OpenVMS Resources: VAX • Alpha • Itanium • x86-64
This entire site is a private effort of free information.
There are no cookies, no advertisements, and nothing is for sale.
Caveat: Statistics
inform that I am in the final decade of my life. This website is run entirely out of pocket (there are no advertisements and
nothing is for sale) so will not survive my demise, but I will support this site until the very end. I started my OpenVMS
self-help pages at a time when I thought that Compaq was doing a poor job promoting OpenVMS programming. Then HP merged with
Compaq in 2002 and things got worse. Over the past ten years, a number of user-created OpenVMS self-help sites have already gone
offline which got me thinking about this site.
Advice: If you have any questions or problems about anything in the "
VMS - OpenVMS ecosystem" then then you should
be first visiting
VMS Software Inc (VSI) where you will find a web site in
much better shape than all the predecessor sites combined (link: VSI
user
forum). Any company doing any kind of business on an OpenVMS platform would be wise to purchase a support agreement from VSI
(your company would be doing something similar if you were running open-source software like Linux). I strongly suggest you
replace your HP licenses with VSI licenses then upgrade past OpenVMS-8.4 (the last official release from HP) so you will be able
to install VSI supported open-source software like
Apache HTTPd and
OpenSSL and
Python to only name three
of many.
Alert: Most
compaq.com or
hp.com hyperlinks at this site now go to dead links. So I modified them (with a
program that I wrote) to take you to
vmssoftware.com
NSR Resources on this page
NSR Resources located elsewhere
- OpenVMS Notes:
- Freeware from the good folks at VSI (VMS Software Inc)
- VAX to Alpha porting diaries
- Alpha to Itanium porting diaries
- Apache HTTPd ("HPE supported" web server for OpenVMS)
- Apache Tomcat and Java
- Apache AXIS2 (ANT, SOAP, AXIS, AXIS2, gSOAP)
- note: both AXIS and AXIS2 require Tomcat
- Autogen (OpenVMS tuning)
- BASH (Bourne Again Shell) on my GNV page
- BASIC (a.k.a. DEC-BASIC, VAX-BASIC, VMS-BASIC)
- CIFS + Samba (Windows file support on OpenVMS)
- Cryptography (an introduction)
- DECnet
- DECserver and LAT
- DECtalk
- DELIVER (the email interception utility)
- Distributed Lock Manager (DLM)
- fun with Floating Point Data Types
- GNV (Gnu Not VMS)
- includes some hacking with AXIS script "WSDL2Java.sh"
- gSOAP (wsdl-first SOAP support for OpenVMS)
- requires a "c" or c++ compiler
- gzip on OpenVMS
- HTTPd
- Apache HTTPd ("HPE supported" web server for OpenVMS)
- WASD - the non-Apache web server from down-under
- Itanium porting diary (13 years later we move again)
- LDAP + VAM (VMS Authentication)
- Linux (huh? what's this doing here?)
- Manager Basics (purging etc.)
- MariaDB (a newer fork of MySQL)
- MIME based MAIL: SMTP and POP3
- MQSeries
- MSA$util.exe and $msa on Itanium servers
- MySQL (an "open source" relational database)
- OpenSSH2
- OpenSSL (secure sockets layer / transport layer security)
- OpenVMS Tuning (and AUTOGEN)
- Oracle-Rdb (the relational successor to RMS)
- RAID on rack mounted Itanium servers
- Raxco Seminar Notes (targeted at tuning VAX/VMS)
- RDB (now known as Oracle-Rdb)
- RMS (record management services)
- RMS File Tuning
- RMS Text File Hacks (not so simple)
- RWAST (what is this process state?)
- Samba + CIFS (Windows files on OpenVMS)
- SAS$util.exe and $sas on Itanium servers
- SMTP and POP3
- SOAP and
gSOAP
- Source Code Demos (my modest efforts)
- SCP (secure copy - based upon SSH2)
- SFTP (secure FTP - based upon SSH2)
- SQLite (single user SQL-compliant storage)
- SSH2 - setting up public-key authentication for use with autonomous
SFTP and SCP file transfers
- SSL / TLS (secure sockets layer / transport layer security)
- Starlet Library Hacking (to resolve documentation errors)
- System Manager Basics (purging etc.)
- TCPware notes
- TCPIP Services for OpenVMS
- Text File Hacks (not so simple)
- TLS / SSL (transport layer security / secure sockets layer )
- Tomcat and Java
- TSM (Terminal Server Manager) on Alpha
- Tuning (and AUTOGEN)
- UNZIP on OpenVMS
- USB (and UCM) - includes mtools
- VAX-to-Alpha porting diaries
- VIM (for VMS and OpenVMS)
- WASD (non-Apache web server from down-under)
- VMS-BASIC (a.k.a. DEC-BASIC, VAX-BASIC, HP-BASIC)
- VMS Tuning (and AUTOGEN)
- WebSphereMQ
- X-term, X-Desktop, X-Windows etc
- ZIP on OpenVMS (includes gzip)
- Programmer's Corner - totally free OpenVMS demo programs
- Calendar Concerns: Y2K, Y2004, Y2038, Y2106 + Y4K
- OpenVMS vs. UNIX - antagonists or
sisters? (UNIX is older)
- Windows-NT is VMS re-implemented the truth is out there!
- Recommend Good Books (DEC - VAX - Windows-NT)
VMS Software Inc.
Cannot Locate VMS/OpenVMS documents?
- some VMS/OpenVMS stuff was junked by Compaq after the purchase of DEC
- more stuff was lost or discarded by HP after the merger with Compaq
- more stuff was lost or discarded during the split between HP and HPE
- getting rid of stale links: on 2022-09-30 I wrote a little script to auto-modify every link on "all the
pages of this website" from hp.com or hpe.com to vmssoftware.com
- I used regex so their was "a lot" of wild-carding
- a small number of those links were hardware oriented so sorry about that
Nostalgia
- An interview with Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC) founder Ken Olsen
- An interview with ex-DEC engineer Gordon Bell
- DEC invented the UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) chip
- the world's first commercial time sharing system was a DEC PDP-6
- Gordon Bell's DECmuseum (Microsoft)
- Gordon Bell biography (Wikipedia)
- ex-DEC Engineer Dave Cutler biography (Wikipedia)
- In the 1980s, Dave Cutler worked at DEC on the PRISM/Mica/Emerald project to port VMS from VAX to RISC. When DEC cancelled this project, Cutler
presented his ideas to Microsoft then was promptly hired to move VMS 4.x concepts into a new Microsoft GUI OS which became
known as Windows-NT (New Technology). This OS later evolved into products like Windows-2000, Windows-XP, Windows-Vista,
Windows 2003 Server.
- Cutler was also responsible for developing the NTFS filesystem meant to replace FAT-16/DOS
- PRISM/Mica/Emerald/GEM information
- Digital Timeline 1957 - 1997 (hosted by
Microsoft but not HP ???)
- The Collapse of DEC (Oops!)
- OpenVMS deemed unhackable at DefCon9 then told to never
return (just Google it)
Free DCL Accounts
Hardware Sources
- Island Computers is an American company selling new and used OpenVMS capable hardware
(Alpha, Itanium and x86-64)
- Nemonix Engineering is an American company supporting the VAX and Alpha marketplace
- System Resale is a Canadian company selling used "VMS and OpenVMS capable"
hardware
Confusion between VMS (software) and VAX (hardware)
A very brief overview of major highlights:
- In 1977 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced the 32-bit VAX-11 architecture as a successor to the
16-bit PDP-11. (VAX-11 could run PDP-11 application software in PDP emulation mode) At the same time, DEC introduced the VMS
operating system for VAX-11 causing the world to think of the pair as one.
- In the mid-to-late 1980s, DEC experimented with RISC technologies by building systems around chips from MIPS. At this same time
they were working on two skunk-works projects:
- porting VMS to Intel's IA-32 family (80386, 80486)
- this project was cancelled causing the human talent to go to Microsoft to produce Windows-NT
- building their own RISC chip which would be called Alpha
- In the early 1990s DEC released systems based upon Alpha along with a revamped OS known as OpenVMS (version
7.0)
comment: from the time on, whenever I mention that "I work on OpenVMS" someone will say "I thought VAX was
dead".
- DEC was sold to Compaq in 1998
- During merger talks with HP in 2001, Compaq (a huge Intel customer) announced their plans to phase out Alpha in favor of Intel's
new 64-bit enterprise chip called Itanium or IA-64 (Intel Architecture 64-bit).
- Compaq sold all Alpha intellectual property to Intel (along with ~ 300 Alpha engineers)
- Compaq merged with HP (did HP negotiations have anything to do with Alphacide?)
- HP pre-released OpenVMS-8.0 for Itanium on 2003-06-30 for internal use as well as third-party developers
- HP pre-released OpenVMS-8.1 for Itanium on 2003-12-18 for internal use as well as third-party developers
- HP released OpenVMS-8.2 for Itanium and Alpha on 2005-01-13
- HP released OpenVMS-8.3 for Itanium and Alpha on 2006-06
- HP released OpenVMS-8.4 for Itanium and Alpha on 2010-06
- HP announces no more development of OpenVMS on 2012-06 (do you see the pattern here?)
- On 2014-07-31 HP announced they have licensed OpenVMS source code to a new company named VMS
Software Inc (VSI) who intend to:
- complete OpenVMS qualifications on Poulson
- port/qualify OpenVMS to 8-core Kittson when that chip is
released by Intel in 2017
- port/qualify OpenVMS to x86-64
- In the middle of 2015 HP split into two companies: HP (to handle the consumer business like PCs and printers) and HPE
(HP-Enterprise to handle corporate customers)
- since many people saw Compaq as a PC company, wouldn't this action be interpreted as undoing portions of the HP-Compaq
merger? Perhaps
- On 2016-02-09 HPE and Intel announced their plans to go ahead with the successor to Poulson called Kittson
- HPE announced that Kittson will debut mid-2017
- HPE totally exits the VMS/OpenVMS business in 2019. VMS Software Inc (VSI) is now the
only game in town.
Prism/Mica/Emerald/GEM (the birth of Alpha and Windows-NT)
In the mid 1980s DEC started the Prism project to develop RISC technology
which would eventually succeed their CISC-based VAX. Dave Cutler headed Prism (hardware) as well as Mica
(software) which would attempt to port VMS to RISC. In July 1988, DEC killed Prism and Mica so they could build systems based upon
RISC chips from MIPS. Dave Cutler resigned the following month in August 1988. In October 1988 Dave Cutler, as well as ~40 of his
DEC staff, were hired by Microsoft to incorporate VMS 4.x concepts into a new 32-bit GUI OS which became known as Windows-NT (new
technology). This technology later morphed into Windows-2000, Windows-XP, Windows Server Edition 2003, etc.
The remainder of my research has been moved here:
The DEC Alpha CPU (successor to VAX)
Alpha Links
My First Alpha
Our skunk works has just (99.11.30) been asked to attempt a trial port of some OpenVMS applications from VAX to Alpha. We
acquired six AlphaServer 4100 machines (with DUNIX 4.1 installed) from a cancelled project within our company and now one of them is
in my lab. We also scooped up two AlphaServer 2100 machines.
This specific machine is an AlphaServer 4100 5/300 which was manufactured in 1996. It contains a single 21164 (EV5) CPU running at
300 MHz with 2 MB of cache and 256 MB of RAM. Five modules can be installed in the CPU chassis (one for the PCI/EISA interconnect
and four for CPU's). Because of the clock speed I thought this machine might be a bit of a dog but it "seems" much faster than my
VAX-6430 (at least it boots up five times faster).
The disk subsystem is based upon MYLEX configurable RAID controllers which connect to five "storage works" arrays (each filled with
six 4-GB SCSI drives). Since all RAID functions are handled in hardware, the CPU can pay more attention to running the OS and apps.
The controller can be modified with a configuration program to support RAID-1 (mirroring), RAID-0 (striping), RAID-10 (one plus
zero) and RAID-5 (complete multiple disk redundancy).
All the chassis boards (except CPU and memory) are either PCI or EISA based so these machines are considerably less expensive than
the VAXs they are about to replace.
Click
here for more details
Intel Itanium (successor to DEC Alpha)
Itanium Links
My First Itanium
Itanium rx2800-i2
Our
skunk works just (2015.06.23) bought a new rx2800-i2 from HPE and are having a lot of fun moving our OpenVMS-based
production software from Alpha.
Click
here for more details
Intel releases Tukwila (February 8, 2010)
- Tukwila is now officially known as Itanium 9300
- (mostly) 4-core hyper-threaded packages (software sees 8)
- 2 billion transistors
- support for DDR3 memory
- replaces 20-year old FSB (front side bus) with QPI
(quick path interface) previously known as CSI (common system
interface)
Note: this technology came from DEC Alpha 21464 (EV8) which was cancelled
in 25 June 2001 (yep, it took 8.5 years for that technology to percolate into this release)
- News:
Intel releases Poulson (November 8, 2012)
- Poulson is now officially known a Itanium 9500
- 8-core hyper-threaded packages (software sees 16)
- 3.1 billion transistors
- moves from VLIW to a more conventional (RISC) pipeline.
- Even though they began work on migrating/qualifying OpenVMS on Poulson, HP announced they will not complete the work (thus
leaving OpenVMS with no future)
- On 2014.07.31 HP announced they have licensed OpenVMS source code to a new company named VMS
Software Inc (VSI) who intend to:
- complete OpenVMS qualifications on Poulson
- port/qualify OpenVMS to 8-core Kittson when that chip is
released by Intel in 2017
- port/qualify OpenVMS to x86-64
Intel releases Kittson (2017)
Intel's Itanium to live on as HPE commits to new servers with the chip
Intel will EOL Itanium in 2021
Recommended OpenVMS Books
The Minimum You Need
to Know "book series" by Roland Hughes of Logikal Solutions
"The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer"
- 800 pages with a CD-ROM
- Covers: DCL, BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++ Interfacing to: FMS, RMS, CDD, CMS, MMS, Message Files, VMS-Mail,
VMS-Phone, MySQL, Oracle-Rdb
- comments:
- highly recommended for OpenVMS programmers (especially those new to OpenVMS who need a good bootstrap).
- DO NOT begin any new database projects without first reading chapter 13 (MySQL) and chapter 14 (Oracle-Rdb).
"The Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS (Volume-1)"
- 351 pages with a CD-ROM
- comments:
- This introduction states "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" is a prerequisite.
- This Java book is Volume-1 but there are no plans at this time to publish Volume-2 (which will contain HTML centric
lessons) at this time.
- Any Java programming books I've read attempt to convince the reader that Java is the way-of-the-future and that all other
languages will soon be obsolete. Not so with this book. The author presents Java with all of its warts while continually
comparing it to C++ and sometimes C. If your superiors are forcing you to implement Java on your system then you must
read this book first so you know what you're getting into.
"The Minimum You Need to Know About Service Oriented Architecture"
- 370 pages with a CD-ROM
- My Notes:
- This introduction states that both "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" and "The
Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS Volume-1" are prerequisites.
- I just (2008-07-26) received this book today but it looks like it will help me with a new problem. Our group has just been
told the following:
- You can stay on OpenVMS - Alpha (with eventual migration to Itanium)
- develop a plan before the end of 2008 to replace "FMS and VT-220 terminal emulation" with web browsers
- develop a plan before the end of 2009 to replace RMS with something relational (Oracle-Rdb or MySql)
Writing
VAX/VMS Applications Using Pascal
- Published 1991 by Digital Press
- Author: Theo De Klerk
- this rare gem contains some of the best descriptions and examples of OpenVMS system calls from a high level language
- I've found it relatively easy to translate these examples to other languages like HP-BASIC and HP-C
- This out-of-print book is still available from www.bookfinder.com
- highly recommended for programmers
Writing Real Programs in DCL, Second Edition
- Published 1998-1999 by Digital Press
- Authors: Steve Hoffman and Paul Anagnostopoulos
- Caveat: Just as it is nearly impossible to acquire a copy of the Apple II
Red Book (1978) by Steve Wozniak, you will not find available copies of Writing Real Programs in DCL
unless you are willing to fork over $150.00 to $500.00 to the used book market. I personally do not own a
copy but have been able to read it online at work since my employer has a paid up subscription to www.books24x7.com
(just search the titles for "DCL")
DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation (2003, 2004) by Edgar H.
Schein
Digital Equipment Corporation achieved sales of over $14 billion, reached the Fortune 50, and was second only to IBM as a computer
manufacturer. Though responsible for the invention of speech recognition, the minicomputer, and local area networking, DEC
ultimately failed as a business and was sold to Compaq Corporation in 1998. [HP bought, er, merged with, Compaq in 2002]. This
fascinating modern Greek tragedy by Ed Schein, a high-level consultant to DEC for 40 years, shows how DEC's unique corporate culture
contributed both to its early successes and later to an organizational rigidity that caused its ultimate downfall.
- introduction
- Purpose and Overview
- Three Developmental Streams: A Model for Deciphering the Lessons of the DEC Story
- part one: The Creation of a Culture of Innovation: The Technology, Organization, and Culture Streams are One and the Same
- Ken Olsen, the Scientist-Engineer
- Ken Olsen, the Leader and Manager
- Ken Olsen, the Salesman-Marketer
- DEC's Cultural Paradigm
- DEC's "Other" Legacy: The Development of Leaders (by Tracy C. Gibbons)
- DEC's Impact on the Evolution of Organization Development
- part two: The Streams Diverge, Causing an Organizational Midlife Crisis
- The Impact of Changing Technology (by Paul Kampas)
- The Impact of Success, Growth, and Age
- Learning Efforts Reveal Cultural Strengths and Rigidities
- The Turbulent 1980s: Peaking but Weakening
- DEC Launches Three PCs
- Gordon Bell's Departure and its Consequences
- Turmoil in the Engineering Organization: Competition with IBM, and PRISM, Aquarius, and Alpha [and MIPS]
- The Beginning of the End: Ken Olsen's Final Efforts to Save DEC
- part three: Lessons and Legacies
- Obvious Lessons and Subtle Lessons
- The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation
- Appendixes
- DEC's Technical Legacy
- DEC's Manufacturing: Contributions Made and Lessons Learned (by Michael Sonduck)
- DEC, the First Knowledge Organization (a 1991 Memo by Debra Rogers Amidon)
- Digital: The Strategic Failure (by Peter DeLisi)
- What Happened? A Postscript (by Gordon Bell) <<< This is a 'must read'
OpenVMS System Management Guide (second edition)
- Published December-2003 by Digital Press/HP
- Authors: Lawrence Baldwin, Steve Hoffman, David Miller
- 656 pages
- Available from various sellers including Amazon
- conversational boot, common system disk, retransmit limit, login command procedures, bootable environment, device control
libraries, autostart queues, system dump file, system login procedures, standalone backup, system startup procedures, datalink
address, default version limit, default boot device, installing freeware, restart control, product authorization key, user login
procedure, node eqs, default login directory, cumulative incremental backup, system logical names, manual boot, full image backup,
volume shadowing
- Additional References, Disabled Stopped, Digital Press, System Manager's Manual, Bus Model Name Nickname, Management Station,
Oracle-Rdb, Digital Equipment Corporation, Ethernet Basics, Identifying Resource Dependencies, Monitoring Application Performance,
Qualifier Keyword Meaning, Controlling the Queue Manager, Managing Accounts, Monitoring Hardware Errors, Page Read, Reducing Login
Time, Security-Related Login Parameters, Sue Rosselet, System Dump-File Considerations, System Memory Resources, System-Startup
Sequence, Using File Expiration Dates, Cluster Configurations, Configuring Default Boot Control Flags
Rdb: A Comprehensive Guide - Third Edition
- Published 1999 by Digital Press (Butterworth-Heinemann)
- Authors: Lilian Hobbs, Ian Smith, Ken England
- a must-have book for anyone using or supporting Oracle-Rdb
- this edition is very SQL oriented (probably a good thing) but...
contains very little information about RDO (which is only bad if you need to maintain some very old Rdb applications still using
RDO). Earlier editions may differ from this statement.
TP Software Development for OpenVMS
- Published 1994 by CBM Books (101 Witmer Road, Horsham, PA. 19044)
- Author: John M. Willis
- this rare gem covers "transaction processing" on OpenVMS. Topics include: ACMS (Application Control Management System),
CDD/Repository, DECforms, SQL, Rdb. High level program examples are in COBOL.
- highly recommended for business applications developers and "Oracle-Rdb" programmers
OpenVMS Community
Professional Associations
- Digital
Equipment Corporation User's Society
Encompass LISTSERV
Function |
Email Address |
Subject |
Getting Help |
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG |
HELP |
Adding your name |
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG |
SUBSCRIBE VMS-SIG
|
Removing your name |
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG |
UNSUBSCRIBE |
Sending a message |
VMS-SIG@LISTSERV.ENCOMPASSUS.ORG |
whatever |
OpenVMS News Group Info
Note: newsgroups are accessed with a news reader on port 119. Alternatively you may use a browser like so:
https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms
OpenVMS Freeware, Shareware, and Generally Cool Info
Freeware from the good folks at VSI (VMS Software Inc)
Freeware
Other
Miscellaneous OpenVMS Links
My Links
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Neil Rieck
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.