Guys

I finally got around to installing my VSI hobbyist licence on an AXP
emulator. This already had OpenVMS 7.3-2 installed with HP Hobbyist
licence years ago. 

I have installed the VSI licences but they don't seem to be active.
Maybe I've misunderstood something and need to chant the correct
invocation to get it to acknowledge the VSI licences. 

%%%%%%%%%%% OPCOM 26-JUL-2022 19:27:40.92 %%%%%%%%%%%
Message from user SYSTEM on N5
%LICENSE-E-NOAUTH, DEC OPENVMS-ALPHA use is not authorized on this node
-LICENSE-F-NOLICENSE, no license is active for this software product
-LICENSE-I-SYSMGR, please see your system manager

%LICENSE-E-NOAUTH, DEC OPENVMS-ALPHA use is not authorized on this node
-LICENSE-F-NOLICENSE, no license is active for this software product
-LICENSE-I-SYSMGR, please see your system manager
Startup processing continuing...

[...]

Welcome to OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version V7.3-2

Username: system
Password:
%LICENSE-I-NOLICENSE, no license is active for this software product
%LOGIN-S-LOGOPRCON, login allowed from OPA0:
Welcome to OpenVMS (TM) Alpha Operating System, Version V7.3-2
Last interactive login on Tuesday, 26-JUL-2022 19:24:04.45
$ sh lic/full

Active licenses on node N5:

ALPHA-LP
Producer: VSI
Units: 1050
Version: 0.0
Release Date: (none)
Termination Date: 22-SEP-2022
Availability: H (Alpha Layered Products)
Activity: 0
ALPHA

ALPHA-SYSTEM
Producer: VSI
Units: 150
Version: 0.0
Release Date: (none)
Termination Date: 22-SEP-2022
Availability: A (VAX/VMS Capacity or OpenVMS Unlimited or
Base)
Activity: 0
ALPHA

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Alex
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens

On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:

> Any ideas?

V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.

You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.

--

--- Rob

On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
>
> > Any ideas?
>
> V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
>
> You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.

I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able to
install it over the current installation without losing my user files?
I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or I'd have
copied all my user files off.

Thanks,
Alex
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens

On 7/26/2022 3:41 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
> On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
>> On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>
>> V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
>>
>> You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.
>
> I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able to
> install it over the current installation without losing my user files?
> I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or I'd have
> copied all my user files off.

Upgrades are supported from HP V7.3-2 to VSI V8.4-2Lx

--
-- Rob

> > I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able
> > to install it over the current installation without losing my user
> > files?I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or
> > I'd copied all my user files off.
>  
> Upgrades are supported from HP V7.3-2 to VSI V8.4-2Lx

Thanks, another roadblock, my sftp client doesn't seem to be able to
connect to the VSI SFTP server, so I've got in touch with the VSI
Community Licence Team.

Regards,
Alex
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens

On 2022-07-26 19:41:41 +0000, Single Stage to Orbit said:

> On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
>> On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>
>> V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
>>
>> You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.
>
> I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able to
> install it over the current installation without losing my user files?
> I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or I'd have
> copied all my user files off.

Upgrade to V8.4-2L1.

Burn the bootable installer onto a CD or DVD and boot that from within
the emulated environment, and you won't have to use a second OpenVMS
box to get the VSI OpenVMS kits online in the old environment.

Or use the underlying emulator to transfer and load a disk image and
connect that as an emulated CD or DVD available to the emulator, and
avoid the second OpenVMS box.

Once booted, select UPGRADE, and not the ERASE / INSTALL path.

You'll get all your user files, preferences, and customizations
preserved. OpenVMS upgrades do a good job of preserving the existing
contents, and (as some have discovered) also preserves existing
configuration bugs and corruptions.

You'll also get an upgraded environment and access to newer tooling and
APIs, and a whole lot of bug fixes.

As for any corruptions, OpenVMS lacks a means to migrate files from a
backup or from a previous server into a new install, which makes
manually de-corrupting much more effort. Some other platforms routinely
provide this migration path.

You will not get licenses to any DEC, Compaq, HP, or HPE tools, though
VSI has their own replacements for most of those. You might have to use
the kit-repacking tool provided by VSI for third-party kits that have
DEC OpenVMS product prerequisites.

OpenVMS is not good at re-generating an environment, unless the people
administering the server have intentionally maintain that capability
locally. That's all a manual process, and variously creating installers
for local apps and tools.

Details on most of this are in the install/upgrade manual available in
the VSI documentation set.

--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 16:05 -0400, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2022-07-26 19:41:41 +0000, Single Stage to Orbit said:
>
> > On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> > > On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
> > >
> > > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > > V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
> > >
> > > You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.
> >
> > I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able
> > to install it over the current installation without losing my user
> > files? I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or
> > I'd have copied all my user files off.
>
> Upgrade to V8.4-2L1.
>
[ snip ]
> Details on most of this are in the install/upgrade manual available
> in the VSI documentation set.

That's much appreciated, I will find all this very useful. Now if I
could make my SFTP client (on Linux) talk to VSI's SFTP server, I don't
think it likes me much at the moment!

Thanks,
Alex
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens

On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:47 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 7/26/2022 3:41 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
> > On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 15:34 -0400, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> > > On 7/26/2022 3:31 PM, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
> > >
> > > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > > V7.3-2 is an HP-produced version of VMS.
> > >
> > > You need to use a VSI-produced version with our licenses.
> >
> > I see, thanks. So If I get old of the VSI installers will I be able
> > to
> > install it over the current installation without losing my user
> > files? I can't start up TCP/IP and SSH because its not licenced or
> > I'd have copied all my user files off.
>  
> Upgrades are supported from HP V7.3-2 to VSI V8.4-2Lx

By the way, the SFTP server at VSI is rejecting connections because it
wants SSH-RSA key exchange. That's obsolete, I had to work around it
with my SFTP client brutally forced to accept SSH-RSA. All is good now
though.

Thanks
Alex
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens

On 2022-07-26 20:12:49 +0000, Single Stage to Orbit said:

> Now if I could make my SFTP client (on Linux) talk to VSI's SFTP
> server, I don't think it likes me much at the moment!

Here's the sethost bash shell script I use when dealing with OpenVMS
servers and OpenVMS-related connections and iLO-related connections, as
those all tend to be down-revision:

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/DhT_TWepPJ8/m/ReiPhF25CAAJ

VSI has been addressing these issues for those with current patches
applied, and with OpenVMS-related HP/HPE Integrity iLO security being
permanently bad.

I haven't poked at the VSI sftp servers to see what the errors might be
there—though the kex and related errors are obvious with current
ssh/sftp clients.

Down-revision server kex connection showing connection failure:
bash$ ssh user@example.com
Unable to negotiate with 203.0.113.201 port 22: no matching key
exchange method found. Their offer:
diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

Working connection with downgraded security:
bash$ ssh -o HostKeyAlgorithms=ssh-rsa,ssh-dss -o
KexAlgorithms=diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 -o Ciphers=aes128-cbc,3des-cbc
-o MACs=hmac-md5,hmac-sha1 user@example.com

I use sethost to hide the connection downgrade drivel, as different
servers around here will require different connection combinations.

--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

On Tue, 2022-07-26 at 16:46 -0400, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2022-07-26 20:12:49 +0000, Single Stage to Orbit said:
>
> > Now if I could make my SFTP client (on Linux) talk to VSI's SFTP
> > server, I don't think it likes me much at the moment!
>
[ snip ]
> I use sethost to hide the connection downgrade drivel, as different
> servers around here will require different connection combinations.

I figured it out eventually, I simply told my sftp client to accept the
outdated SSH-RSA key exchange (-oHostKeyAlgorithm=+ssh-rsa), and I now
have the installer. Happily installing it at the moment.
--
Tactical Nuclear Kittens