Alpha stuff

[altivo]

So, with formal approval, I brought home the old test server today. The former production server stays at work where I hope to make it do something useful. The test server was in fact a "personal workstation" that had its memory expanded and a bunch of SCSI storage hung onto it. That makes it an ideal candidate, in my opinion, for a home machine to run VMS or Unix. The boss just says "You're the only one who could make it do anything useful. Go ahead." Actually, this particular product model in the Alpha line was designed to run Windows NT as well, back when NT actually had a DEC Alpha version, but it won't run XP. I had forgotten that the team leader for the development of Microsoft's NT operating system was a guy who had been intimately involved in the development of VMS before that. The two operating systems are very similar internally.

Anyway, the Alpha is a 64-bit RISC processor and it is really fast in spite of the relatively slow clock speed (433 MHz in this case) provided the software has been optimized for the processor. It can run Windows NT, 64-bit UNIX (still available from HP/Compaq,) OpenVMS (licensable for free use by hobbyists who register with Encompass, the DEC/Compaq user group,) or Linux. With a video card installed (it has standard PCI and ISA slots) and a mouse and keyboard plugged in, the machine runs as a standalone workstation. Without those, it becomes a network server that can be configured using a terminal on COM1 and set to boot and restart itself automatically. It has 10/100 ethernet and ESS1888 sound on board. I'm itching to get it going with OpenVMS, but that will have to wait until I get an Alpha version of the distribution CD (ordered one yesterday) and a set of license keys. What I did discover today is that I need to go through the tangle of cables that were handed to me with the hardware. The ones I brought home weren't the right ones. ;p

Oh, and the HP SCSI DAT drive that was used for tape backup is dead. I think it's the power supply that's gone, but replacing that is going to be difficult I suspect.

Comments

[deffox]

Nice score. Years ago I was intrigued by Alpha systems.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I like the old VAXen even better, but they are harder to come by, at least as free hand me downs. A lot of them have been scrapped I guess. You find the micro versions but people want a lot of money for them and often they are missing boards or peripherals you'd have to hunt down separately. The big cabinet VAXen are electricity hogs too (but much easier to work on.)

This one will do nicely. It should run VMS without difficulty and takes up no more space than a current tower workstation unit.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

The big issue will be the console software. What was it running? If it's a PWS433au, it'll have the SRM console in it, which is what VMS (and Tru64) needs. If it's a PWS433a, it'll be ARC/AlphaBIOS, which is only good for NT and Linux. I don't recall any more if a 433a can be retrofited with the SRM console or not; if it can, you should do so, unless you plan to run NT on it - SRM works better for moderm Linux systems, too.

The terminal on COM1 should be set to 9600/N/8/1.

There are only a few video cards which will work. If you need one and can't locate it, I might have one I can pass along.

Forget about the DAT drive. They suck. They've always sucked. Get something else, if you really need tape backup.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The red button on the cabinet says "433au" and it was running UNIX so I'm pretty sure it must have the SRM firmware. It has four DIMMs and the top one is a 512MB so I'm guessing there is a full GB or more of RAM.

Thanks for the console hint, that's what I needed to know to save a lot of trial and error. I have three candidates for the SCSI array that held the running OS and will have to try those and see if it actually boots. Unfortunately they gave me three boxes full of tangled cables and I guessed wrong at which ones I'd need right away so I have to go through and sort them all out before it's going to run.

I figured just any VGA card wasn't going to be recognized and that it would probably need some specific DEC part for that. Rather than hunt for it I'll just run it as a server, at least for now. My primary Intel machine can telnet or ssh or act as an X server as needed.

I was hoping the DAT would work as I don't have a tape backup at all right now. I'll have a look at the power supply later. It's one of those separate little boxes, typical of HP, with a standard power cord on one side and a special cable on the other side that plugs into the drive unit. Unfortunately, also typical of HP, it doesn't use a standard coaxial connector. Evidently it provides two different voltages to a DIN plug.

I agree DAT isn't great, but it's better than nothing and this one was free and included a couple dozen tapes, some unopened. I'm using a DAT at work too, plus one older cartridge drive. There really are no affordable backup options that work well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Tape can be worse than DAT, by the way. At NOTIS Systems I had to use a SCSI 9-track drive that was connected to an RS/6000. That was a real clunker, constantly breaking down. Back in the mid-1980s one of the machines I managed was a VAX2000 with DEC's own 9-track drive. That was even worse. It could handle maybe two or three tapes before needing maintenance. When we added a new MicroVAX to the complex specifically to handle a lot of tape, we got an STC vertical drive with real vacuum columns. What a relief that was.

The older cartridge drive I have at work is a Travan, and it seems to be reliable though it's noisy and slow. As long as it is cleaned now and then, it just keeps working.

SRM, version V7.2-1 Mar 6 2000

[altivo.livejournal.com]

After scrambling for serial cables (I haven't used any for a while) I got a notebook computer hooked up to act as a console. The box does self-identify as a 433au, the console prompt is >>> so it must have SRM, and the serial number given by the console matches the tag on the outside.

It kept trying to boot from an external drive that isn't present, and took me a while to figure out how to stop that. I have external SCSI drives for it, but apparently they have no bootable OS on them at present.

I understand there can be an issue with installing OpenVMS (or possibly Linux) from the internal CDROM if it is an IDE drive, which this appears to be. It's a Toshiba XM-6202B. Supposedly it depends on the IDE chipset, and you have to find out if it is Intel or Cypress. If Intel, a SCSI drive must be acquired in order to boot the OpenVMS distribution CD...

Guess the next step is to figure that out in case I have to scrounge up a SCSI CDROM drive.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Hey, an Alpha is like an old Bently, doesn't go as fast as a race-car but oh so classy.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Speed depends on what you are using it for. It won't play WoW or run Adobe's memory and CPU hungry stuff, but for scientific calculation you still can't beat it. ;p

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Damn straight! Most people think a computer is a computer. There's a reason certain people prefer AMD to Intel.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

This would probably be a good machine to put to work on that SETI@Home project, actually. I don't know if they have a VMS version of their software, but I'm sure they can run on Linux. Definitely a number crunching thing.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

I prefer the Folding@Home project myself as it has definitely realistic real-world applications. Who knows, they might just find the drug that'll wipe this shit-arse virus out of my system.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*nods and you notice his eyes go slightly cross-eyed*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*unwinds a defective tape for you to play with*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*ends up hidden in a mass of tangled tape, you notice it follows you around the room till you walk past the fridge and it stops there*

[bariki.livejournal.com]

Forget about the DAT drive. They suck. They've always sucked. Get something else, if you really need tape backup.

subst a few words around, and you've found my most used sentence.

Forget about Norton. They suck. They've always sucked. Get something else, if you really need decent security.

Ahem, crap software aside.. it'll be a pain getting the PSU for the DAT. Probably best to just bury that out back. Apart from that, sounds like a fun legacy-fest of kit. They still have the Alpha version of SP6 for NT 4.0 out there, if OpenVMS sucks as much as I remember. >;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OpenVMS is fine if you aren't looking for Flash, PDFs and other web-related gimmickry. I already use it by emulation. As it happens, I don't like Flash, PDFs and web geegaws. As it happens, OpenVMS has the best compilers to take advantage of the speed possible with the Alpha RISC processors. If you want to use it for mathematical modeling or something like SETI@home, that's a good place to be. I'm thinking about amateur radio antenna modeling and propagation prediction, for instance. Heavy number crunching rather than internet graphics or gaming.

Anyway, I wouldn't have to stoop so low as to put NT on it. It also runs Linux, and there are at least two 64-bit distributions available for the Alphas. I know CentOS has a fairly recent version (2006 release) with a 2.6.x kernel and all the X-based apps you could want. ;p I may even dual boot, since I have plenty of disk drives available.

[bariki.livejournal.com]

Bloody marvellous. I was hoping that you'd pick CentOS for this kit. At least it can display more than 2 colours at the same time - zomfg!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Huh? VMS does color displays just fine. In this case, the Alpha will only be the X-client anyway. The actual display will be handled elsewhere by Linux, since the Alpha has no graphics card in it. It will take one, but I don't need to go buy one since I have plenty of Linux machines that will handle the display aspect without issues.

Oh, and the external DAT drive will probably work just fine if it is installed into a bay in the CPU case.