HP9000 Class D upgrade from HP-UX 10.2 to 11.0 / Harware conflict

[MAD_2]

I am working on an upgrade of a HP9000 D380/2 server from HP-UX 10.2 to 11.0

While revising everyone's notes on previous forum discussions and beginning my own, I found out a lot of good information:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xe25cc1c4ceddd61190050090279cd0f9,00.html

Although I am still in the pre-installation phase and have decided to go with a cold install, given all the problems forecasted by those who have tried the upgrade, I have encountered a couple of major issues to upgrade to HP-UX 11.0 64 bit:

1. Firmware: We currently have PDC Firmware Revision: 37.28, by placing a call to HP I found out that we will require a Firmware Upgrade to 42.11, they will take care of this.

2. This second problem is where I need advise... We currently have the following hardware installed:

Slot CFG File Contents
0 !HWPC051 HP Series 700 EISA System Board
1 !HWP1520 Hewlett Packard EISA Mux 64 Host Controller

I was told by an HP engineer that in order for us to even have the option to upgrade to 64 bit when the installation is done, the EISA MUX card must be disabled/removed.

Since we will also upgrade that server from Oracle7 Server Release 7.3.4.0.0 - Production With the distributed option (PL/SQL Release 2.3.4.0.0 - Production) to Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.7.3.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning option (JServer Release 8.1.7.3.0 - 64bit Production) we will need the 64 bit upgrade. We use the MUX card for modems which are used by an application (vsifax) for faxing. Although this will become our test server and maybe we will not be doing any more faxing, I would like to know if anyone has alternative suggestions to overcome this problem.

Has anyone encountered a similar situation? What other alternatives can we look at to set up a PM16-DB Port Module? The engineer also told me that we could not set up a PCI MUX like we have on our RP5470... Too bad, I guess.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Anonymous]

IF you want to go 11/64bit
THEN forget the eisa cards
FI

The reason behind is simply that there are no hpux 64bit drivers for EISA HW- makes sense somehow as the bus is rather slow.

have to admit I don't know what "PM16-DB Port Module" may be- if you just want to connect modems for faxing then you may still use the two build in serial ports for that (internal modem and UPS, max 19200baud).

[Angus Crome]

I believe you could use a SCSI MUX/Terminal Server (third party) to get up to 16 serial ports. It would have to be an HSC SCSI card that drives it though.
I used to use one on an SGI, years ago, but I haven't seen them any since '97. Ours were Central Data (bought through Qualix). I know they supported HP, SUN, IBM and DEC at the time.

I believe Central Data went out of business in Y2K, but Black Box or one of the other specialty companies probably carry something similar.

Once the tty's were setup, they acted just like another port to the OS.

[Dave Unverhau_1]

ADAM,

If you need to communicate with a number of serial devices, you might want to look into a DTC. The smaller, less expensive ones are the DTC 16TN and DTC 16RX, with 16 serial ports each. The DTC 16RX is the newer version, configured via TFTP. The software used to configure the DTC 16RX is DTC 16RX Manager, which is an extra-cost software product.

The HP product number for the DTC 16MX is J2064A and the DTC 16RX Manager is J2964A (or B). The DTC 16TN is a J2060AZ. Remarketed (used) DTCs sold by HP will have an "R" appended to the end of the product number.

You can probably find DTC 16 RXs or TNs on the used market at a reasonable price, but you still need to license the DTC manager software (I think).

If you go looking for a DTC, you want to avoid the DTC 16iX, as this model is intended only for use on HP3000 (MPEiX) systems.

Best Regards,

Dave

[Dave Unverhau_1]

I forgot to mention, these are LAN-based devices, so they don't require a slot in your system and, therefore, aren't bus-dependent.

[MAD_2]

Angus and Dave, you two seem to understand exactly how to go around this problem. And Thomas, yes that is my problem, that EISA card that now I have to remove!

Your replies provide me with some possible solutions and I will look into them.

The SCSI MUX/Terminal Server (third party) to get up to 16 serial ports would really bypass the situation, Angus can you provide me more details if you have them?

And Dave, communication with a number of serial devices is exactly the goal. I forgot to provide more details when I started this thread:

1. We have an RP5470 already running on HP-UX 11.0/64 but it has a PCI MUX card, the card is used by a DB-25 Port Module (PM16-DB - 16 ports which has a DB-25 to RS-232 interface), is used by some modems we have for an application (VSI-FAX from ESKER) to fax reports.

2. The HP9000 Class D also has a MUX card and also used the same type of DB-25 Port Module (HP Part J2485-60010) but the card in the HP9000 is an EISA and not PCI. There lies the problem, I will have to actually disable the hardware in order to be able to load HP-UX 11.0, but by doing that we are left with no parallel alternative at the moment.

Angus and Dave just provided some for us to research about.

[MAD_2]

Oh, by the way, Angus and Dave, if I do go with any of your ideas (Dave's looks like possibly the best way to go!!!), I will come back to this forum once I am done to post another reply asking you of you to do a short reply to get the 10 pts. Thanks for you wise input!!!

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Let me give you one other way to approach the problem. You can set up a VsiFax virtual fax server on your D-box that communicates with an actual VsiFax server on another box (even a dreaded Windows box).

[MANOJ SRIVASTAVA]

Hi

Essentially the main issues you have will ervolve around the following :

1. 100 MBPS etherenet card this would need a non eisa card , because hpux 11.00 64 bit doesnt support Eisa , the possbile alternatives are use the inbulit 10 mbps port ( incase you dont need much data going across ) or use a 100 mbps non eisa card.

use this link to know th compatilbilites :

http://techsolutions.hp.com/fe/configs.html#config_files


the Mux will not work either.
But u can use the lan port of communication instead of fixed ports and alo if u neeed to used modems etc you can use the built in ports for the same job

Manoj Srivastava

[Darren Prior]

Hi,

Just to add a warning that the internal serial ports of the D class are not ideal for modem usage - both 9 pin ports (UPS/console) do not contain all the handshaking. I've seen instances where the modems work once, but then require the ports to be reset (ie powercycle the box!)

HP doesn't support modems on these ports.

regards,

Darren.