Migration to CHARON-VAX for Linux

Introduction

This section describes how to migrate your VAX system to CHARON-VAX. We will use a sample MicroVAX 3600 system to demonstrate the migration procedure. The process is similar for all CHARON-VAX models.

If the CHARON-VAX based virtual system needs to be created from scratch, refer to the appendix "Configuring devices on the Qbus of a VAX or CHARON-VAX" describing how to find proper Qbus addresses and Vectors for each virtual device.

Collecting information about the source VAX system

The first step is to determine the exact configuration of your VAX hardware in order to create the CHARON-VAX configuration file.

Turn on your source VAX system. At the ">>>" prompt, issue the "show qbus" and "show device" commands:

>>>show qbus
Scan of Qbus I/O Space
-200000DC (760334) = FFFF (300) RQDX3/KDA50/RRD50/RQC25/KFQSA-DISK
-200000DE (760336) = 0B40
-20000124 (760444) = FFFF (304) TQK50/TQK70/TU81E/RV20/KFQSA-TAPE
-20000126 (760446) = 0BC0
-20000140 (760500) = 0080 (310) DHQ11/DHV11/CXA16/CXB16/CXY08
-20000142 (760502) = F081
-20000144 (760504) = DD18
-20000146 (760506) = 0140
-20000148 (760510) = 0000
-2000014A (760512) = 0000
-2000014C (760514) = 8000
-2000014E (760516) = 0000
-20000150 (760520) = 0080 (320) DHQ11/DHV11/CXA16/CXB16/CXY08
-20000152 (760522) = F081
-20000154 (760524) = DD18
-20000156 (760526) = 0140
-20000158 (760530) = 0000
-2000015A (760532) = 0000
-2000015C (760534) = 8000
-2000015E (760536) = 0000
-20001468 (772150) = FFFF (154) RQDX3/KDA50/RRD50/RQC25/KFQSA-DISK
-2000146A (772152) = 0B40
-20001920 (774440) = FF08 (120) DELQA/DEQNA/DESQA
-20001922 (774442) = FF00
-20001924 (774444) = FF01
-20001926 (774446) = FF02
-20001928 (774450) = FFD2
-2000192A (774452) = FF14
-2000192C (774454) = C000
-2000192E (774456) = 1030
-20001940 (774500) = FFFF (260) TQK50/TQK70/TU81E/RV20/KFQSA-TAPE
-20001942 (774502) = 0BC0
-20001F40 (777500) = 0020 (004) IPCR

Scan of Qbus Memory Space
>>>

>>>show device
UQSSP Disk Controller 0 (772150)
-DUA0 (RZ23)
-DUA1 (RZ24)

UQSSP Disk Controller 1 (760334)
-DUB2 (RZ25)
-DUB3 (RZ26)

UQSSP Tape Controller 0 (774500)
-MUA0 (TK50)

UQSSP Tape Controller 1 (760444)
-MUB3 (TK50)

Ethernet Adapter 0 (774440)
-XQA0 (08-00-01-02-D3-CC)

The source VAX configuration in this example is:

Controller	Address	Devices on controller
RQDX3	772150	-DUA0 (RZ23) -DUA1 (RZ24)
RQDX3	760334	-DUB2 (RZ25) -DUB3 (RZ26)
TQK50	774500	-MUA0 (TK50)
TQK50	760444	-MUB3 (TK50)
DHQ11	760520
DHQ11	760500
DESQA	774440	-XQA0

To find out the exact types of controllers please refer to documentation on the source VAX system.

Creation of CHARON-VAX configuration file

Using the above information, the following configuration can be created:

...

#
# First RQDX3 controller on address 772150
#
load RQDX3/RQDX3 DUA address=017772150
set DUA container[0]="/my_disks/rz23.vdisk"
set DUA container[1]="/my_disks/rz24.vdisk"

#
# Second RQDX3 controller on address 760334
#
load RQDX3/RQDX3 DUB address=017760334
set DUB container[2]="/my_disks/rz25.vdisk"
set DUB container[3]="/my_disks/rz26.vdisk"

#
# First TQK50 controller on address 774500
#
load TQK50/TQK50 MUA address=017774500
set MUA container[0]="/my_tapes/tape1.vtape"

#
# Second TQK50 controller on address 760444
#
load TQK50/TQK50 MUB address=017760444
set MUB container[3]="/my_tapes/tape2.vtape"

#
# First DHQ11 controller on address 760500
#
load DHQ11/DHV11 TXA address=017760500
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXA0 port=10010
set TXA line[0]=TXA0

#
# Second DHQ11 controller on address 760520
#
load DHQ11/DHV11 TXB address=017760520
load virtual_serial_line/chserial TXB0 port=10011
set TXB line[0]=TXB0

#
# DESQA controller on address 774440
#
load DESQA/DEQNA XQA address=017774440 interface=XQA0 load packet_port/chnetwrk XQA0 interface="eth1"

...

Note the Qbus addresses specification: the number is prefixed with "0", meaning it is an octal value. The number of digits reflects the 22 bits Qbus architecture.

Additional DHQ11 serial lines can be mapped later. For now, only 2 lines are configured, they are mapped to IP ports 10010 and 10011.

DESQA is mapped to the "eth1" network interface. This interface will be used for CHARON-VAX (see the Installation section for more details) on this particular host.

Making disk images

In our example, possible mappings of the RQDX3 and TQK50 tapes include physical devices and disk and tape images. Tape images have not to be manually created whereas you have to provision disk images, as described below.

Our example creates disk images of the original physical type. In reality, this step is the best opportunity in the migration to provision larger disks to get extra storage space.

Create special directories for storing disk and tape images, as needed. These directories are referenced in the sample configuration file above.

$ mkdir /my_disks
$ mkdir /my_tapes

Next, create the disk images using the "mkdskcmd" utility:

$ mkdskcmd -d rz24 -o /my_disks/rz24.vdisk
Please wait...
100% done
Success.
$ mkdskcmd -d rz25 -o /my_disks/rz25.vdisk
Please wait...
100% done
Success.
$ mkdskcmd -d rz26 -o /my_disks/rz26.vdisk
Please wait...
100% done
Success.
$ mkdskcmd -d rz27 -o /my_disks/rz27.vdisk
Please wait...
100% done
Success.

Installation of VAX operating system

The next step is to transfer the data from the source VAX system to CHARON-VAX. The easiest way to do it is via backups over the network. For this operation we need a bootable, network-enabled operating system on a CHARON-VAX disk image or physical disk.

The example configures the CHARON-VAX MicroVAX 3600 system for installation of VAX/VMS from a distribution CD-ROM (usually it is "/dev/cdrom" if the host has only one CD-ROM drive):

#
# First RQDX3 controller on address 772150 with addition of 3 units: a disk for VAX/VMS, storage disk and CD-ROM drive
#
load RQDX3/RQDX3 DUA address=017772150
set DUA container[0]="/my_disks/rz23.vdisk"
set DUA container[1]="/my_disks/rz24.vdisk"set DUA container[2]="/my_disks/new_vms_system.vdisk"
set DUA container[3]="/my_disks/backup_storage.vdisk"
set DUA container[4]="/dev/cdrom"

DUA3 will be the disk where all the source disks will be copied so its size needs to be large enough to store all the disk backup images.

Create an empty disk image for installation of VAX/VMS and another one for storing backups from the source VAX system as it is shown in the section above:

$ mkdskcmd -d rz27 -o /my_disks/new_vms_system.vdisk
Please wait...
100% done
Success. $ mkdskcmd -d rz59 -o /my_disks/backup_storage.vdisk Please wait... 100% done Success.

Run CHARON-VAX and boot from "dua4" ("migration.cfg" is the configuration file we use in this example):

$ mv3k6 migration.cfg
KA650-A V5.3, VMB 2.7
Performing normal system tests.
40..39..38..37..36..35..34..33..32..31..30..29..28..27..26..25..
24..23..22..21..20..19..18..17..16..15..14..13..12..11..10..09..
08..07..06..05..04..03..
Tests completed.
>>>boot dua4

Install VAX/VMS including DECnet on "dua2". The DECnet address must belong to the same area as the source VAX system.

Login to the newly installed VAX/VMS system and Initialize the disk intended for backups storage. Let's assume it's prompt is "newvms$ ".

newvms$ INIT DUA300: SCRATCH
newvms$ MOUNT/SYS/NOASSIST DUA300: SCRATCH

Making remote backups

Now we are ready to create disk backups from the source VAX system to CHARON-VAX.

Boot the CHARON-VAX virtual machine and make sure that the source VAX system is reachable via DECnet.

Login to the source VAX system, shut down all the batch queues, kick off the users, stop all applications and close databases if any. The commands listed in the SYS$MANAGER:SYSHUTDWN.COM file may be helpful. The goal is to close as many files as possible. The system disk will have several files opened (pagefile, swapfile, etc.), this is a normal situation.

The use of the "SHOW DEVICE /FILES" command would be of help to know files opened on a disk

Let's assume the CHARON-AXP system is node 1.400 in this example. Issue then the following commands from the source VAX system whose prompt is set to "source$ ":

source$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTER DUA0: 1.400"username password"::DUA3:[000000]DUA0.BCK/SAVE
source$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTER DUA1: 1.400"username password"::DUA3:[000000]DUA1.BCK/SAVE
source$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTER DUB0: 1.400"username password"::DUA3:[000000]DUB0.BCK/SAVE
source$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTER DUB1: 1.400"username password"::DUA3:[000000]DUB1.BCK/SAVE

When the backup procedure will be completed, the disk "DUA3" of the CHARON-VAX virtual machine will contain 4 savesets: "DUA0.BCK", "DUA1.BCK", "DUB0.BCK" and "DUB1.BCK"

Restore backups to CHARON-VAX disks

Next, restore the new savesets to their corresponding virtual disks. Login to CHARON-VAX and issue this sequence of commands to restore all the savesets created in the previous step:

newvms$ MOUNT/FOR DUA0:
newvms$ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA3:[000000]DUA0.BCK/SAVE DUA0:
newvms$ DISMOUNT DUA0:

newvms$ MOUNT/FOR DUA1:
newvms$ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA3:[000000]DUA1.BCK/SAVE DUA1:
newvms$ DISMOUNT DUA1:

newvms$ MOUNT/FOR DUB0:
newvms$ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA3:[000000]DUB0.BCK/SAVE DUB0:
newvms$ DISMOUNT DUB0:

newvms$ MOUNT/FOR DUB1:newvms$ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA3:[000000]DUB1.BCK/SAVE DUB1:newvms$ DISMOUNT DUB1:

If you are going to have the CHARON-VAX and the original physical VAX system on the network at the same time, you must change the network identity of one (usually the CHARON-VAX).

The easiest way is to boot the CHARON-VAX virtual ized system on the restored system disk with the network disabled and to configure new addresses, as needed.

The NIC can be disabled with a "disabled" statement in the CHARON configuration file.

Then Enable the network and reboot.

Alternative ways of data transfer

Some alternative methods of data transfer are also possible. For example:

Connect a SCSI tape drive to the CHARON-VAX host via a PCI card
- Map the tape drive in the CHARON-VAX configuration file
  a. Restore the source VAX system backups from tape to disk images via VAX/VMS running on CHARON-VAX.
  b. Boot from standalone backups and restore the content to CHARON-VAX virtual disks.
- Dump the source VAX system backups to tape images with the "mtd" utility and:
  a. Boot from the freshly installed VAX/VMS system and restore the tape images to CHARON-VAX virtual disks.
  b. Boot from standalone backups and restore the content to CHARON-VAX virtual disks.
Create a network cluster between the source VAX system and CHARON-VAX (it is possible to use the source system as a boot server) then perform backups from one disk to another:
$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTER REAL$DUA0: DUA0:

CHARON-VAX V4.9 for Linux