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Preparing the System Disk  



The following sections describe how to prepare the system disk for the upgrade. The operations include the following:

Examining the System Disk  

Examine and repair (if necessary) the system disk using the ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE command. (Refer to the HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual: A--L for more information about this command.) Use the following procedure:

  1. Analyze the system disk for inconsistencies and errors in the file structure by entering the following command:
    $ ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE SYS$SYSDEVICE
    Ignore the following message:
    %ANALDISK-I-OPENQUOTA, error opening QUOTA.SYS
  2. If you find any other errors on the system disk, repair the errors by entering the following command:
    $ ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE/REPAIR SYS$SYSDEVICE

Checking the SYSCOMMON Directories  

For the upgrade to be successful, the SYSCOMMON directories in all system roots must be aliases (or hard links) for the VMS$COMMON directory. To check whether this is the case, execute the following commands if you are booted from the system disk that you will be upgrading, and compare the displayed file identifiers to ensure that they are all the same:

$ DIRECTORY/FILE_ID/NOHEADING/NOTRAILING SYS$SYSDEVICE:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR
$ DIRECTORY/FILE_ID/NOHEADING/NOTRAILING SYS$SYSDEVICE:[SYS*]SYSCOMMON.DIR
If you did not boot from the system disk that you will be upgrading, mount the disk to be upgraded and specify the actual device name in the command. For example, if the system disk to be upgraded is mounted on DKA100, you would use commands similar to the following:
$ DIRECTORY/FILE_ID/NOHEADING/NOTRAILING DKA100:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR
$ DIRECTORY/FILE_ID/NOHEADING/NOTRAILING DKA100:[SYS*]SYSCOMMON.DIR
Output from the first command should list a single file. Output from the second command should list one file for each system root on the disk. Check whether the file ID is the same for all of the listed files and take action as follows:

Checking the Size of the System Disk  

It is difficult to determine in advance how many blocks of disk space you will need for the upgrade. It depends on how many files you have on the target disk already and on how many components you select during the upgrade procedure. However, the following information will help:

To see how much space you have on the system disk, enter the following command:

$ SHOW DEVICE SYS$SYSDEVICE

Returning Authorization and AGEN$INCLUDE Files to the System Disk  

If you have placed authorization and AGEN$INCLUDE files on disks other than the system disk, the upgrade procedure will not find these files. This is because the other disks will not be mounted during the upgrade. In addition, the logical names you have set up to point to these files will not be defined. The following sections explain how to make these files available to the upgrade procedure.

Authorization Files 

OpenVMS allows you to relocate certain system files (mostly authorization files) off the system disk. You do this by copying the files to another location and then defining logical names as documented in the file SYS$SYSTEM:SYLOGICALS.TEMPLATE. The logical names are defined in SYS$STARTUP:SYLOGICALS.COM. You can modify this file during an upgrade.

When you boot your system from the OpenVMS operating system CD or DVD, the logical names pointing to these files are not defined, and the disks where they are located are not mounted. Because of this, the upgrade cannot access the relocated files, possibly resulting in an incorrect or incomplete upgrade. The upgrade might finish without error, but the files might not be in place as expected.

Before upgrading your system, check the definitions of these logical names on your system. (If a file has not been relocated, the corresponding logical name might not be defined. This is acceptable.) If any logical name points to a location or file name other than the location and file name listed in Logical Names for Relocated Authorization Files, return the file to the default location and file name (see the extra requirements mentioned for the SYS$DUMP_PRIORITY.DAT file in the footnote to Logical Names for Relocated Authorization Files). To prevent the system from referencing the files located off the system disk, either delete the associated logical name (using the DCL command DEASSIGN/SYSTEM/EXEC) or shut down the operating system and reboot from the operating system CD or DVD. After the upgrade and before booting the operating system, you can move these files back to their original locations off the system disk.

Table 2   Logical Names for Relocated Authorization Files
Logical Name Location and File Name
LAN$NODE_DATABASE
SYS$SYSTEM:LAN$NODE_DATABASE.DAT
LMF$LICENSE
SYS$SYSTEM:LMF$LICENSE.LDB
NETNODE_REMOTE
SYS$SYSTEM:NETNODE_REMOTE.DAT
NETNODE_UPDATE
SYS$MANAGER:NETNODE_UPDATE.COM
NETOBJECT
SYS$SYSTEM:NETOBJECT.DAT
NETPROXY
SYS$SYSTEM:NETPROXY.DAT
NET$PROXY
SYS$SYSTEM:NET$PROXY.DAT
RIGHTSLIST
SYS$SYSTEM:RIGHTSLIST.DAT
SYSUAF
SYS$SYSTEM:SYSUAF.DAT
SYSUAFALT
SYS$SYSTEM:SYSUAFALT.DAT
SYSALF
SYS$SYSTEM:SYSALF.DAT
SYS$DUMP_PRIORITY
SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSEXE]SYS$DUMP_PRIORITY.DAT1
VMSMAIL_PROFILE
SYS$SYSTEM:VMSMAIL_PROFILE.DATA
VMS$AUDIT_SERVER
SYS$MANAGER:VMS$AUDIT_SERVER.DAT
VMS$CLASS_SCHEDULE
SYS$SYSTEM:VMS$CLASS_SCHEDULE.DATA
VMS$OBJECTS
SYS$SYSTEM:VMS$OBJECTS.DAT
VMS$PASSWORD_DICTIONARY
SYS$LIBRARY:VMS$PASSWORD_DICTIONARY.DATA
VMS$PASSWORD_HISTORY
SYS$SYSTEM:VMS$PASSWORD_HISTORY.DATA
VMS$PASSWORD_POLICY
SYS$LIBRARY:VMS$PASSWORD_POLICY.EXE

AGEN$INCLUDE Files  

If you use the AGEN$INCLUDE feature in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT to include files containing additional parameter settings, and the files that are being included are not on the system disk, then do the following before upgrading:

  1. Move the files to the system disk.
  2. Update the AGEN$INCLUDE entries to reflect the new locations of these files. For these entries, do not use logical names that you defined in SYS$STARTUP:SYLOGICALS.COM or elsewhere for your normal startup procedure. When you boot the system from the OpenVMS operating system CD or DVD for an upgrade, your normal startup procedure is not run, and so these logical names will not be defined for the upgrade. In addition, when you first boot the upgraded system, a special startup procedure is used.

After the upgrade is complete, you can move these included files back to their original locations. If you do so, remember to re-set the AGEN$INCLUDE entries in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT.

Verifying System Parameters  

Verify (and modify if necessary) system parameters, described as follows. (If necessary, refer to the HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Volume 2: Tuning, Monitoring, and Complex Systems for more information about modifying system parameters.) Any system parameters that you modified and did not enter in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT are lost during the upgrade. To retain these parameters, enter their names and the values that you have in use for them in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT. (When AUTOGEN runs after the upgrade, it uses the values in SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT.)

For example, if the current value of GBLPAGES is 30000, and you modified GBLPAGES by 128 pages above the default, add the following line to SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT:

MIN_GBLPAGES=30128   !Increased by 128 by PLM for product z 12/12/04
AUTOGEN will use this new value as a base, comparing it with collected data and increasing the value of GBLPAGES if necessary. Each time AUTOGEN is run, it will make the same comparison and adjust the value of GBLPAGES, but never below the minimum indicated by MIN_GBLPAGES.

During an upgrade, everything is set back to the default. Use current feedback.


Important

If you modify system parameters, note the following:

  • In general, you should allow AUTOGEN to calculate system parameters. You can hardcode values (such as GBLPAGES=value), but doing so overrides AUTOGEN and might not allow it to set an optimal value based on observed usage.


  • Whenever possible, use MIN_parameter values (such as MIN_GBLPAGES) to set the minimum value that can be set for a parameter by AUTOGEN. AUTOGEN increases the value if necessary. It will also adjust related parameters, unless they are hardcoded, in which case information will be provided in the AGEN$PARAMS.REPORT file. Use MAX_parameter values to set a maximum value when it is necessary to limit a parameter to a known maximum value.


  • Enter numeric values as integers, without commas (for example, 10000). Enter alphabetic characters in lower or uppercase.


  • HP recommends that you include comments in the MODPARAMS.DAT file indicating who changed the value, when it was done, and why it was done. An exclamation point serves as a comment starter and can appear anywhere on a line. The following is an example illustrating the modifications recommended in the preceding bulleted items:
    ! the following changes made by K.Newcomb on 9/20/03
    !
    SWAPFILE=0                    ! don't re-size the SWAPFILE on AUTOGEN runs
    MIN_gblsections=750           ! required for DECwindows MOTIF
    MIN_NPAGEDYN=2750000          ! set npagedyn to a min of 2.75 million

For more information about using AUTOGEN as recommended, see Running AUTOGEN to Tune the System.


If your system was upgraded previously, a new SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT file was created then. This file has comments and possibly duplicated entries that were created during that upgrade. If you upgrade again, SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT can become unnecessarily large and potentially confusing. HP recommends that you edit and reorganize SYS$SYSTEM:MODPARAMS.DAT before you upgrade again.


NoteOn a cluster system disk, MODPARAMS.DAT should exist in SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSEXE] for each root. You must edit MODPARAMS.DAT as necessary for each root.


Footnotes
1Copies of this file might exist in multiple system-specific directories. If the file was moved off the system disk, then before upgrading, in addition to moving this file to its default location (and to its default name) on the system disk, you must manually merge and place copies of this file in the common directory.

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