Introduction For more information on Encompass, please visit the Encompass web site: o http://www.encompassus.org/ The organization comprised of customers of Hewlett- Packard Company (HP) that is probably most analogous to the Encompass organization is Interex: o http://www.interex.org/ Like Encompass, Interex offers various services and events of interest to folks that presently work with and/or that wish to learn about HP products and offerings. Please see the Interex website for details. __________________________________________________________ 1.5 OpenVMS Support, Questions and Comments? The following section includes contacts for OpenVMS Feedback, and information on how to obtain technical support information. _____________________________ 1.5.1 Corporate contacts for OpenVMS Business Issues? The following folks are the HP corporate contacts for OpenVMS business issues, listed in descending order from Carleton (Carly) Fiorina to the Vice President of the OpenVMS Engineering organization: o Carly Fiorina o Ann Livermore o Scott Stallard o Richard Marcello o Mark Gorham; the OpenVMS VP These folks will quite obviously respond best to cogently-worded OpenVMS corporate-level business issues. These folks are not appropriate contacts for technical support issues nor for technical support requests, nor for any other non-corporate-related, non-business-related issues. 1-9 Introduction _____________________________ 1.5.2 OpenVMS Ambassadors? The OpenVMS Ambassadors are senior HP engineers with advanced technical knowledge and advanced training in OpenVMS, with detailed knowledge of current and future OpenVMS releases and product plans, and with contacts directly with the HP and ISV hardware and software engineering organizations developing OpenVMS and OpenVMS hardware platforms, as well as layered products and tools. Further, Ambassadors are experienced with integrating HP OpenVMS and application-specific products and ISV applications to solve specific business requirements. OpenVMS Ambassadors are based throughout the world. Your HP sales representative or HP reseller will be able connect you with your local OpenVMS Ambassador. _____________________________ 1.5.3 Contact for OpenVMS Marketing Issues and Questions? Please see Section 3.5. _____________________________ 1.5.4 Contact URLs for OpenVMS Technical Issues? For technical issues and technical support, please contact your software support organization, or your local HP Customer Support Center or HP Reseller. In North America, you can call 1-800-HP-INVENT. Please remember to review and to bookmark the following support URLs: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/ o http://askq.compaq.com/ o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/ o ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/ 1-10 _______________________________________________________ 2 General Information __________________________________________________________ 2.1 What is OpenVMS? What is its history? OpenVMS, originally called VMS (Virtual Memory System), was first conceived in 1976 as a new operating system for the then-new, 32-bit, virtual memory line of computers, eventually named VAX (Virtual Address eXtension). The first VAX model, the 11/780, was code-named "Star", hence the code name for the VMS operating system, "Starlet", a name that remains to this day the name for the system library files (STARLET.OLB, etc.). VMS version X0.5 was the first released to customers, in support of the hardware beta test of the VAX-11/780, in 1977. VAX/VMS Version V1.0 shipped in 1978, along with the first revenue-ship 11/780s. OpenVMS was designed entirely within HP and specifically within the former Digital Equipment Corporation (DIGITAL). Two of the principal designers were Dave Cutler and Dick Hustvedt, though with a wide variety of other contributors. OpenVMS was conceived as a 32-bit, virtual memory successor to the RSX- 11M operating system for the PDP-11. Many of the original designers and programmers of OpenVMS had worked previously on RSX-11M, and many concepts from RSX-11M were carried over to OpenVMS. OpenVMS VAX is a 32-bit, multitasking, multiprocessing virtual memory operating system. Current implementations run on VAX systems from HP and other vendors. OpenVMS Alpha is a 64-bit multitasking, multiprocessing virtual memory operating system. Current implementations run on Alpha systems from HP, and other vendors. 2-1 General Information OpenVMS has also been ported to the Intel IA-64 architecture, and specifically to HP Integrity systems using microprocessors from the Intel Itanium Processor Family. This implementation of OpenVMS is officially known as "HP OpenVMS for Integrity Servers" and more commonly as "OpenVMS I64", and it operates in the native Itanium IA-64 architecture and 64- bit environment. OpenVMS I64 provides support for applications requiring 32- or 64-bit virtual addressing capabilities entirely within the native 64-bit Itanium execution environment. (For details on this and related terminology, please see Section 14.4.5.) For more details on OpenVMS and its features, please read the OpenVMS Software Product Description at: o http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/ OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx, and SPD 82.35.xx. Additional information on the general features of various OpenVMS releases, release dates, as well as the development project code names of specific releases, is available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/os/openvms- release-history.html Additional historical information-as well as pictures and a variety of other trivia-is available in the VAX 20th anniversary book: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/20th/vmsbook.pdf For information on the FreeVMS project, and on hobbyist and educational versions of OpenVMS, please see: o http://www.free-vms.org/ o http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/ o http://www.openvmsedu.com/ Also please see the related software licensing topics Section 2.8.4, Section 2.8.1, and Section 2.15. 2-2 General Information __________________________________________________________ 2.2 What is the difference between VMS and OpenVMS? VMS and OpenVMS are two names for the same operating system. Originally, the operating system was called VAX-11/VMS; it changed to VAX/VMS at around VAX/VMS V2.0. When the VMS operating system was ported to the Alpha platform, it was renamed OpenVMS, for both VAX and Alpha (and for the Itanium Processor Family), in part to signify the high degree of support for industry standards such as POSIX, which provides many features of UNIX systems. For those versions with POSIX, an OpenVMS license allows you to install and run POSIX for OpenVMS at no additional charge; all you need is the media and documentation which can be found on the Consolidated Distribution and On-Line Documentation CD-ROMs. Support for the POSIX package on more recent OpenVMS releases is not available, various parts of POSIX such as calls from the API are being integrated more directly into OpenVMS. For more information on POSIX for VMS see question SOFT2 What became confusing is that the OpenVMS name was introduced first for OpenVMS AXP V1.0 causing the widespread misimpression that OpenVMS was for Alpha AXP only, while "regular VMS" was for VAX. In fact, the official name of the VAX operating system was changed as of V5.5, though the name did not start to be actually used in the product until V6.0. __________________________________________________________ 2.3 What's in a Name? Terminology and Products? The proper names for OpenVMS on the various platforms are "OpenVMS VAX", "OpenVMS Alpha", and "OpenVMS I64". Use of "OpenVMS AXP" and of "VAX/VMS" are deprecated. The VAX and Alpha terms are largely interchangeably used as the names of platforms, of processor or microprocessor implementations, and of the respective computing architectures. 2-3 General Information Somewhat confusing to long-time OpenVMS users, Intel IA-32, IA-64, and EM64T, and AMD AMD64 are the names of various computing architectures and of architectural extensions. Only. These are not the names of any implementations, nor of any platforms. Intel Itanium is the name of a family of microprocessor implementations of the Intel IA-64 architecture, as Intel Pentium and Xeon are the names of families of microprocessor implementations of Intel IA-32 and (potentially) of the EM64T extensions. I64 is the generic name for the various HP Integrity platforms supported by HP OpenVMS for Integrity Servers (and more commonly as "OpenVMS I64"); for the platforms supported by OpenVMS I64. (For additional related terminology, please see Section 14.4.5.) _____________________________ 2.3.1 How do I port from VMS to OpenVMS? You already did. Wasn't that easy? Please see Section 2.2 for details. __________________________________________________________ 2.4 Which is better, OpenVMS or UNIX? This question comes up periodically, usually asked by new subscribers amd new posters who are long-time UNIX or Linux users. Sometimes, the question is ignored totally; other times, it leads to a long series of repetitive messages that convince no one and usually carry little if any new information. Please do everyone a favor and avoid re-starting this perpetual, fruitless debate. That said, OpenVMS and the better implementations of UNIX are all fine operating systems, each with its strengths and weaknesses. If you're in a position where you need to choose, select the one that best fits your own requirements, considering, for example, whether or not the layered products or specific OS features you want are available, and considering the expected cost-of-ownership over the lifetime of the system installation. 2-4 General Information __________________________________________________________ 2.5 Is HP continuing funding and support for OpenVMS? Yes. Active development of new OpenVMS releases is underway, as well as the continuation of support. Please see the following URLs for details, roadmaps, and related information: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/ __________________________________________________________ 2.6 What OpenVMS distribution kits are available? Various distributions are available. For the most current information on the available part numbers and current products (OpenVMS distribution kits, media, documentation, etc) and the most current associated licensing information, please see the current OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD) document, available at: o http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/ OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx, and SPD 82.35.xx. The CD-ROMs listed in Table 2-1 contain just the OpenVMS Alpha operating system. The operating system distribution kits are bootable, and can be used to run BACKUP from the optical media, as well as performing an installation or upgrade. ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-1 OpenVMS Alpha Media Kits _______________________________________________________ Part______________Description__________________________ QA-MT1AG-H8 OpenVMS Alpha V6.2-1H3 hardware release CD-ROM; also requires QA- MT1AA-H8.6.2 QA-MT1AR-H8 OpenVMS Alpha V7.1-2 maintenance release CD-ROM 2-5 General Information ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-1 (Cont.) OpenVMS Alpha Media Kits _______________________________________________________ Part______________Description__________________________ QA-MT1AT-H8 OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-1 maintenance release CD-ROM QA-MT1AU-H8 OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-2 maintenance release CD-ROM QA-MT3AA-H8 OpenVMS Alpha and VAX products and documentation on CD-ROM QA-MT3AE-H8 OpenVMS Alpha and VAX documentation ___________________________on_CD-ROM____________________________ OpenVMS I64 is distributed on DVD-ROM media, and is bootable. OpenVMS I64 licensing is implemented on a per-processor-socket basis, with the classic license tiers based on the numbers of processor sockets that can be present. Further, three general product and licensing groupings are optionally available with OpenVMS I64, the Foundation Operating Environment (FOE), the Enterprise Operating Environment (EOE), and (as/when/if available) the Mission Critical Operating Environment (MCOE). Seperate per-product licenses are generally also available for various of the products within the Operating Environment groups. ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-2 OpenVMS I64 Order Numbers _______________________________________________________ Part______________Description__________________________ BA322AA#??? OpenVMS I64 FOE Product BA323AA#??? OpenVMS I64 EOE Product _________BA324AA#???_______OpenVMS_I64_MCOE_Product_____________ The product suffix required for the order numbers listed in Table 2-2 can be found in Table 2-3. 2-6 General Information ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-3 OpenVMS I64 Media Suffix _______________________________________________________ Suffix____________Description__________________________ A18 OpenVMS I64 FOE V8.2 DVD media AJR OE media kit on DVD media _________0D1_______________Factory_installation_________________ The OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha source listings CD-ROM sets listed in Table 2-4 include the source listings of most of OpenVMS, and these CD-ROM sets are invaluable for any folks working directly with OpenVMS internals, as well as folks interested in seeing examples of various programming interfaces. ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-4 OpenVMS Source Listings Kits _______________________________________________________ Part______________Description__________________________ QB-MT1AB-E8 OpenVMS Alpha Source Listings kit and license QT-MT1AB-Q8 OpenVMS Alpha Source Listings Updates QB-001AB-E8 OpenVMS VAX Source Listings kit and license QT-001AB-Q8 OpenVMS VAX Source Listings Updates BA422AA OpenVMS I64 source listings kit and ___________________________license______________________________ Additional OpenVMS packages and technologies including NetBeans, XML, SOAP, UDDI, JDK, Perl, Tomcat, SSL and such are discussed within the OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package SPD 80.58.xx. Again, please see the OpenVMS SPD and the documents and parts referenced there for the most current information. 2-7 General Information _____________________________ 2.6.1 Where can I download OpenVMS and Layered Product Kits? HP customers with commercial licenses and support contracts can download software product distribution kits from the following HP website: o http://www1.sqp.com/ You can also find pointers to the Software Rollout Report and to the OpenVMS SPD listings via the above SQP website. Information on obtaining and transfering licenses is available in Section 2.6 and Section 2.8.4, while information on the OpenVMS Hobbyist licensing program and on obtaining hobbyist product distribution kits is in Section 2.8.1. __________________________________________________________ 2.7 In what language is OpenVMS written? OpenVMS is written in a wide variety of languages. In no particular order, OpenVMS components are implemented using Bliss, Macro, Ada, PLI, VAX and DEC C, Fortran, UIL, VAX and Alpha SDL, Pascal, MDL, DEC C++, DCL, Message, and Document. And this is certainly not a complete list. However, the rumor is NOT true that an attempt was made to write pieces of OpenVMS in every supported language so that the Run-Time Libraries could not be unbundled. (APL, BASIC, COBOL and RPG are just some of the languages NOT represented!) There are a large variety of small and not-so-small tools and DCL command procedures that are used as part of the OpenVMS build, and a source code control system capable of maintaining over a hundred thousand source files across multiple parallel development projects, and overlapping releases. 2-8 General Information __________________________________________________________ 2.8 Obtaining and Transfering OpenVMS licenses? The following sections describe hobbyist and educational license programs, as well as information on commercial licenses and transfers. For information on the available commercial OpenVMS licenses and for information on license transfers, please see Section 2.8.4. OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses are discussed in Section 2.8.1. For information on the licensing implementation, troubleshooting licensing problems, on the License Unit Requirements Table (LURT), and other related details, please see Section 5.39. For configuring and troubleshooting LMF, see Section 12.5. _____________________________ 2.8.1 Questions asked by Hobbyist OpenVMS licensees? If you are a member of an HP-recognized user group (eg: Encompass, Enterex, DECUS), and are considering acquiring and using a VAX, Alpha or (soon) IA-64 system for hobbyist (non-commercial) use, (free) license product authorization keys (PAKs) for OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha, (soon) OpenVMS I64, and layered products are available. In addition to the license keys, OpenVMS VAX and Alpha distribution CD-ROM distribution kits are available with OpenVMS, DECwindows Motif, DECnet and TCP/IP networking, compilers, and a variety of layered products. (A hobbyist distribution for OpenVMS I64 is expected.) (While the hobbyist CD- ROM distributions are intended for and tailored for OpenVMS Hobbyists, the contents and capabilities of the Hobbyist installation kits included within the OpenVMS Hobbyist distribution do not differ from the standard distribution installation kits. The products are chosen to reflect the most popular products and the space available on the media.) If you have questions on what else is authorized by the license agreement and on what other distribution media is available to you, well, please read the applicable software license agreement(s). 2-9 General Information For further information, please link to: o http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/ On the OpenVMS Hobbyist license registration form at the above website (as of August 2004), you are offered the choice of the "OpenVMS VAX" license(s), the "OpenVMS Alpha" license(s), and the "Layered Products" licenses. You will want the operating system license for your particular OpenVMS platform and you will want the "Layered Products" licenses. You will want to select and to acquire two sets of license PAKs. For vendors wishing to license products specifically for hobbyist use (and to not issue hobbyist PAKs), the program provides hobbyists with the license PAK OPENVMS-HOBBYIST. If you plan to use a hardware emulator (eg: VAX emulator) on a Microsoft Windows platform, make sure you have an OpenVMS distribution kit that can be installed and/or booted with the particular emulator package you plan to use. For additional information on emulators, please see Section 13.14 and particularly please see the emulator-related documentation. _____________________________ 2.8.2 OpenVMS Educational and CSLG licenses? For information on OpenVMS licenses for educational customers, please see the HP Campus Software License Grant (CSLG) license program and the OpenVMS Educational license program: o http://www.openvmsedu.com/ _____________________________ 2.8.3 What developer and partner licensing programs are available? Commercial software developers can join the HP DSPP program, and can (potentially) receive discounts on various software product licenses and software distributions, as well as on hardware purchases. o http://www.hp.com/go/dspp/ 2-10 General Information The DSPP program is the descendent of the DIGITAL ISVN and DIGITAL ASAP programs and the Compaq CSA program, and the analogous developer and partner programs at HP. Please see Section 2.15 for additional details on the DSPP program. For information on the OpenbVMS Hobbyist and OpenVMS Educational license programs, please see Section 2.8.1. _____________________________ 2.8.4 How do I obtain or transfer an OpenVMS license? To transfer a commercial OpenVMS license from one owner to another, or to purchase a commercial license, you can contact HP at regional sales office or reseller. For information on the hobbyist license program, please see Section 2.8.1. __________________________________________________________ 2.9 Does OpenVMS support the Euro currency symbol? OpenVMS can generate the %xA4 character code used for the Euro, and the DECwindows DECterm can display the glyph. Please check with the vendor of your terminal or terminal emulator for additional details. __________________________________________________________ 2.10 OpenVMS Ports? Itanium? Ports to IA-32, EM64T or AMD64 systems? OpenVMS has been ported to and is operational on four architectures: VAX, Alpha, IA-64, and IA-32. The first three have available native ports of OpenVMS, the fourth is available via emulation. VAX is the oldest architecture, and limited to 32-bit virtual and up to 34-bit physical addressing. The Alpha and IA-64 architectures are both 64-bit architectures, with 64-bit virtual addressing available. The available IA-32 emulation is provided for the OpenVMS VAX and other VAX operating systems, and provides a 32-bit VAX environment. For additional information on the emulation, please see Section 13.14. 2-11 General Information As for (the lack of) a native port for IA-32, OpenVMS Engineering presently and continues to believe that there would be insufficient market (read: profit, customer interest) to justify the cost involved in a native port of OpenVMS to systems using the Intel IA-32 architecture. In addition to the direct costs involved in any port and in addition to the substantial effort involved in moving backwards from a 64-bit environment on Alpha and on IA-64 to a 32-bit platform (such as IA-32), and the exceedingly non-trivial device qualification costs and the costs in moving backwards into older PCI and I/O environments (IA-32 systems more than a few years old have equivalently aged I/O support and buses), each organization and each person maintaining a product or a package for OpenVMS will have to justify a port to "OpenVMS IA-32", "OpenVMS EM64T" or "OpenVMS AMD64", akin to the decisions and the effort involved in porting a product from OpenVMS VAX to OpenVMS Alpha, the port to OpenVMS I64. Platform ports of many of the various products can be easy, and many of the ports of applications using documented OpenVMS features are expected to require little more than a source rebuild. Other products can and do depend on platform-specific or undocumented features, and the associated ports can be more involved. Regardless, ports of operating systems are very large and involved projects. The prerequisite product requirements for an OpenVMS operating system port are also non-trivial, as well-compilers in particular are obviously required, and the suite of compilers provided must maintain a very high degree of source-level compatibility across the platforms. In the case of the HP Integrity port, OpenVMS I64 V8.0 used cross-compilers and cross-tools operating on OpenVMS Alpha systems, while V8.2 and later have various native compilers available. The OpenVMS I64 port was centrally built using the existing OpenVMS Alpha environment and around the work and the knowledge from the OpenVMS Alpha port, and OpenVMS Engineering fully expects that customers and ISVs will use and will continue to use OpenVMS Alpha systems to assist with their own ports to OpenVMS I64. 2-12 General Information OpenVMS Engineering fully expects to see customers using mixed-architecture clusters and fully shared file systems, as well. OpenVMS Engineering is well aware of the AMD AMD64 (64-bit) platform and processors. (At least one of the available VAX emulators can reportedly utilize parts of the AMD64 instruction set, please contact the VAX emulator vendor(s) or maintainer(s) for assistance and details on their products.) OpenVMS Engineering is also well aware of the Intel EM64T platform and processors. There are no plans to provide a native port of HP OpenVMS for any systems based on the AMD AMD64 nor Intel EM64T architectures. As part of the work leading to the Itanium port, senior engineers had extensively evaluated the products and the architectures available across the high-end 64- bit computing space, and chosen to target Itanium for 64-bit environments-this while under the Compaq organization. This included looking at IA-32. HP (a co- developer of Itanium with Intel) had seperately chosen to target Intel Itanium for its high-end computer products. Compaq then announced plans for the future of Alpha through EV7-series products and platforms, and HP (entirely seperately) announced plans for PA- RISC products and platforms. The Itanium target has been maintained consistently since the Itanium port was announced by Compaq, and has also been consistently maintained by HP and by the combined company. For those folks prefering to follow the schedules and the product deliveries, OpenVMS Engineering had OpenVMS I64 V8.0 ready (internally) ahead of schedule-and with more features available within the release than had been originally planned for the release. (For information on and for schedules of future OpenVMS releases, please see the roadmap that is available at the OpenVMS website.) OpenVMS I64 itself does not require and does not plan to utilize the Itanium IA-32 32-bit environment for the operation of OpenVMS itself. OpenVMS I64 V8.0 and later run natively on the Itanium processor family, with no use of IA-32 instructions. While OpenVMS 2-13 General Information can and does support 32-bit OpenVMS applications and addressing on Itanium, this is done with sign- extension addressing techniques entirely analogous to what was done with 32-bit applications operating in the 64-bit Alpha environment. Both OpenVMS 32-bit and 64-bit applications operate within the native Itanium instruction set and run-time environment, and do not use the Itanium IA-32 environment. But yes, a native IA-32 port or a native AMD AMD64 or Intel EM64T port of OpenVMS would certainly be nice to have-this, of course, following the traditional Linux preference for having a Linux port available for most (all?) computer architectures known, and even for certain high-end refrigerators and toasters, and similar appliance-like devices. (The downside of this all-encompassing approach: this requires near-infinite engineering and support costs from the various vendors involved, and the qualification efforts and costs of most everything-everywhere. Or reduced or eliminated testing and support efforts. Or an unfortunate combination of these two. These costs are huge, and the benefits derived from the work are comparatively small when given the comparable costs of more targeted (and thus supported and supportable) hardware configurations-the platform targets are and must be carefully selected and considered by each vendor. Put another way, there are no plans to provide a native port of HP OpenVMS for systems based on Intel IA-32 processors, nor for systems based on AMD AMD64 nor Intel EM64T architecutres and processors. All this material having been written, have you looked at the system configurations and pricing of the available HP Integrity Intel Itanium systems? Low- end computer hardware is clearly a commodity product, and the systems are priced, serviced, upgraded, and replaced accordingly. Intel Itanium is a commodity microprocessor presently used in platforms available from various hardware vendors, including (obviously) from HP. Further, Itanium is a microprocessor available from and supported by Intel, a semiconductor vendor known for exceedingly high-volume microprocessor fabrication process and production capabilities. 2-14 General Information For information on supported platforms and processors, please see the OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD) at: o http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/ OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx, and SPD 82.35.xx. Please see Section 14.4.5 for Intel Itanium terminology. __________________________________________________________ 2.11 Are there any network-accessible OpenVMS systems? Yes, though various restrictions can and do apply. o Hobbes Hobbes is a MicroVAX 3100 Model 40 for which free access and accounts are available to OpenVMS enthusiasts. This system has BASIC, Pascal, Fortran, and C compilers installed. If you would like an account on Hobbes, please see the FAQ at o http://www.hobbesthevax.com/ o OpenVMS Galaxy Test-Drive HP currently offers an OpenVMS Galaxy Test-Drive system, based on an AlphaServer 4100 series configured as two instances of the OpenVMS operating system. For details, please visit: o http://www.testdrive.hp.com/ o HP DSPP Test-Drive The HP DSPP program offers various test-drive systems, including an HP Integrity Itanium development system and an HP OpenVMS I64 installation on an HP Integrity rx2600 server. (The DSPP program can offers discount, LMF PAKGEN PAK generation support, and other benefits for developers.) For details on the DSPP program and on the test-drive systems, please see section Section 2.8.3 and please visit: o http://www.testdrive.hp.com/ o http://www.hp.com/dspp/ 2-15 General Information The test-drive systems do require registration, though access to the systems is free. o Encompasserve Encompasserve offers free access an OpenVMS Alpha system. o telnet://eisner.decus.org/ o OpenECS OpenECS offers free access to a VAX 6000 model 530 system. If interested, please visit: o http://vax6k.openecs.org/ o The Deathrow Cluster The maintainers of the Deathrow Cluster offer access to an OpenVMS VAX and an OpenVMS Alpha system, configured in a cluster. o telnet://deathrow.vistech.ne o The Preatorian Public OpenVMS Cluster The maintainers of the Deathrow Cluster offer access to an OpenVMS Alpha cluster. Details are at the website listed below: o http:://www.preatorian.net __________________________________________________________ 2.12 What version of OpenVMS do I need? For information on supported platforms, please see the OpenVMS Software Product Description (SPD) for the particular OpenVMS version of interest. o http://h18000.www1.hp.com/info/spd/ OpenVMS typically uses SPD 25.01.xx, SPD 41.87.xx, and SPD 82.35.xx. For a table of the minimum and (as applicable) maximum OpenVMS versions required for various platforms, please see the hardware support chart at HP OpenVMS website and (as available) the following (potentially volatile; intra-website) link: o http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/hw_ supportchart.html 2-16 General Information For information on the Multia, related Alpha single-board computers, or other officially unsupported systems, please see Section 14.4.1 and Section 14.4.2.1. The following is a rule-of-thumb for Alpha platform support. The table Table 2-5 contains the earliest OpenVMS Alpha release with support for a particular series of Alpha microprocessors: ________________________________________________________________ Table 2-5 OpenVMS Alpha Version Rule-Of-Thumb _______________________________________________________ MicroprocessorOpenVMS Generic_____Generation____Version_____General_Comments_ EV4 21064 V1.0 few systems; most EV4 require later; upgrade available EV5 21164 V6.2 subsequent upgrade available EV56 21164A V6.2-1H3 subsequent upgrade to V7.1 and later EV6 21264 V7.1-2 subsequent upgrade typically to V7.2-1 or later EV67 21264A V7.1-2 subsequent upgrade typically to V7.2-1 or later EV68 21264B, C V7.2-1 believed/probable; and D currently an unconfirmed _______________________________________________expectation______ Specific hardware present and various system configurations can require OpenVMS Alpha releases later than those referenced in Table 2-5. 2-17 General Information __________________________________________________________ 2.13 How can I submit OpenVMS Freeware? For the guidelines and submission info, please visit the URL: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/ To order the current OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM kit (shipping and handling charges apply), please request part number QA-6KZAA-H8. __________________________________________________________ 2.14 Porting applications to OpenVMS? Porting can range from simple to rather complex, and depends on the features used on the original platform. This section covers generic porting, and porting among OpenVMS VAX OpenVMS Alpha, and OpenVMS I64. (Porting among OpenVMS VAX, OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64 is often quite simple and involves little more than rebuilding from source, though a few applications using features specific to the platform or the architecture, or using undocumented or unsupported interfaces can and likely will require some additional effort to port.) Several manuals on porting from OpenVMS VAX to OpenVMS Alpha are available in the OpenVMS documentation set, including information on porting VAX Macro32 assembler code to the Macro32 compiler on OpenVMS Alpha, on management differences, on upgrading privileged code, and application migration: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/ Documentation on porting to OpenVMS I64 is available, as well. Details on the C programming environment are available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/c/c_ index.html 2-18 General Information Details on porting VAX C to HP C are are available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/c/index_ vax.htm An OpenVMS Porting Library is available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/ebusiness/Technology.html Information on the Enterprise Toolkit, a Visual-based development environment for developing applications for OpenVMS using a Microsoft platform, is available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/et/et_ index.html Details on DCE, CORBA, BridgeWorks, and COM/DCOM middleware is available at: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com/commercial/middleware.html Information on the COE standards is available at: o http://diicoe.disa.mil/coe/ A wide variety of programming development tools and middleware are available as commercial products (eg: DECset, IBM WebSphere MQ-formerly MQseries), and various tools are also available as shareware or as Freeware. Please see other sections of this FAQ, and please see: o http://www.compaq.com/csa/directory/ __________________________________________________________ 2.15 What resources are available to OpenVMS software developers? The HP Developer and Software Product Partner (DSPP) program is open to and intended to support and to assist HP OpenVMS software partners, consultants, and service providers: o http://www.hp.com/dspp/ DSPP provides members with various benefits, please see the website for details. 2-19 General Information For those not familiar with the DSPP program or with its history, the DIGITAL Association of Software and Application Partners (ASAP) program and the DIGITAL Independent Software Vendors Network (ISVN) program were incorporated into the Compaq CSA program, and the CSA program has subsequently been incorporated into the HP DSPP program. Please see Section 2.8.3 for additional details on the DSPP program. __________________________________________________________ 2.16 memory management, resource management, process scheduling, etc? So you have been instructed to write a school research paper on OpenVMS, and you need technical content on the OpenVMS Virtual Memory System, on any memory segmentation, on OpenVMS Resource Management, on the OpenVMS File System, on the OpenVMS user interface, etc. Invariably, your professor/instructor/teacher will ask you a series of questions. Most commonly, the questions will request descriptions of one or more of the following items, and at varying levels of detail: o process scheduling algorithm(s) o Interprocess comunications o Process or system synchronization constructs o Memory management and/or virtual memory implementation o RMS or XQP file structures o Resource management o History of HP OpenVMS o History of Compaq and/or of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 2-20 General Information Any particular presentation or research paper, and particularly a scholastic presentation, can have many different potential target audiences, and very different presentation levels. Further, the usual underlying reason for scholastic presentations and scholastic research projects really has little to do with the subject matter, it is a task specifically intended to teach the student(s) (eg: you) how to perform the research. The instructor already knows most of (all of?) the information that you have been asked to collect. For very technical details on OpenVMS and OpenVMS internals, the book you want is the Internals and Data Structures Manual (IDSM), available in your school or computing center library, and the IDSM can also be purchased. Additional technical details of the Alpha microprocessor are available in the Alpha Architecture Reference Manual documentation that is available for download. (Pointers to Alpha technical documentation are available in Section 14.6, and elsewhere.) For higher-level (less technical) details, the OpenVMS documentation set is available on-line. The Programming Concepts and the File Systems manual are probably the best manuals to start with, depending on the particular level of detail the research requires. And please understand the hesitation of various folks to provide you with a completely-written research report on your topic. Why? We might have to work with you after you graduate-you need to know how to perform at least basic research on your own, regardless of the topic. __________________________________________________________ 2.17 Basic Units of Measurement? OpenVMS and the underlying hardware use various units of measurement for disk and memory storage, and related abbreviations also typically exist. This section covers the most common units, and the associated abbreviations. 2-21 General Information _____________________________ 2.17.1 How many bytes are in a disk block? A disk block is the minimum unit of disk storage allocation in OpenVMS. Under OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS Alpha, the disk volume block size is consistent, with each block containing 512 bytes. The minimum disk allocation granularity actually permissible (in the ODS-2 and ODS-5 volume structures commonly used on OpenVMS) is determined on a per-volume basis, and is typically based on a combination of the total number blocks on the disk volume and the total size of the volume storage bitmap. The allocation granularity is known as the volume cluster factor- the cluster factor is the number of blocks in a disk cluster, and it is the smallest number of blocks that can be allocated on a particular disk volume. Prior to OpenVMS V7.2, the maximum permissible size of the bitmap requires larger cluster factors as volume sizes increase. Starting with V7.2, the bitmap can be larger, and cluster factors as small as one block can be used. The number of bytes in a file can be determined by multiplying the number of blocks allocated for the file times the number of bytes in a block. For sequential files (only), the FFB (XAB$W_FFB, in the File Header XAB) value can be used to find out how much of the last (XAB$L_EBK) block is used. FFB and EBK are meaningful only for sequential files, and only in a limited context-partial block allocations are not permitted. For other file formats, the EOF marker is not meaningful. Disk allocations always occur only in units of the cluster factors, which can be from one block up to (potentially) clusters of eighteen blocks or more, depending on the volume cluster factor. (OpenVMS V7.2 and later optionally provide for a cluster factor of one up to volumes of approximately 137 gigabytes.) 2-22 General Information OpenVMS assumes that the device driver and the underlying storage device will present the file system with addressable units of storage of 512 bytes in size, or the appearance of same. Various third-party CD-ROM devices, for instance, support only 2048 byte blocks, and such devices are incompatible with the standard OpenVMS device drivers. To determine the number of bytes required for a file from DCL, one option uses the f$file_attributes item EOF, multiplied by the size of a block in bytes (512). This does not account for the unused space in the last block of a sequential file, but it also does not have to differentiate sequential files from other files. _____________________________ 2.17.2 How many bytes are in a memory page? A memory page is the minimum unit of memory allocation in OpenVMS. With OpenVMS VAX, the memory page size matches the disk block size: it is always 512 bytes. With OpenVMS Alpha, the memory page size is variable, and it can range from 8192 bytes (8 kilobytes) up to 64 kilobytes. The current system page size can be determined using the sys$getsyi or f$getsyi PAGE_SIZE item. Programs with hardcoded constants for the memory page size (or page alignment) should always assume a page size of 64 kilobytes. On OpenVMS I64, the memory page size is also variable, ranging from 4096 bytes (4 kilobytes) up to 256 megabytes (MB) and potentially up to 4 gigabytes (GB). As with OpenVMS Alpha, sys$getsyi and f$getsyi and the PAGE_SIZE itemcode can and should be used to determine the current system page size. In general, OpenVMS I64 will use a page size of 8 kilobytes, or larger. On OpenVMS Alpha and on OpenVMS I64, a 512 byte area of memory- equivalent in size to an OpenVMS VAX memory page-is often refered to as a "pagelet". 2-23 General Information _____________________________ 2.17.3 How do I convert? Disk Blocks? KB, MB, GB, TB? The smallest granularity of disk storage addressing is called a disk block, or sometimes a disk sector. Groups of disk blocks are usually organized together into the smallest unit of storage that can be allocated, and this unit is called a disk cluster. The number of blocks in a cluster is the cluster factor, and is established when the disk volume is initialized. Each individual disk block is composed of five hundred twelve (512) bytes, or one-half kilobyte. Each byte is comprised of eight bits. A bit represents the smallest unit of information, typically refered to as a one or a zero. OpenVMS tends to uses base two notation for disk storage, while disk storage capacity specifications from most storage vendors (including Compaq) will generally use base ten notation. An OpenVMS disk block is 512 bytes in size; this is one-half kilobyte in base two notation. The following table describes the prefix, the abbreviation, and the associated base ten (as used by marketing and by storage vendors) and base two (OpenVMS and various other operating systems) values. Base Ten Base Two -------------------------------- ---------------------- Kilobyte (KB) 10**3 1000 2**10 1024 Megabyte (MB) 10**6 1000000 2**20 1048576 Gigabyte (GB) 10**9 1000000000 2**30 1073741824 Terabyte (TB) 10**12 1000000000000 2**40 1099511627776 Petabyte (PB) 10**15 1000000000000000 2**50 1125899906842624 Exabyte (EB) 10**18 1000000000000000000 2**60 **************** The base ten representation of the 2**40 value is 1099511627776, which is obviously rather ugly. When viewed as a base eight or base sixteen (octal or hexadecimal, respectively) value, the value is far nicer. Specifically, the value is 10000000000 and 40000000 when represented in octal and hexadecimal, respectively. 2-24 General Information FAQ Notation Within the OpenVMS FAQ, a thousand bits (either assuming base two or base ten, as determined by the context) is refered to as a kilobit, and is always represented by the appreviation Kb, while a thousand bytes is refered to as a kilobyte and is always abbreviated as KB. Similar notational usage also holds for Megabits (Mb) and Megabytes (MB), and for the various other units. OpenVMS operating system references to system and storage are generally to the base-two version (eg: 1024, in the case of a kilobyte or kilobit) while storage hardware references and hardware specifications are generally to the base-ten version (eg: 1000). To convert OpenVMS disk blocks to (base two) kilobytes (KB; 1024 bytes), simply divide by two. To convert blocks to (base two) megabytes, divide by 2048. Blocks to (base two) gigabytes (GB), divide by 2097152. These particular divisions can also be performed using bitshifts: to divide a value by two, shift the binary value rightward by one bit position. To convert OpenVMS disk blocks to (base ten) kilobytes, divide by approximately 1.953125. For those folks with an interest in odd applications for prefixes, and particularly for those folks also rummaging around deep within the OpenVMS operating system, a microfortnight is approximately one second. 2-25 _______________________________________________________ 3 Documentation __________________________________________________________ 3.1 Where can I find online copies of OpenVMS manuals? The HP OpenVMS and HP Layered Product documentation is copyrighted material. HTML format on-line product documentation sets for specific HP OpenVMS products are presently available at: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/ Documentation is offered on separately orderable CD-ROM media through a subscription to the Consolidated On- Line Documentation (ConOLD) product (see Section 2.6.) ConOLD manuals are readable with BNU, a viewer that is supplied with the documentation distribution. BNU can display HTML, Bookreader, and documentation in other formats. MGBOOK, a viewer for Bookreader-format documentation is available for character-cell terminals (eg. VTxxx) via the WKU VMS Freeware file server - see question Section 13.1 for details. Information on the XPDF DECwindows PDF viewer for OpenVMS is available in Section 13.1, and XPDF kits are available on various Freeware distributions. An alternative on OpenVMS Alpha uses the Adobe Java PDF viewer, though this viewer is generally considered to be both slower and more resource-intensive when compared to the XPDF viewer. 3-1 Documentation __________________________________________________________ 3.2 What online information and websites are available? On your OpenVMS system, the HELP command can provide a wealth of information, not only on DCL commands but on system services (HELP System_Services) and Run-Time Library routines (HELP RTL_Routines). The introduction displayed when you type the HELP command with no additional keywords provides further pointers. OpenVMS Marketing runs a web server at http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/ Here, you will find product information, strategy documents, product roadmaps, the contents of the latest OpenVMS Freeware CD-ROM and more. ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-1 OpenVMS Websites ________________________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________ http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/ HP OpenVMS Marketing http://www.openvmshobbyist.org/ Encompass DFWCUG http://www.levitte.org/~ava/ Arne Vajhøj http://www.saiga.com/ Saiga Systems http://www.tachysoft.com/ Wayne Sewel http://www.progis.de/openvms.htm Sponsored by proGIS Software http://www.jcameron.com/vms/ Jeff Cameron http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/www/soft_doc.html David Mathog's (quite useful) information about OpenVMS. Cracking 3-2 Documentation ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-1 (Cont.) OpenVMS Websites ________________________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________ http://www.vistech.net/users/beave/hack-vms-faq "The Beave" Includes system cracking information that can be of interest to OpenVMS System Managers, and to OpenVMS Network and Security Managers. Undocumented Features http://www.decus.de:8080/www/vms/qaa/undoc.htmlx DECUS Deutchland http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_tip.htmlx Arne Vajhøj http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/freeware/ The OpenVMS Freeware contains various examples of undocumented features and interfaces Bibliographies http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_book.htmlx Introductory http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_faq.htmlx http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/www/vms_sheet.html http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/www/vms_beginners_faq.html Programming http://www.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/VMS_Programming_FAQ.html An OpenVMS Programming FAQ Networking http://www.tmesis.com/internet/ Tutorial information and tips for connecting OpenVMS systems to the Internet http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/ Documentation and Specifications for DECnet Phase IV HP OpenVMS Documentation http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/ 3-3 Documentation ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-1 (Cont.) OpenVMS Websites ________________________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________ Various introductory guides as well as more advanced manuals are available in the OpenVMS and layered product documentation set. http://www.compaq.com/info/spd/ Software Product Descriptions (SPDs) for most every OpenVMS-related product HP sells. System Performance See Section 14.2. Patch (ECO) Kits For the HP Services FTP server hosting Various contract-access and non-contract access ECO (patch) kits, see section Section 5.17. Catalogs and Pricing http://www.compaq.com/products/quickspecs/productbulletin.html HP Product QuickSpecs and product information http://www.compaq.com/products/quickspecs/soc_archives/SOC_ Archives.html The HP Systems and Options Catalog (SOC) archive Hardware and Software Archives http://vax.sevensages.org/index.html The VAXarchive, including hardware and software information http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/alpha_diary.html A VAX to Alpha upgrade diary http://www.montagar.com/~patj/dec/hcps.htm Scanned versions of old DIGITAL manuals from DFWCUG http://www.digital.com/lists/master-index.html http://www.compaq.com/support/techpubs/qrg/index.html A wide variety of HP VAX, Alpha, platform and other product documentation. Some introductory, some technical. 3-4 Documentation ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-1 (Cont.) OpenVMS Websites ________________________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor_______________________________________________ http://dtrwiz.home.netcom.com/ __________dtrwiz's_Datatrieve_website___________________________ __________________________________________________________ 3.3 OpenVMS Product Information Telephone Numbers? Information on HP hardware, software, products and services is available through telephone numbers listed in Table 3-2: ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-2 Telephone Numbers _______________________________________________________ Telephone_________Description__________________________ 1-800-AT-COMPAQ HP (Compaq, including DIGITAL and Tandem) products and services _________1-800-STORWORK____The_HP_StorageWorks_team_____________ __________________________________________________________ 3.4 How do I extract the contents of a HELP topic to a text file? To extract all the text of a HELP topic (and its subtopics) to a text file for perusal with a text editor, printing out, etc., use the following command: $ HELP/OUT=filename.txt help-topic [help-subtopic] If the help text you want is not in the standard help library (for example, it's help for a utility such as MAIL that has its own help library), add /LIBRARY=libname after the HELP verb. To see the names of help library files, do a directory of SYS$HELP:*.HLB. 3-5 Documentation __________________________________________________________ 3.5 Does OpenVMS Marketing have an e-mail address? Yes - if you can't get the answers to marketing questions elsewhere, if you have comments or complaints about OpenVMS, send mail to openvms-info@compaq.com. This address is not a support channel, and is solely intended to provide informal method to communicate directly with members of OpenVMS Marketing. __________________________________________________________ 3.6 Where can I learn about OpenVMS executive internals? The OpenVMS Internals and Data Structure manual (IDSM) explains how the OpenVMS executive works. The book covers the operating system kernel: process management; memory management; the I/O subsystem; and the mechanisms that transfer control to, from, and among these. It gives an overview of a particular area of the system, followed by descriptions of the data structures related to that area and details of the code that implements the area. The first edition of the OpenVMS Alpha internals book describes Version 1.5. Although there have been several releases of OpenVMS Alpha since Version 1.5 (V6.1, V6.2, V7.0, V7.1, etc) and many details in the book are no longer accurate, it continues to provide a strong conceptual description of OpenVMS internals. This book has been split into five pieces, each to be updated separately. The first such volume, published in early 1997, was "OpenVMS Alpha Internals and Data Structures: Scheduling and Process Control," which covers the Version 7.0 implementation of true multithreading and the changed scheduling model it implies. The internals books are available through Digital Press, see Section 3.7 3-6 Documentation __________________________________________________________ 3.7 Where can new users find tutorial information about OpenVMS? First, see if your local site has information on this topic. Each site can have site-specific features and configuration. Some sites will have site-specific new user's documentation, covering various site-specific things that are difficult or impossible for the general OpenVMS documentation to cover. _____________________________ 3.7.1 Tutorial Websites? Various websites with OpenVMS information are available; Table 3-3 contains some suggested URLs. ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-3 OpenVMS Tutorial Websites _______________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor______________________________________ Introductory http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_faq.htmlx http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/www/vms_sheet.html http://seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu/www/vms_beginners_ faq.html Various introductory materials http://www.montagar.com/openvms_class/ Members of the Encompass DFWCUG maintain a website with many materials available, including an Overview of OpenVMS, an Introduction to DCL and the TPU Editor, Advanced DCL Command Procedures, OpenVMS Operations: Batch, Print, Tape, an Introduction to OpenVMS Management, to OpenVMS User Management, to OpenVMS Network Management, and to OpenVMS Cluster Management. These training materials have been presented at various DECUS symposia. HP OpenVMS Documentation http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/ 3-7 Documentation ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-3 (Cont.) OpenVMS Tutorial Websites _______________________________________________________ URL_______Sponsor______________________________________ Various introductory guides as well as more advanced manuals are available in the OpenVMS and layered product documentation set. HP OpenVMS Training http://www.compaq.com/training/home.html http://www.openvms.compaq.com/wbt/index.html HP offers training information and Technical Resource Kits (TRKs) and other Training for OpenVMS. An OpenVMS certification (testing) program is also available. http://www.jcameron.com/vms/ An OpenVMS Quiz http://www.CCSScorp.com/ CCSS Interactive Learning has OpenVMS training materials http://www.acersoft.com/ AcerSoft Training information, and Shannon Knows Punditry http://www.mindiq.com/ MindIQ training information http://www.quadratrix.be/ Quadratrix; OpenVMS training, products and services; affiliated with Global Knowledge ___________________and_KeyJob___________________________________ _____________________________ 3.7.2 Books and Tutorials? Some of the OpenVMS books that are or have been available from the Digital Press imprint o http://www.bh.com/ 3-8 Documentation are listed in Table 3-4: ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-4 DP Books _______________________________________________________ Title_and_Author_____________________ISBN______________ Getting Started with OpenVMS System 1-55558-281-8 Management David Donald Miller Introduction to OpenVMS, 5th 1-55558-194-3 Edition Lesley Ogilvie Rice Introduction to OpenVMS 1-878956-61-2 David W Bynon OpenVMS Alpha Internals: Scheduling 1-55558-156-0 and Process Control OpenVMS AXP Internals and Data 1-55558-120-X Structures: Version 1.5 OpenVMS System Management Guide 1-55558-143-9 Baldwin, et al The OpenVMS User's Guide, Second 1-55558-203-6 Edition Patrick Holmay Using DECwindows Motif for OpenVMS 1-55558-114-5 Margie Sherlock VAX/VMS Internals and Data 1-55558-059-9 Structures: Version 5.2 Writing Real Programs in DCL, 1-55558-191-9 Second Edition Hoffman and Anagnostopoulos Writing OpenVMS Alpha Device 1-55558-133-1 Drivers in C _________Sherlock_and_Szubowicz_________________________________ For various featured OpenVMS books, also please see the books link at the OpenVMS website: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms 3-9 Documentation For a bibliography of various OpenVMS books, please see: o http://www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_book.htmlx __________________________________________________________ 3.8 What OpenVMS mailing lists are available? Various OpenVMS mailing lists are available, with some of the available lists detailed in Table 3-5. ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-5 OpenVMS Mailing Lists _______________________________________________________ Subscription____________________Interest_Area__________ OpenVMS Freeware archive FSupdate@goatley.com announcement list FSupdate- request@goatley.com[1] Two-way echo of VMSnet- vmsnet.internals Internals@goatley.com VMSnet-Internals- request@goatley.com[1] OpenVMS Alpha Internals Alpha-IDS@goatley.com discussions Alpha-IDS- request@goatley.com[1] BLISS discussions BLISSters@goatley.com BLISSters- request@goatley.com[1] Process Software MultiNet Info- mailing list (news gateway) MultiNet@process.com Info-MultiNet- request@process.com[1] Process Software TCPware Info- mailing list (news gateway) TCPware@process.com Info-TCPware- request@process.com[1] _______________________________________________________ [1]This is the subscription address. Usually, you will want to send a mail message with no subject line, and a SUBSCRIBE or HELP command in the body of the mail message. 3-10 Documentation ________________________________________________________________ Table 3-5 (Cont.) OpenVMS Mailing Lists _______________________________________________________ Subscription____________________Interest_Area__________ Process Software PMDF mailing Info-PMDF@process.com list (news gateway) Info-PMDF- request@process.com[1] The SRI CHARON-VAX VAX CHARON-VAX- emulator package Users@process.com CHARON-VAX-Users- request@process.com[1] Info-Zip's Zip & UnZip Info-Zip@wku.edu discussion list Info-Zip- Request@wku.edu[1] RADIUS-VMS, a RADIUS server radius-vms@dls.net for OpenVMS discussion forum radius-vms- request@dls.net[1] Internet Service Providers vms-isps@dls.net (ISPs) running OpenVMS vms-isps- request@dls.net[1] Users of Mark Daniel's WASD http://wasd.vsm.com.au/ web server for OpenVMS VAX and Alpha exists. Information about this list server and details on how to subscribe to the list are available at the referenced website. VMS Forum http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/comp/ava/vms_ forum.htmlx _______________________________________________________ [1]This is the subscription address. Usually, you will want to send a mail message with no subject line, and a SUBSCRIBE or HELP command in the body of the mail message. ________________________________________________________________ 3-11 Documentation __________________________________________________________ 3.9 What is this Ask The Wizard website I've heard about? The HP OpenVMS Ask The Wizard (ATW) website is an informal area containing questions and answers on a wide variety of topics. o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/ For additional information on the OpenVMS Ask The Wizard (ATW) area and for a pointer to the available ATW Wizard.zip archive, please see Section 3.9. To access a cited topic directly, use the URL filename WIZ_topic-number.HTML. For example, topic (1020) can be accessed directly using the URL filename wiz_1020.html at the following URL: o http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/wizard/ A zip archive (named wizard.zip) containing all of the available topics and questions can be downloaded from the above URL. The wizard.zip zip archive is completely regenerated when new batches of topics are posted out to the ATW website. Before posting a question to the Ask The Wizard area, please read and please heed the posting rules- and please remember to search this document, the OpenVMS FAQ. And if you have a question that requires an answer, or if your question has time-critical constraints or business constraints, please contact the HP customer support center directly. __________________________________________________________ 3.10 Access to the OpenVMS Netscape Navigator documentation? The documentation URLs embedded into the browser itself may not operate correctly in all cases, and (for reasons not worthy of repeating here) redirects may not be available. You can manually access the documentation via: o http://www.openvms.compaq.com:88/netscape/help/ For information on the Mozilla web browser, please see Section 13.4. 3-12