Some Documents and Links on VMS and OpenVMS.

- Note: some pdf's or ppt's might take some time to load.

As VAX VMS existed for many decades now, you won't find it very often anymore. But there are still quite a few places,
where (the newer) OpenVMS 7.x / 8.x, is the basis for critical applications.
VMS (for DEC VAX machines) was first released 1977. In 1992, it was renamed to OpenVMS and it was also rewritten
to run on DEC Alpha (64bit) machines. DEC (Digital Equipment Coorperation), was thus the original manufacturer.
Current versions of OpenVMS are 8.x, but 7.x versions may still be seen as well.
Quite some time ago, DEC was acquired by Compaq, which itself was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP).


As a few other facts: Did you know, for example, that the good and stable parts of NT,
was "borrowed" from (Open)VMS? Likewise, the NT filesystem "NTFS" is almost completely derived from ODS5 (files-11).


Other things are quite amazing as well: a concept like "clustering" was quite natural to inplement on (Open)VMS,
even more than 25 years ago! Now, just compare that fact with any other OS.
Also, carefully designed systems even allow for "Disaster Tolerance", which is a higher level than "Disaster Recovery".
No doubt it's one the best OS'ses ever build.


Page is under construction...


-- 1. Our own short notes:

Older, very simple text file, describing some common OpenVMS commands (v.6)


-- 2. Some (dated, but still valid) Introductions and Overviews in VAX and VMS:

VAX overview (1)
Primer users's manual VAX VMS
Overview VAX models (from netBDS)
Full Overview VAX models (from netBDS)


-- 3. Some Introductions in OpenVMS:

The OpenVMS User's manual (1)
The OpenVMS User's manual (2)
The OpenVMS OS (1)
Booting OpenVMS (1)
(Wellknown) OpenVMS FAQ (1)
Architecture (1)
Undocumented stuff (1)


-- 4. Some References: (pdf's, ppt's, docs, links)

Quick view cluster architecture
HP OpenVMS 8.3 Systems Documentation
HP OpenVMS 7.3 Systems Documentation
OpenVMS System Manager's Manual
HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation (v 7.x)
Compaq's OpenVMS Documentation
HP OpenVMS whitepapers


-- 5. Some pdf's:

OpenVMS 8.x Roadmap (1)
OpenVMS 8.x Roadmap (2)


-- 6. Nice stuff:

fafner.dyndns.org: Site of a VMS fan, and you can obtain a VMS account on his machines as well!


Free access:


Free access to OpenVMS systems is also possible at:


  1. "poetry.homelinux.org": Use a telnet client (like putty, reflection etc.. port 17023),
    using the restricted guest account LUTHER (no password)

  2. "deathrow.vistech.net/webssh.shtml": Here you can choose to start a "webssh" session to, for example node, "gein".
    logon with the restricted account "DEMO" with password "USER".



Last update: 15 June, 2010