Before beginning an installation or upgrade, be sure you have
all the required hardware and software components, as described
in the following sections.
Hardware Components Before you begin an installation or upgrade, do the following:
Be sure the hardware has been installed
and checked for proper operation. For detailed information, see the
hardware manuals you received with your Alpha computer.
Be sure you know how to turn on and operate the
components of your system, including the system unit, console, monitor,
drives, terminals, and printers. If necessary, read the hardware
manuals that came with these components.
Set up your system to record the installation procedure
on either a hardcopy terminal or a printer attached to the console
terminal. (See your hardware manuals for more details about connecting
those components to your system.) If you do not do this, the screen
messages will be lost. You will need a transcript in case there
is a problem during the installation.
Software Components Before you begin an installation or upgrade, do the following:
Be sure you have all the items listed
on the bill of materials contained in the distribution kit. If your distribution
kit is incomplete, notify your HP support representative and request
priority shipment of any missing items.
Before installing the OpenVMS Alpha operating system
software, review all cover letters and release notes.
Operating System CD-ROM Included in your kit is the OpenVMS Alpha operating system
CD-ROM, which you use to install or upgrade the operating system,
or to perform operations such as backing up the system disk. The
CD-ROM is labeled similar to the following:
CD-ROM Label:
OpenVMS
Alpha V7.3-2 Operating System
Volume
Label:
ALPHA0732
The volume label is the machine-readable
name that the OpenVMS Alpha operating system and InfoServer systems
use to access the CD-ROM.
Firmware Revision
Checking OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-2 provides firmware checking for
systems during each boot operation. When you boot the OpenVMS Alpha
operating system CD-ROM, the system automatically checks the version
of console firmware that is running on your computer. The system
also provides information about how to upgrade the firmware.
If you do not have the required version
of console firmware, the system displays a message similar to the following:
%SYSBOOT-F-FIRMREV, Firmware rev.nnn is below the absolute minimum of nnn.
Please update your firmware to the recommended revision nnn,
Alpha Systems Firmware Update Vn.n.
If you do not have the recommended version
of console firmware, the system displays a message similar to the following:
%SYSBOOT-W-FIRMREV, Firmware rev.nnn is below the recommended minimum of nn.
Please update your firmware to the recommended revision,
which can be found on the firmware CD labeled:
Alpha Systems Firmware Update Vn.n.
The latest firmware CD-ROM is included with your OpenVMS Alpha
media kit. It includes system firmware for current and recent Alpha
systems and some I/O adapters. Firmware for older hardware might
not be included on the current CD-ROM but can be found on previous
CD-ROMs or at the following website:
http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/firmware/
HP recommends upgrading to the latest released firmware for
all systems and I/O adapters. Firmware is released more often than
the OpenVMS Alpha operating system. The firmware version recommendations included
in OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-2 might be superseded before the next version
of the OpenVMS Alpha operating system is released.
After you install this version of the OpenVMS Alpha
operating system, the firmware check will occur each time you reboot
the system.
Device Naming Conventions When you perform specific operations, you are asked to specify
device names for the source drive and target drive. When specifying
those device names, note the following naming conventions:
When the source drive is a local CD-ROM
drive, the device name is similar to the following:
DKA400
When the source drive is a CD-ROM drive connected
to the InfoServer, the device name is always the following:
DAD1
When the target drive is a local disk, the device
name is similar to the following:
DKA0:
Note the following conventions:
DK is the device code of the boot device.
A is the boot device controller designation.
0 is the unit number of the boot device.
On Alpha systems configured in certain OpenVMS Cluster
or HSx environments, the device naming convention is similar
to the following:
DUA20.14.0.2.0
The values you specify identify components such as the boot
device, controller, unit number of the boot device, HSx controller node number, and channel numbers. Because
these values vary depending on your specific hardware configuration,
refer to the owner, operator, and technical service manuals that
came with your computer for detailed information.
HP OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-2 Upgrade and Installation... 
Getting Started
