Installation manual

Small Capacity System Disks
H.2 Tailoring Considerations
H.2.3 Make a Backup Copy of Your System Disk
It is important to make a backup copy of your system disk before any system
software upgrade. When tailoring and system environment options must be used
to fit the required software on the device, it is even more important to make a
backup copy before you begin and at major milestones during the procedure. This
gives you a fallback to a last good position in the event that a subsequent step
produces undesired side effects (especially when tailoring software off of the disk)
or fails because you unexpectedly ran out of disk space.
H.2.4 Analyze the System Disk
The space used on the system disk might include files that have been only
partially deleted (usually, because they were still open when an attempt was
made to delete them). To recover this space, enter the following command:
$ ANALYZE/DISK/REPAIR SYS$SYSDEVICE:
Continue to use the ANALYZE/DISK/REPAIR command after every reboot or
before each major step to be sure that all free blocks are available for the upgrade
procedure to use.
H.2.5 Tailoring Options
The installation and upgrade procedures (for both OpenVMS VAX Version 7.3
and DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS VAX) let you select optional software to
install or upgrade only by save set. The tailoring facilities are capable of finer
granularity and can usually select files in smaller groups within the save sets.
In the case of DECW$MOTIF_TAILOR, the save sets and tailoring groups are
the same. Additionally, DECW$MOTIF_TAILOR can only tailor off. To add
files, you must either use the installation or upgrade procedures or use the
OpenVMS Backup utility (BACKUP) manually to select the desired files. For the
VMSTAILOR and DECW$TAILOR utilities, the tailorable options are subsets
of the installation and upgrade save sets and can be tailored either on or off. If
there is sufficient space to take an entire save set, it is usually faster to select it
during the procedure and then tailor off the undesired pieces, rather than tailor
them on later.
If you performing an upgrade and have a large area of user application files
or a large database that is not part of the OpenVMS VAX operating system or
DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS VAX layered product but resides on the system
disk, it might be convenient to back up that data to a separate piece of media,
delete it from the system disk before the upgrade, and then restore it after the
upgrade. The blocks can be used in the interim, and you can save time and effort
in the tailoring and upgrade processes.
You can decrease the time needed to perform the tailoring and upgrade tasks
by disabling the high-water mark on the system disk. To disable the high-water
mark, enter the following command:
$ SET VOLUME/NOHIGHWATER SYS$SYSDEVICE:
Depending on the system security you require, you might want to leave the
high-water mark permanently disabled. Otherwise, you can restore it by entering
the following command:
$ SET VOLUME/HIGHWATER SYS$SYSDEVICE:
H–4 Small Capacity System Disks