VSI OpenVMS V9.2 for x86-64 is the first production release for x86 that runs on VMware, KVM, and VirtualBox.
What is OpenVMS on x86
VMS Software, Inc. has migrated OpenVMS and its layered products to the industry standard x86_64 architecture to help customers protect their investment in OpenVMS infrastructure, especially in virtualized environments and in the cloud. OpenVMS V9.2 is now available to all VMS Software, Inc. customers; VMS Software, Inc. is working on the next version which will support even more environments and products.
For hypervisors on which OpenVMS has been tested by VSI, please scroll down to the bottom of the page. Information on the virtual machine hosts tested by VSI is provided below and in the release notes. If you need to compile and link your source code, you will need an Integrity server running OpenVMS V8.4-2L1 or higher because OpenVMS V9.2 does not have native compilers yet.
See lists of open source and layered products that work with OpenVMS here (filter by architecture to see those available on x86).
Service Platform
VSI Service Platform is used to distribute OpenVMS V9.2. Take a look at this video that explains how to use the VSI Service Platform to download software packages and report bugs (it was made for V9.1, but the same instructions apply for V9.2).
Documentation
CPU Requirements
- Intel x86 CPU
- 64-bit Instruction set
- NX processor bit (NX)
- Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 (SSE4.1)
- Virtualization Technology (VT-x)
- XSAVE instructions
- Time Stamp Counter (TSC)
- Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC)
- Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR)
Most Intel CPUs from 2016 and later support these processor features.
Optional Features:
- Process-Context Identifier feature (PCID)
- Extended Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (x2APIC)
- XSAVEOPT instruction
- FSGSBASE instructions
- Microarchitectural Data Sampling Mitigation (MD_CLEAR)
Tested Platforms
For more information on the versions, refer to the Release Notes.
Virtual Machines Tested:
- CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core); QEMU emulator version 2.12.0 (qemu-kvmev-2.12.0-44.1.el7_8.1)
- Linux Mint 20.2; QEMU emulator version 4.2.1 (Debian 1:4.2-3ubuntu6.21)
- OpenSUSE Leap 15.3; QEMU emulator version 5.2.0 (qemu-5.2.0-150300.112.4.src)
- Rocky Linux 8.5; QEMU emulator version 4.2.0 (qemu-kvm-4.2.0-59.module +el8.5.0+726+ce09ee88.1)
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS; QEMU emulator version 2.11.1 (Debian 1:2.11+dfsg-1ubuntu7.39)
- Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS; QEMU emulator version 4.2.1 (Debian 1:4.2-3ubuntu6.23)
- Workstation Pro V15.5.7
- Workstation Player V16.1.0
- Fusion Pro V11.5.7
- Fusion Player V12.2.3
- ESXi V6.7.0, V7.0.2
- VirtualBox 6.1.x
For a list of Windows settings required to run OpenVMS as a VM guest on VirtualBox installed on a Windows host system, visit our wiki.
Note: VSI does not impose any limitations on any virtual machines running OpenVMS with respect to the number of SCSI or SAS storage controllers. Please refer to the appropriate hypervisor configuration guidelines for information on SCSI and SAS storage controller configuration limitations.
Incompatible Virtual Machines:
* Warning! Recent releases of VMware vSphere 8 and VMware Workstation 17 Player are unable to boot OpenVMS V9.2. OpenVMS will crash early in boot with an INCONMMGST bug check. We recommend that you avoid upgrading to these versions of vSphere and Workstation Player at this time. A fix will be available in the next release of OpenVMS.
Questions?
Check out our x86 Port Q&A or contact us.