Device Name

Device Name refers to identification of peripheral devices on OpenVMS systems and device naming conventions. For DEVICE_NAMING system parameter, see DEVICE_NAMING.

A device name is a string that uniquely identifies a device such as a disk, tape, network controller, terminal etc. on an OpenVMS system.

Syntax

Parts of an OpenVMS device name include:

• allocation class or node name
• device type
• controller designation
• unit number

The same SCSI disk, DKA300:, could be represented as $1$GKA300:, TEST$DKA300:, or simply DKA300: depending on the device naming format (see below).

Formats

There are three general formats for naming devices depending on the use of clustering and multipath configurations:

• ddcu - when there is no clustering or multipath devices, e.g. DKA100:
• node$ddcu - when there is clustering, e.g. TEST$DKA100:
• $allocation-class$ddcu - when there is clustering and/or multipath devices, e.g. $30$DKA100:

If a device name is preceded by an underscore, this means that the name is a physical device name, not a logical name.

Device Naming Conventions

Allocation Class

Allocation Class is used to uniquely identify shared devices in multipath and cluster configurations. Please see ALLOCATION_CLASS for more information. If allocation classes are used, the format for device names is as follows: $allocation-class$device-name.

Nodename

An OpenVMS Cluster device name includes the name of the node to which the device is attached and the physical device name, separated by a dollar sign ($). For example, TEST$DKA1 refers to disk DKA1 on node TEST. Allocation classes should be used in multipath configurations.

Device Type

Device Type	Meaning	Example
CM	IPMI device	CMA0:
D	Disk
DG	Fibre Channel disk	DGA100:
DI
DK	SCSI disk	DKA100: - SCSI disk
DP
DQ	IDE/SATA disk
DS	Disk Stripe set (e.g. a shadowed disk)	DSA0:
DU	Disk connected to MSCP controllers	DUA0:
E	Ethernet Network Device
EC	Ethernet Network Device
EF	Ethernet Network Device
EQ	Ethernet Network Device
ES	Ethernet Network Device
ET	Ethernet Network Device
EX	Ethernet Network Device
EW	Ethernet network adapter connected to PCI	EWA0:
EZ	Ethernet Network Device
FC	Ethernet Network Device
FG	Fiber Channel Host Bus Adapter	FGA0:
FX	Ethernet Network Device
FT	Network Terminal
GG	Medium Changer
GH	DECwindows output device	GHA0:
I	Token Ring
H	ATM
KB	Terminal	KBD0:
LT	LAT Network Terminal
LM	SCSI tape	LMA0:
MB	Mailbox	MBA0:
MG	Fibre Channel tape drive	MGA300
MK	SCSI Tape Drive
MO	Terminal	MOU0:
MT	Tape Drive
MU	Tape Drive
NTY	Network Terminal
OP	Operator's console	OPA0: - default operator's console
PE	NISCA	PEA0:
PK	SAS controller	PKA0:
RT	DECnet Terminal (created with the SET HOST command)
SE	ACPI system event	SEA0:
T	Terminal	TNA0:
TT
TX
VT	Virtual Terminal
XQ	Emulated Ethernet card (DELQA-T (M7516-YM), DELQA (M7516) and DEQNA (M7504) Q-bus Ethernet cards)
XU	Emulated Ethernet card (Digital's DEUNA (M7792/M7793) and DELUA (M7521) Unibus Ethernet cards)

Controller Designation

The third letter represents controller designation (in the order detected by hardware): A - first controller, B - second controller, etc. Pseudo-controllers and indirect controllers (shadow, SAN) always use A.

Unit Number

SCSI disks often have unit numbers that are multiples of 100: DKA100:, DKA200:, DKA300 etc. For tapes on parallel SCSI, the device name of a directly attached tape implies the physical location of the device; for example, MKB301 resides on bus B, SCSI target ID 3, and LUN 1. Such a naming scheme does not scale well for Fibre Channel configurations, in which the number of targets or nodes can be very large.