Table of Contents
Introduction
This section describes how to migrate your HP Alpha system to CHARON-AXP. We will use a sample MicroHP Alpha 3600 system to demonstrate the migration procedure. The process is similar for all CHARON-AXP models.
Collecting information about the source HP Alpha system
The first step is to determine the exact configuration of your HP Alpha hardware in order to create the CHARON-AXP configuration file.
Turn on your source HP Alpha system. At the ">>>" prompt, issue "show qbus" and "show device" commands:
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The source HP Alpha 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 the source HP Alpha system documentation.
Creation of CHARON-AXP configuration file
Using the above info, the following configuration can be created:
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Note the Qbus addresses specification: The number is prefixed with "0", meaning it is an octal value. The number of digits reflects the 22 bit 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 a network interface having the name "Charon". This interface will be used for CHARON-AXP (see the Installation section for more details) on this particular host.
Making disk images
In our example, possible mappings of RQDX3 and TQK50 tapes include physical devices and disk and tape images. Tape images should not 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 bigger disks to get extra storage space.
Create special directories for storing disk and tape images, as needed. Created directories are referenced in the sample configuration file above.
...> cd C :\
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This operation can also be done using Windows Explorer.
Next, create disk images using the "MkDisk" utility.
Start the "MkDisk" utility from the "Start" menu:
The main dialog of the utility will appear:
Select "HP Alpha" in the "Select System" drop-down menu, "MSCP" in the "All Controllers" drop-down menu and "RZ24" (for example) in the "Select Disk Type" drop-down menu, then press "Create Disk Image" button:
The utility will ask you to specify the output file name. Select the "C:\My disks" directory created just before (or create it directly in the dialog) and press "Save" button:
The "MkDisk" utility will create the requested disk image:
Repeat this sequence for the disks "RZ23.vdisk", "RZ25.vdisk" and "RZ26.vdisk". Put them in the same "C:\My disks" folder.
Installation of HP Alpha operating system
The next step is to transfer the data from the source HP Alpha system to CHARON-AXP. The easiest way to do this is via backup over the network. But for this operation we need a bootable, network-enabled operating system on a CHARON-AXP disk image or physical disk.
The example configures the CHARON-AXP MicroHP Alpha 3600 system for installation of HP Alpha/VMS from a distribution CD-ROM (usually it is "\\.\CdRom0" if the host has only one CD-ROM drive):
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DUA3 will be the disk where all the source disks will be copied, so its size needs to be big enough to store all the disk backup images
Create an empty disk image for installation of HP Alpha/VMS and another one for storing backups from the source HP Alpha system as it is shown in the section above.
Run CHARON-AXP and boot from "dua4" ("migration.cfg" is the configuration file we use in this example):
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Install HP Alpha/VMS including DECnet on "dua2". DECnet address must belong to the same area as the source HP Alpha system.
Login to the newly installed VMS system and initialize the disk intended for backups storage. Let's assume it's prompt is "newvms$
"
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Making remote backups
Now we are ready to create disk backups from the source HP Alpha system to CHARON-AXP.
Boot CHARON-AXP and make sure that the source HP Alpha system is available via DECnet.
Login to the source HP Alpha system. Stop all the batch queues, kick off the users, stop all application and close databases if any. The commands listed in SYS$MANAGER:SYSHUTDWN.COM may be helpful. The goal is to close as many files as possible. The system disk will have several files opened (pagefile, swapfile, etc.), but this is normal.
The use of the "SHOW DEVICE /FILES" command would be of help to know files opened on a disk
Issue (let's assume that the CHARON-AXP system is node 1.400 in this example) the following commands from the source HP Alpha. Let's assume it's login is "source$
"
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Once the backup procedure completes, the disk "DUA3" of CHARON-AXP will contain 2 savesets: "DUA0.BCK" and "DUA1.BCK"
Restore backups to CHARON-AXP disks
Next, restore the new savesets to their corresponding virtual disks. Login to CHARON-AXP and issue this sequence of commands to restore all the savesets created on the previous step:
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If you are going to have CHARON-AXP and the original physical HP Alpha on the network at the same time, you must change the network identity
of one (usually the CHARON-AXP). The easiest way is to boot the CHARON-AXP on the restored system disk with the network Disabled and
configure new addresses, as needed. The NIC can be disabled with a "connection:disabled" statement in the CHARON cfg 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 CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP host via a PCI card
- Map the tape drive in the CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP configuration file
a. Restore source HP Alpha system backups from tape to disk images via VMS/RSX11/RT11 running on CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP
b. Boot from standalone backups and restore its content to CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP virtual disks - Dump source HP Alpha/PDP11 system backups to tape images with "mtd" utility and:
a. Boot from freshly installed VMS/RSX11/RT11 system and restore the tape images to CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP virtual disks
b. Boot from standalone backups and restore its content to CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP virtual disks
- Map the tape drive in the CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP configuration file
Create a network cluster between the source HP Alpha/PDP11 system and CHARON-AXP / CHARON-PDP (it is possible to use the source system as boot server); then simple backup from one disk to another:
$ BACKUP/IMAGE/IGNORE=INTERLOCK REAL$DUA0: DUA0: