HP OpenVMS 8.x manual Initialize Option, Preserve Option

1.4.1.1 INITIALIZE Option

When you specify the INITIALIZE option, the following operations take place:

•All software and data files that already exist on the target disk are removed. The software can only be recovered from a backup of the disk, so make sure that you either have a backup or will not need the data again.

•The operating system is installed.

Specify the INITIALIZE option and perform a full installation under any of the following conditions:

•If your computer is new (it has never had any version of any operating system running on it, including factory-installed software).

•If your computer is already running a version of the OpenVMS operating system and you want to overwrite the entire contents of the system disk (the operating system, application software, and user files).

•If you want to keep an existing system disk and install OpenVMS on a different disk.

•If you are running the OpenVMS operating system but cannot upgrade. For example, if you changed the names of system directories on the system disk, the upgrade procedure will not work correctly. Therefore, unless you restore the system disk to its original directory structure, you must reinstall the operating system using the INITIALIZE option.

NOTE: During initialization of an OpenVMS I64 target system disk, the installation process creates a diagnostic partition, visible only at the console prompt. For more information about this partition and options you can take, see Appendix I (page 269).

For systems that support the Instant Capacity (iCAP) feature, CPU status (how many cores are available and how much time they have remaining) is not affected by initialization of the system disk. Such information is stored in NVRAM on the Integrity server.

1.4.1.2 PRESERVE Option

When you specify the PRESERVE option, the following operations take place:

IF ...

The OpenVMS operating system is not already installed on the target disk

THEN ...

•The operating system is installed.

•All other contents of the target disk are retained.

The OpenVMS operating system is installed on	The operating system is upgraded, as follows:
the target disk	•	Old operating system files and new files are merged or replaced.
	•	All other contents of the target disk are retained.

NOTE: If you intend to choose the PRESERVE option (because there are certain files on the disk that you want to retain), HP recommends that you first make a backup copy of your system disk. If there is any problem during the installation or upgrade that might affect the integrity of the disk, you will have the backup copy as a safeguard.

If you choose the PRESERVE option and choose a target disk that already contains the OpenVMS Version 8.3-1H1 software, you are provided with the option to either reconfigure or reinstall the OpenVMS operating system:

•Reconfigure the operating system if you want to change the options you chose to include when the operating system was installed.

•Reinstall the operating system if you think that your system files might have become corrupted.

For additional configuration information, see Section 7.11 (page 136).

34 Getting Started