Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!ames!apple!well!rchrd
From: rchrd@well.UUCP (Richard Friedman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: SR10.1 Installation Procedure !
Message-ID: <12805@well.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jul 89 16:47:28 GMT
References: <12735@well.UUCP> <4484dd1d.8ecf@apollo.COM>
Reply-To: rchrd@well.UUCP (Richard Friedman)
Distribution: comp
Organization: RCHRD 2855 Telegraph #415 Berkeley CA 94705
Lines: 45

Its quite obvious that the team at apollo that put together the
installation tools did not actually attempt to do an OS install of
10.1 on a stand alone node.  I think the documentation is an educated
guess by the writers as to what should work.  For a stand alone node,
there is really no reason whey load and install should be different
phases of the process.  There should be a MINST question: Is this a
stand-alone node?  A yes response gets you into a combined load/install
dialog that lets you specify what parts of the system you want, etc.
and does the load directly into the system rather than creating an
/install area and then creating redundant links to it to create the
real system.  The poor user, who has little time to completely 
understand the implications of the install procedure (which is 
not documented to begin with) suffers the anxiety of not knowing
the complete ramifications of all the install options.
We rely on apollo providing simple canned routines like MINST and
INSTALL.  

THe stand-alone system does not have a partner node to suck off
critical files.  Once a stand alone disk is INVOL'd there is nothing
but the system installation boot tape.  This tape has nothing real
on it and is to be used only to load in the system. It doesnt even
have a complete set of diagnostics in the sysboot record, so once
you do an invol you cant do a disk test or cpu tes (win.dex or cpu.dex)
until AFTER you have successfully installed the system (which takes 3 hours!).

There are other problems, like what to do when there is some sort of
failure during the install process... how can you reliably recover or
restart without having to go all the way back to invol the disk!
I am talking about OS installations, not optional products...

There should be a simple procedure, as I mentioned earlier, for saving
the system,  not just a simple way to reinstall from the install media.
I want to backup the system on my own tapes, preserving my own
customizations, invol the disk, and reload in a simple way that requires
minimal operator interventions.  Why cant I do this??  

Apollo needs to work more on the installation process.  
In the meantime, I'd like to find out how many stand alone nodes are
out there and what their experiences are regarding sr10 installs.
For that, watch this space.

-- 
 ...Richard Friedman           rchrd@well.uucp                      
    (Pacific-Sierra Research/Berkeley, CA.)
     also: {lll-crg,pacbell,hplabs}!well!rchrd