User manual

Quick VAX MP Installation Guide

Step 1. Perform new OpenVMS installation and create system disk.

Initial installation of OpenVMS under VAX MP is identical to installation under regular uniprocessor

SIMH VAX. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe how to perform such installation. Refer

to existing SIMH documents, for example Phillip Wherry’s “Running VAX/VMS Under Linux Using SIMH”

or Stephen Hoffman’s “SIMH tips: VAX emulation on Mac OS X”

or Lennert Van Album’s “Installing VMS

in SIMH on Linux”

You can use either of the simulators – VAX MP or uniprocessor SIMH VAX – to create OpenVMS bootable

disk image and perform initial customization, such as running AUTOGEN or installing and configuring

layered products (such as TCP/IP services etc.) and loading licenses.

Step 2. Load VSMP tool distribution.

Obtain VSMP tool distribution. VAX MP provides it as either virtual tape or virtual disk image. VSMP tool

can be installed in any directory of your choosing. In this document and its examples we will assume

VSMP will be installed into SYS$COMMON:[VSMP].

To install VSMP, log in to OpenVMS as SYSTEM.

If you obtained VSMP distribution on virtual disk, simply mount it and copy VSMP directory to target

location.

If you obtained VSMP distribution on virtual tape image, attach it to SIMH or VAX MP virtual tape drive

device, for example

attach –r tq vsmp.vtape, then mount it and restore contents to the target

directory:

$ ALLOCATE MUA0:

$ MOUNT /FOREIGN MUA0: VSMP

$ CREATE/DIRECTORY SYS$COMMON:[VSMP]

$ BACKUP MUA0:VSMP/SAVE_SET SYS$COMMON:[000000…] /LOG

Step 3. Build VSMP tool.

VSMP tool distribution already includes pre-built VSMP binary for OpenVMS 7.3. If you are installing

under OpenVMS 7.3, skip to step 4. Otherwise you will need to build VSMP for your version of OpenVMS

or VAX/VMS. Install C compiler. VSMP had been tested with Compaq C compiler version 6.4. You can

check version of the compiler installed on your system with DCL command

CC /VERSION. To build

VSMP, execute command

@BUILD from VSMP directory. This command creates file VSMP.EXE for the

installed version of VMS (as well as listing files, map file and various scratch files such as temporary OBJ

and MLB for the compiled modules). Files are created in the current (VSMP) directory. You can execute

PURGE after @BUILD completes.

http://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomputing/vax-simh.html

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/922

https://vanalboom.org/node/18