3.3 Preparing Your System to Run VMSINSTAL.COM
This section provides guidelines for preparing your system
for using VMSINSTAL.COM. Note that each software prod-
uct that you install might not require you to follow all of the
guidelines listed in this section.
3.3.1 Performing Preliminary Operations
Before you use VMSINSTAL.COM, perform the following
operations (not necessarily in the order listed):
.
Back up your system disk, as described in Section 10.17.
Use the backup copy as a working copy for the installa-
tion.
VMSINSTAL.COM might delete the older version of the
product before it installs the newer version. If the sys-
tem fails during installation, you might have to make
a new working copy of the system disk and restart the
installation.
.
Log in to the SYSTEM account at the console terminal.
.
Be sure all users have logged out and all batch jobs have
completed by using, respectively, the SHOW USERS and
SHOW SYSTEM/BATCH commands. Keep users off the
system until VMSINSTAL.COM completes by using the
following command:
$ SET LOGINS/INTERACTIVE=0
.
Shut down DECnet for OpenVMS. ( Section 21.6.4 con-
tains instructions for doing this.)
.
Check system parameters. (GBLPAGES, GBLSECTIONS
and NPAGEDYN often need to be adjusted.) Read the
documentation supplied with each layered product to
be installed, and find out if the product has any specific
resource requirements.
If you must change parameter values, increase the
values by adding ADD_ parameter-name symbols to
MODPARAMS.DAT. (See Section 14.5.1.1.)
Use AUTOGEN with feedback to size the system re-
sources properly. (See Section 14.4.1.)
.
Make sure the limits in the SYSTEM account authoriza-
tion record are equal to or greater than the recommended
limits.
To check these limits, run the Authorize utility
(AUTHORIZE) to display the current limits of the
SYSTEM account's user authorization file.
To run AUTHORIZE, enter the following commands:
$ SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM
$ RUN AUTHORIZE
At the UAF prompt ( UAF> ), enter the following com-
mand:
UAF> SHOW SYSTEM
See Section 6.1.2 for details.
.
If necessary, use the Authorize utility to modify the
SYSTEM account limits. Changes you make do not take
effect until you log out and log in again.
For example, to increase the DIOLM limit to 100, enter
the following command:
UAF> MODIFY SYSTEM/DIOLM=100
See Section 6.1.2 for details.
.
Physically mount the first distribution media that contains
the software product. See Section 8.5 for details.
.
Register and load licenses, as explained in the next section.
3.3.2 Registering and Loading Licenses
A license refers to the authorization you have to use a prod-
uct. The License Management Facility (LMF) enables you to
register, manage, and track software licenses on line.
A Product Authorization Key (PAK) contains information
that is provided for many Digital products. The data provided
in the PAK allows you to register a software license in the
license database on a system.
If you did not register and load your operating system license
during the installation of the OpenVMS operating system, you
must perform that task (and register other licenses, if neces-
sary) before you install other software products, as explained
in the following steps:
1. Log in to the system manager's account, SYSTEM.
2. Register the license in one of two ways:
.
Invoke the SYS$UPDATE:VMSLICENSE.COM
procedure. When it prompts you for information,
respond with data listed on your operating system
Product Authorization Key (PAK). (You can register
other software product licenses at this time as well.)
.
At the DCL prompt, enter the LICENSE REGISTER
command with the appropriate qualifiers that corre-
spond to License PAK information.
3. Use either of the following utilities to load a license:
.
License Management Facility (LMF), which loads the
PAK only on the local node.
.
System Management utility (SYSMAN), which al-
lows you to load the PAK throughout an entire cluster.
(SYSMAN LICENSE commands are a subset of LMF
commands.)
Only the local node requires the installation of a license
before you use VMSINSTAL.COM.
For more information about loading licenses, see the
OpenVMS License Management Utility Manual .
3.3.3 Preventing Nodes from Sharing PAKs
The /NO_SHARE qualifier for the LICENSE MODIFY
command lets you add the NO_SHARE option to a PAK reg-
istered in a license database (LDB). NO_SHARE PAKs are
assigned to a single node in a VMScluster system. A NO_
SHARE PAK cannot be shared with other VMScluster nodes.
The use of this qualifier remedies problems that occasionally
occur when you attempt to use the PAK of a software prod-
uct for which you already have other PAKs in your LDB.
The PAK does not combine with the other PAKs for the same
software product, resulting in LICENSE-W-NOCOMB
warnings. Often, the license is not loaded on the nodes on
which you want it loaded.
To remedy this problem, do the following: