Lab Walkthrough

A real Alpha, running
right on my desk.

No slideware. This is the actual environment I teach from — an emulated AlphaServer booting real OpenVMS media, talked to at the SRM console level, running Oracle Rdb on top. Here's what that looks like end to end.

$ show lab/status _

AXPbox Alpha Emulator startup, mounting OpenVMS disk images

01 — Booting the Emulator

AXPbox: a real Alpha, virtually

AXPbox emulates actual AlphaServer hardware closely enough to run unmodified OpenVMS and Oracle Rdb media. Here it's mounting the OpenVMS 8.4 disk image straight off ISO — the same media you'd load on physical Alpha hardware.

SRM console P00 prompt on an AlphaServer ES40 console

02 — Talking to the SRM Console

Below the OS, before it even boots

Before OpenVMS ever loads, the AlphaServer firmware — the SRM console — tests memory, checks the disk array, and waits at a P00>>> prompt. This is where you set boot devices, diagnose hardware, and issue the boot command by hand.

OpenVMS booting from scratch after a boot dka0 command at the SRM console

03 — OpenVMS, From Scratch

Watching the OS come up, live

A "show device" to confirm the boot disk, then "boot dka0" — and OpenVMS V8.4 takes over from the firmware, initializing HWRPB, page tables, and machine state before startup even begins. This full sequence is exactly what a mentee walks through hands-on.

SQL and RMU session connecting to an Oracle Rdb database on OpenVMS

04 — Inside Oracle Rdb

The database that runs on top

Once the OS is up, SQL attaches to the Rdb database, RMU confirms the version in play (V7.3-300), and "show sys" reveals the RDMS_MONITOR process quietly keeping the database alive in the background.

Oracle Rdb RMU Performance Monitor locking dashboard

05 — Watching the Database Breathe

RMU's Performance Monitor, live

RMU's real-time monitor gives a menu of dashboards — I/O, locking, checkpoints, hot standby — updating every few seconds. This locking dashboard is exactly where you'd start diagnosing contention on a busy production system.