COMPAQ


          Cover Letter for DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1

          May 2002

          Dear DECram Customer:

          Compaq Computer Corporation is pleased to provide DECram for
          OpenVMS Version 3.1 to our customers.

          DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 is fully supported when installed
          on any valid and licensed standalone or clustered system running
          OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.2-1H1 or higher. The main benefits of
          Version 3.1 are significant performance enhancements for users
          running OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 and higher.

                                        NOTE

             DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 cannot be installed on
             a VAX system. VAX users can install DECram for OpenVMS
             Version 2.3.

          The DECram for OpenVMS software allows a system manager to
          create psuedo disks (RAMdisks), which reside in the main memory
          of OpenVMS systems and improve I/O performance. The operating
          system can read from and write to the RAMdisk using standard
          OpenVMS disk I/O operations. This provides high speed access to
          read-only data such as libraries, fonts, databases, and command
          files.

          There are no special hardware requirements to install DECram
          for OpenVMS. As with DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.0, the Version
          3.1 limit on DECram disk size is 4,294,967,296 blocks on systems
          running OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.2-1H1 or higher. It is possible
          to create logically contiguous devices geater than either of
          these limits by creating multiple DECram devices and binding
          them together.

          DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 supports operation in an Adaptive
          Partitioned Multiprocessing (APMP) environment, also known as
          Compaq Galaxy Software Architecture on OpenVMS.

          Cluster Considerations

          DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 is fully compatible with Version
          3.0 and Version 2.3, and any combination of these versions can
          be used in an OpenVMS Cluster.

          If your first installation of the DECram product in a clustered
          environment is Version 3.0 or higher (on nodes running OpenVMS
          Alpha Version 7.2-1H1 or higher), you can install the DECram
          software just once if all nodes in the cluster share a common
          disk. However, you must install a license key for each node in
          the cluster that will use the DECram product. When you install
          DECram in a cluster, be sure only one installation is active at
          once.

 







          If you install the DECram software in a clustered environment
          where there is no common system disk, the DECram software must
          be installed on each node.

          If you want to upgrade nodes in a cluster from DECram for Open-
          VMS Version 2.3, the DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 software
          must be installed over Version 2.3. You cannot remove Ver-
          sion 2.3 except by installing DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.0
          or higher over it. Note that if you subsequently remove DECram
          for OpenVMS, the older version will automatically be removed
          too. If you later want to run an earlier version of DECram, you
          must reinstall it.

          Multiple DECram devices can be members of a Volume Shadowing
          for OpenVMS shadow set and can be served by mass storage control
          protocol (MSCP) in an OpenVMS Cluster configuration.

          Documentation

          During the DECram for OpenVMS installation, the DECram for
          OpenVMS User's Manual and the DECram for OpenVMS Installation
          Guide are copied in PostScript (.PS) and ASCII (.TXT) format
          to the SYS$HELP directory. Look for the following files in
          [SYS$HELP]:

             DECRAM_INSTALL_GUIDE.PS
             DECRAM_INSTALL_GUIDE.TXT

             DECRAM_USERS_MANUAL.PS
             DECRAM_USERS_MANUAL.TXT

          These manuals are also shipped in Adobe Portable Document For-
          mat (.PDF) and HyperText Markup Language (.HTML) in the OpenVMS
          Alpha Online Documentation Library (available by subscription).
          If you plan to view the HTML files using a browser, all HTML
          files associated with the Installation Guide (DECRAM_INSTALL_
          GUIDE*.HTML) or User's Manual (DECRAM_USERS_MANUAL*.HTML) must
          be copied to the directory from which you will view the docu-
          ments.

          Installation

          Please read the DECram for OpenVMS Installation Guide carefully
          before starting your installation. Appendix A of that manual
          provides a sample installation of the software.



                 © 2002 Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.

          ________________________________________________________________
            Compaq, the Compaq logo, Alpha, OpenVMS, VAX, VMS, and the
            DIGITAL logo are trademarks of Compaq Information Technologies
            Group, L.P. in the U.S. and/or other countries.