Useful Links

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OpenVMS Documentation

Documentation for the OpenVMS operating system and layered products.

The BITSAVERS.ORG DEC Documents Library on the biggest digital library of Internet sites. You should also try different search queries, such as DEC, Compaq, VMS, OpenVMS, VAX, Alpha, AXP, etc. to get more results.

A catalog of about 10,000 documents published by DEC before it was bought by Compaq on the Manx catalog of manuals for old computers.

A guide to OpenVMS fundamentals and programming basics written by H.G. Essel, M. Richter, and W. Schiebel from GSI in 1987 and revised in 1995.

Hardware Documentation

Documentation for the hardware working with OpenVMS.

OpenVMS-related Topics

PDF of a presentation by Jim Mehlhop of Software Concepts International, 2017 on SDA data structures, lists, and extensions and Availability Manager fundamentals, including quorum principles and deadlocks management.

PDF of a presentation by Richard Bishop at the OpenVMS European Technical Update Days in October 2006. Covers crash dump theory, dump file settings, relevant SYSGEN parameters, and principles of selection of processes that must be dumped on a crash.

PDF of a presentation by Guy Peleg of Maklee Engineering on system tuning techniques and how to speed up common system manager operations.

PDF of a presentation delivered by Christian Moser of Maklee Engineering in April 2016. Covers OpenVMS possible performance issues, methods of monitoring and fixing them.

A collection of all 42 Digital Technical Journals, scanned from the paper originals.

OpenVMS seminars slides and papers by XDelta Limited.

A collection of info containing descriptions, serial numbers, guides, manuals, firmware, and other necessary stuff mostly for DEC-engineered and produced hardware.

OpenVMS compatibility table with VAX and Alpha-based hardware for versions up to 7.3.

A board running on the community version of OpenVMS. The topics are mainly OpenVMS-related.

The article introduces the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification in the context of high-performance computing clusters.

PDF of the slides presented by Jim Mehlhop at the Connect OpenVMS Boot Camp 2011. Includes information on RX2600 console and physical interfaces, EFI, BMC, MP, iLO, booting, updating firmware, and backing up the system board configuration.

PDF of a presentation by Jim Mehlhop of Software Concepts International about the Integrity Console and UEFI, 2017.

The official resource for UEFI Specifications.

Links to papers, industry resources, presentations, and videos on the official UEFI website.

An archived version of the Phoenix Developer Reference Wiki. Contains information about the UEFI architecture and the list of the commands used to write UEFI applications.

An archived version of an article by Wolfgang Rosenberg Sr. that covers the key concepts of UEFI and its differences from BIOS and EFI.

An archived version of an article by Wolfgang Rosenberg Sr. for the Intel Developer Zone website that covers the main features of the EFI shell and describes its syntax.

An archived version of an article about the EFI Shell and scripting. Contains EFI shell command summary and scripting rules and examples.

The manual discusses how to use main EFI shell features, such as disk utilities, boot manager, activating device drivers, writing and running batch scripts, etc.

This paper introduces the design of the memory map in a UEFI BIOS. Archived version.

The presentation demonstrates the new features in the ACPI 5.1 specification which make it possible for ACPI to transparently represent devices using existing device-tree bindings.

PDF of UEFI Today: Bootstrapping the Continuum, the Intel Technology Journal Volume 15, 2011. A set of articles written by engineers from Intel and its partners discussing UEFI's main features, architecture, security, and prospects.

A section on the Intel website on the EFI/UEFI specification containing a collection of helpful resources on the topic, as well as links to Linux ELILO Sources.

PDF of a presentation delivered by Martin Vorländer of PDV-Systeme at the OpenVMS Technical Update Days 2012.

PDF of the slides presented during Integrity Labs Session 3204 giving an overview of the MP, EFI, describing firmware initialization and specifics for loading different operating systems.

An article on UEFI in the [1], a wiki about the creation of operating systems. Contains information about UEFI vs. legacy BIOS, UEFI class 0–3 and CSM, Secure Boot, developing with GNU-EFI, emulation with QEMU and OVMF, NVRAM variables, bootable UEFI applications, exposed functionality, PC firmware developers, UEFI applications binary format, calling conventions, language binding, EFI byte code, and common problems with UEFI.

An article by Amit Singh, June 2004, on the history of EFI, EFI drivers, EFI services, benefits of EFI, EFI shell, GUID based partitioning scheme, Universal Graphics Adapter, EFI Byte Code, Experimenting with EFI, Open Firmware, and GUI Widgets in Open Firmware.

The article covers the basics of writing and compiling the code for UEFI format executables. It also explains the notion of UEFI services.

An article by Pete Batard discussing how you can add a new file system EFI driver, such as the ones produced by EfiFs, to an existing UEFI firmware image.

This document is provided to help developers prepare UEFI drivers using the EDK II development environment. UEFI driver standards are described in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Specification, at [2]. This document provides basic information for the most common categories of UEFI drivers; other driver designs are possible.

A presentation delivered at the Plumbers Conference 2012 by Harry Hsiung of the Intel Corp. on EFI basics, security features, development platforms, resources, and backup.

A presentation delivered by Dong Wei of HPE in April 2012 that covers the UEFI history, its specifications features, the SecureBoot technology, and IPv6 support under UEFI.

The Amazon order page for the book “Beyond BIOS: Developing with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface” by Vincent Zimmer, Michael Rothman, Suresh Marisetty.

The Amazon order page for the book “Harnessing the UEFI Shell: Moving the Platform Beyond DOS” by Michael Rothman.

The Amazon order page for the book “Quick Boot: a Guide for Embedded Firmware Developers” by Pete Dice.

OpenVMS Freeware

Software for OpenVMS distributed free of charge.


The Open Source packages provided as a part of the OpenVMS freeware collection are available for download.

Python 2.7.8 for OpenVMS and some libraries.

A symbiont that allows you to use a null printer. Code patterns, tech talks, open-source projects, developer advocates, and more. More than 100 open source programs, a library of knowledge resources. See the code. Software design patterns.

A collection of OpenVMS utilities (last updated in 2015).

PDF of OpenVMS Undocumented Features, a presentation by Stephen Hoffman for European Technical Update 2004.

A PowerPoint presentation on OpenVMS System Management, including work organization and scripts development tips, by Andy Park of TrueBit.

An OpenVMS freeware repository supported by Process Software, a supplier of communications software solutions to mission-critical environments.






Blogs

Blogs with OpenVMS-related information in English unless otherwise specified.

Free accounts on a VAX, a few ports to OpenVMS and other products, and some tutorials in German.

OpenVMS history, presentations from seminars and bootcamps, articles on OpenVMS networking and databases, hardware, and links.

Command procedures, system administration, SAN, hardware, and programming articles.

Articles on installing and working with OpenVMS on the Raymii.org blog.

Articles on OpenVMS system management tips, DCL tricks, and Fortran and Pascal code examples.

Various articles on OpenVMS system management and interaction with EFI.

Open the dropdown menu in the OpenVMS Resource Center section to read a series of articles on programming for OpenVMS. Press the OpenVMS Resource Center button to get access to the * [6] OpenVMS freeware repository.

A Kevin G. Barkes blog mainly about IT and OpenVMS-related topics.

A series of columns about OpenVMS technical issues written by Robert Gezeltzer for his website.

DocuWiki containing a series of articles describing how to solve some specific tasks.

Miscellaneous

The legendary user group started in March 1987 that aggregates OpenVMS fans from all over the world and has become an invaluable source of OpenVMS-related presentations, notes, Q&A, and email submissions gathered through the years passed.

An archived catalog of DCL command procedures published at OpenVMS.org (removed from the original website; some of the links on the site may not work).

A Plain C Programming Wiki built by students and faculty from the University of Illinois. Includes review questions, exams topics, and glossaries and discusses major programming questions in an informal style.

Slides on virtual memory and paging.

Slides on Virtual Memory by Timothy Roscoe for Computer Architecture and Systems Programming course lectures.

A simple web-based tool for converting between DECnet and MAC addresses of Ethernet network adapters connected to DECnet.

Hardware Emulation and Online Systems

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SAN/NAS Storage: Theory and Practice

This book provides an introduction to SAN and Ethernet networking, and how these networks help to achieve a smarter data center. The publication describes preferred practices for deploying and using advanced Brocade Fabric Operating System (FOS) features to identify, monitor, and protect Fibre Channel (FC) SANs from problematic devices and media behavior.

The book presents fabric design considerations, explains how SAN technology works, and describes IP SAN concepts.

The PDF contains BROCADE recommendations and guidelines for configuring a Storage Area Network (SAN). It includes several reference topologies and also provides pointers to products/solutions from BROCADE partners that can be used to implement the target configuration/solution.

A PDF of the slides of OpenVMS V8.3 Storage Features, a presentation delivered by Manfred Kaser or HPE on the IT-Symposium 2007.

A series of articles describing the functions of logical unit numbers (LUNs), their correct implementation on a system, and how to use them to manage storage.

PDF of a presentation by Greg Guthman about managing a 3PAR storage connected to an OpenVMS environment.

Non-English Resources

French

Articles on DCL programming, security, system management, and an OpenVMS hacker guide.

Gérard Calliet's blog on porting the Ada compiler to modern architectures.

German

Various articles on OpenVMS system management and interaction with EFI (English and German).

Free accounts on a VAX, a few ports to OpenVMS and other products, and some tutorials in German.

Italian

Russian

An article about EFI, UEFI, and PI. Contains information on UEFI images, platform initialization, UEFI tables and protocols, Device Path, EFI and Linux variables, the boot manager, booting Linux in UEFI mode, booting PXE, installing CentOS with PXE boot, fast boot, EFI services, UEFI shell, UEFI Secure Boot, and some links on EFI including resources in English and Russian.

A forum-based UEFI FAQ on the * Forum. Talks about UEFI and GPT basics, explains SecureBoot concepts, and includes information on how to manually add UEFI boot menu options.

An article about UEFI (outside of the Linux context). Contains a BIOS vs. UEFI and MBR vs. GPT comparison, differences in booting operating systems on BIOS- and UEFI-powered systems, explains SecureBoot concepts, and describes some UEFI features, including possibly harmful actions.

A series of articles on UEFI internals, standards, security, reverse engineering, and UEFI NVRAM.

An article that discusses SAN on a high level.