is recommended for cell-based servers), boot the DVD drive from the EFI Shell prompt by entering the command shown in the following example, where fsn: corresponds to the Integrity servers DVD drive (such as fs0:). Note that if you have navigated to a particular file system, the EFI Shell prompt would reflect that file system; for example, if the current file system is fs0:, the EFI Shell prompt would be fs0:>.

    Shell> fsn:\efi\boot\bootia64.efi

    To determine which device is the bootable DVD drive, examine the list of mapped devices and look for an fs device listing that includes the letters “CDROM”, as in the following line, where fsn is the file system associated with the drive, which is usually fs0: (instead of "fsn", you might see something similar to "V8.4"; instead of Ata, you might see Scsi, depending on the server model):

    fsn : Acpi(HWP0002,400)/Pci(4|1)/Ata(Primary,Master)/CDROM(Entry0)

    You can use the following command to display the mapping of various EFI device names to OpenVMS device names, where fsn is the device you want to check (such as fs0:):

    Shell> fsn:\efi\vms\ms_show dev -fs

    On most Integrity servers, the DVD drive is DQA0: (IDE) or DNA0: (USB). On systems that include a SCSI bus, such as the Superdome server, the DVD drive is DKA0:. For more information about the vms_show command, see the HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual.


    NOTE: By default, certain versions of EFI might interpret the Delete (or Backspace) key differently than do OpenVMS Alpha systems or Microsoft Windows computers. In such cases, press Ctrl/H to delete the last character entered. For more information, see Section .


When the DVD boots properly, the OpenVMS operating system banner appears, followed by the operating system menu. You can now upgrade your OpenVMS Integrity servers operating system on the target disk (see Section ). If the methods documented in this section do not succeed in booting the DVD, see Section .


NOTE: When booting OpenVMS from the installation DVD for the first time on any OpenVMS Integrity servers system with a SAN storage device, you might experience a delay in EFI initialization because the entire SAN is scanned. Depending on the size of the SAN, this delay might range from several seconds to several minutes.


Booting Over the Network Using the InfoServer Utility

To use the InfoServer utility to boot from the network, certain configuration steps are required initially (one time only); see Appendix 3. The instructions on booting over the network from a virtual DVD drive are also included in Appendix 3.

Booting Using HP SIM Provisioning

To use HP SIM provisioning to boot an image of the OpenVMS OE DVD, certain configuration steps are required initially (one time only). For these steps and the booting instructions, see Appendix 4. For upgrades, your OpenVMS boot flags must be set to (0,0).

Booting Using vMedia

To use vMedia to boot an image of the OpenVMS OE DVD, certain configuration steps are required initially (one time only); see Section . For instructions on booting with vMedia, see Section .