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Connecting Devices and Loading Device Drivers  



The system uses a software component called a device driver to control I/O operations for a particular device type. For a device to function on a system, the device must be connected, and the device driver must be loaded into memory.

The AUTOCONFIGURE command connects all devices physically attached to the system and loads their device drivers. Using AUTOCONFIGURE saves effort and reduces the possibility of error.

The site-independent startup command procedure, STARTUP.COM, automatically configures devices, because it includes the AUTOCONFIGURE command.

On VAX systems, the following commands in STARTUP.COM perform autoconfiguration:

$ SYSGEN := $SYSGEN
$ SYSGEN AUTOCONFIGURE ALL 
On Alpha or I64 systems, the following commands in STARTUP.COM perform autoconfiguration:
$ SYSMAN := $SYSMAN
$ SYSMAN IO AUTOCONFIGURE 
During autoconfiguration, the CONFIGURE phase of STARTUP.COM creates a detached process to perform the following tasks:
NoteFor this discussion, an HSx device can be an HSC, HSG, or HSJ device.

In general, when you add a SCSI disk or tape, you should shut down the system and power down the machine before you connect the device. When you power the system up, OpenVMS automatically configures the device.

Some controllers, such as the HSZ series, allow you to quiesce the SCSI bus and then add or remove a device. When you add a device, you must rerun AUTOCONFIGURE. Note however, that for served storage devices, your system must be running the CONFIGURE process.

In certain cases, you might want to suppress autoconfiguration of devices in system startup. See the following sections for more details.

Topic For More Information
Manually connecting devices and loading drivers1
Manually Connecting Devices and Loading Device Drivers (VAX Only)
Manually connecting devices and loading drivers2
Manually Connecting Devices and Loading Device Drivers (Alpha and I64)
Suppressing autoconfiguration
Suppressing the Autoconfiguration of Devices

Manually Connecting Devices and Loading Device Drivers (VAX Only)  

On VAX systems, whenever possible, use the SYSGEN command AUTOCONFIGURE to connect standard devices and load device drivers. However, in some cases, such as connecting non-HP devices, you cannot use the AUTOCONFIGURE command. In addition, AUTOCONFIGURE does not connect the following devices or load their device drivers:

In addition to these devices, other devices and drivers might be present that AUTOCONFIGURE does not connect and load. On VAX systems, use the System Generation utility (SYSGEN) to manually connect devices and load device drivers.

For more information, refer to the SYSGEN section of HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual: M--Z and the OpenVMS VAX Device Support Manual . (The latter manual has been archived.)


CautionUse extreme care when issuing SYSGEN CONNECT and LOAD commands because the system does little error checking. An incorrect vector address or misspelled device name, for example, will damage the I/O database and could cause the system to fail.

To manually connect special devices each time the system starts up, add these SYSGEN commands to the site-specific startup command procedure SYCONFIG.COM. For more information, see Connecting Nonstandard Devices.

Console Storage Device

To connect the console storage device on VAX systems, use the following CONNECT command:

$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSGEN
SYSGEN> CONNECT CONSOLE
SYSGEN> EXIT

NoteThis command may be different on some platforms. See the VAX installation and upgrade manual for information about the console commands available for your specific platform.

Network Communication Device

To connect the network communications logical device on VAX systems, run the appropriate startup files for the particular network protocol. For example, three common net stack startups are:

@SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$STARTUP
! TCP/IP Services
@SYS$STARTUP:NET$STARTUP
! DECnet-Plus
@SYS$STARTUP:STARTNET
! DECnet Phase IV

Virtual Terminals

For information about connecting virtual terminals and loading their driver, see Managing Virtual Terminals.

For information about configuring virtual terminals in conjunction with TCP/IP Services Telnet, see hp TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management.

Event-Handling Device Driver

A HP-supplied driver named SYS$SYSTEM:CONINTERR.EXE permits real-time processes to connect to interrupt vectors for quick response to and special handling of real-time events. The driver is not associated with any specific device type. Refer to the OpenVMS VAX Device Support Manual for more information. (This manual has been archived.)

Example

The commands in the following example autoconfigure the devices attached to a VAX system, and connect the console block storage device and the network software device:

$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSGEN
SYSGEN> AUTOCONFIGURE ALL
SYSGEN> CONNECT CONSOLE
SYSGEN> EXIT 
$ @SYS$MANAGER:STARTNET 

Manually Connecting Devices and Loading Device Drivers (Alpha and I64)  

On Alpha and I64 systems, commands for connecting devices and loading their drivers are in the System Management utility (SYSMAN). All SYSMAN commands that control and display the I/O configuration on an Alpha and I64 system contain the prefix IO.

Whenever possible, it is preferable to use the IO AUTOCONFIGURE command to connect standard devices and load device drivers.

IO AUTOCONFIGURE does not connect or load the device driver for the network communications logical device. In addition, other devices and drivers might exist that IO AUTOCONFIGURE does not connect and load.

You can connect unattached devices and devices that have nonstandard names, as well as load device drivers with the SYSMAN commands IO CONNECT and IO LOAD.

For more information, refer to the SYSMAN section of HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual: M--Z and Writing OpenVMS Alpha Device Drivers in C.


CautionExercise great care in issuing IO CONNECT and IO LOAD commands. Incorrect use of these commands could cause the system to fail.

Network Communication Device

To connect the network communications logical device on Alpha, run the appropriate startup files for the particular network protocol. For example, three common net stack startups are:

@SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$STARTUP
! TCP/IP SERVICES
@SYS$STARTUP:NET$STARTUP
! DECnet-Plus
@SYS$STARTUP:STARTNET
! DECnet Phase IV

Example

The commands in the following example autoconfigure the devices physically attached to the Alpha or I64 system, load their drivers, and connect the network software device:

SYSMAN> IO AUTOCONFIGURE ALL
SYSMAN> EXIT 
$ @SYS$MANAGER:STARTNET 
Virtual Terminals

For information about connecting virtual terminals and loading their driver, see Managing Virtual Terminals.

For information about configuring virtual terminals in conjunction with TCP/IP Services Telnet, see hp TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management.

Suppressing the Autoconfiguration of Devices  

Autoconfiguration of devices saves effort and reduces the possibility of error. However, you might want to suppress autoconfiguration for the following reasons:

To suppress autoconfiguration, add the following command as the last line of SYS$MANAGER:SYCONFIG.COM:

$ STARTUP$AUTOCONFIGURE_ALL == 0

CautionIf you set STARTUP$AUTOCONFIGURE_ALL to 0 in the last line of SYCONFIG.COM, the CONFIGURE phase of STARTUP.COM will not execute. As a result, DSSI or HSC controllers (except for a controller through which the system booted) and MSCP-served devices on remote nodes will not be available and satellite nodes will not be able to access network devices and boot disks. This could prevent satellite nodes from booting.

To suppress autoconfiguration, and still configure HSCs and MSCP-served devices on remote nodes, add the following lines to the end of SYCONFIG.COM:

$ STARTUP$AUTOCONFIGURE_ALL == 0
$ @SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP CONFIGURE
$ EXIT
These commands suppress autoconfiguration but still execute the CONFIGURE phase of STARTUP.COM.

However, if you add the command @SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP CONFIGURE to SYCONFIG.COM, AUTOGEN will fail with the following error:

%RUN-F-CREPRC, process creation failed
-SYSTEM-F-DUPLNAM, duplicate name
This error is caused because SYCONFIG.COM is invoked by both STARTUP.COM and AUTOGEN. When AUTOGEN runs, the CONFIGURE process already exists (it was started when SYCONFIG.COM was executed by STARTUP.COM). When AUTOGEN invokes SYCONFIG.COM, the command you added attempts to start a second CONFIGURE process. This command fails, causing AUTOGEN to fail.


Footnotes
1VAX specific
2Alpha and I64 specific

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