Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

2356.0. "Fast (less slow!!) ALL-IN-1 installations/upgrades" by MEOC02::SMITH () Thu Mar 04 1993 08:44

    ALL-IN-1 Installers,
    
    Have you noticed that the slowest part of the ALL-IN-1 V3.0 installation 
    seems to be the stage where it says "Files will now be moved to target 
    directories..."?
    
    This can take several hours on a 3 VUP processor and a significant
    amount of time even on a fast CPU.
    
    The problem is that when ALL-IN-1 system files are not located on the 
    system disk, VMSINSTAL moves each file (one at a time) from [.A1030]
    in SYS$UPDATE to the ALL-IN-1 disk using BACKUP.
    
    You can monitor progress by counting the files in this directory with
    DIR/TOT SYS$SPECIFIC:[SYSUPD.A1030].   It starts at about 3,000 files
    and gets down to about 200 files before the upgrade continues with
    other work.   In fact, I use that to decide whether there's time to go
    for a pizza or a full meal!!!
                                     
    This is a slow process, largely because it takes a lot of time to
    invoke BACKUP 3,000 times.   I tried INSTALLing the BACKUP.EXE image
    with /SHARE/OPEN/HEAD and then going to another session and typing
    BACKUP LOGIN.COM LOGIN.BCK/CONF.  This makes the BACKUP image shareable
    and the other session keeps it in memory.   This procedure made a
    slight difference (I think) but not much.
    
    A much better idea is to use the "alternate working directory" feature
    of VMSINSTAL.   If you have enough space, use the ALL-IN-1 disk to hold
    the files produced by VMSINSTAL.   Then, when the files are moved
    VMSINSTAL, simply does a RENAME for each file.   This is much faster
    and the whole process on a 3 VUP system takes around 45 mins.
    
    I know that this is the opposite of what you expect - you think that it
    will take longer because all the work is done on the one disk.   It
    probably does make the early stages a bit slower but the overall time
    is much less.
    
    To use the AWD option:
    
    @SYS$UPDATE:VMSINSTAL A1030 disk:[A1030.KIT] OPTIONS AWD=al1_disk:[INSTALL]
    
    where disk is the kit device and al1_disk is the device for your
    ALL-IN-1 system.
    
    If you're in a hurry, give it a try.
    
    Andrew Smith
                                                                 

What a clever idea!

I use AWD because i don't have any space on my system disk, but using
it to speed up installations is brilliant.

Cheers,

mb

    Please note that the ALL-IN-1 Patches and Options e.g WPS-PLUS v4
    or v3.0-1 or K605 etc do not support the use of AWD as has been
    discussed many times before.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    I second .1's view, that's a really brilliant idea. Perhaps we can use
    it here to speed up our installation testing!
    
    Graham
    
    PS Of course if we could get VMSINSTAL to work faster...

    Hello,
    
    Great. Moving files on a 3100 Model 80 took less than 45 minutes. 
    Whole 3.0 upgrade about 2 hours. 
    
    I was so exited about the idea that I forgot to install the
    prerequisite parts of DECwindows for CDAPAT011 so I still lost
    most my saturday. But what the hack. Better than digging the garden.
    
    Regards,
    
    Jan

    Last night we did an update installation of the latest Base Level of a
    Posssible Future Release, and the time on a 256Mb 6340 using RA90s went
    down from about 8hours to 3hours 40 minutes!
    
    I only wish we'd thought of this about a thousand test installations
    ago!
    
    Graham

    Fresh installation on a 3100 model 10 : 2� hours.
    
    Hint to speed up post install of 3.0-1. Borrow STEP_2 of 
    OA$LIB:A1$POSTINSTALL.COM to compile and install form libraries 
    and TXLs. Saves lots of typing.
    
    Regards,
    
    Jan