Running old Unix on new workstation

[Alex_130]

I have an old HP9000 system running UNIX 9 (PA-RISC based hardware)
I need to upgrade the hardware, and I am thinking about a B2600 which has a similar architecture(I think), but newer.
Do you know if it is possible to run UNIX 9 on such a new system? Or perhaps on an other new system?
I know it is a bit of an ackward question, but HP will definatelly say it is not possible so I have to find other ways to
find out if it is possible. I don't want to upgrade the UNIX version, because I know then that the applications running
on the system will not work anymore.

If hope anyone could help me here.

Thanks in advance...

[T G Manikandan]

b2600 supports 32 bit versions.

Then it should be quite possible to install hpux 9 version.

Thanks

[Pete Randall]

While it might work, I don't think it's too likely. See Bill Hassel's comments in this thread:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xde5f28c64656d71190080090279cd0f9,00.html


Pete

[Pete Randall]

The better option in the long run, would be to install a current O/S (HP-UX 11i) and try migrating your applications one at a time while you've still got the old box to fall back on. I was able to bring many of my old apps from 10.20 to 11 to 11i with no changes at all.


Pete

[melvyn burnard]

I believe it will not work, due to newer hardware that 9.x will not recognize.
If you get it eworking, best of luck, if not, then you are stuck I am afraid

[V. Nyga]

Hi,

I think Melvyn is right - here you can see which hardware will definitly run with UX 9:
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/printerfriendly.cgi?in=/workstations/products/unix/operating/support_matrix/update.html

Which system do you have running?

Regards
Volkmar

[Herve BRANGIER]

Hi

I tried to use old UX11.00 OS Core (99 november)
on a b2600 : it doesn't work fine because
graphics drivers. On UX10.20 you need the
last release to work already due to graphics.

But UX9 is not maintain so I think you can't
use it to run b2600.

Herve

[Dave Unverhau_1]

Alex,

Volkmar, Pete and Melvyn all make excellent points (and you can take anything that Bill Hassel says "to the bank"!

Beyond 9.x's lack of compatibility with a PA-8600 CPU, it has no idea how to talk with PCI devices, nor did ultra-SCSI exist when 9.x was an active o/s, so I think your chances of getting it to work are nil.

Pete's suggestion to run the old box with 9.x in parallel with the B2600 and trying to migrate the apps is probably your best bet.

...and "thanx and a hat tip" to Volkmar for the link to the hp-ux update matrix - that's a handy one!

Best Regards,

Dave

[Frank Slootweg]

Please let us know why you think that the applications will not *work* on a newer HP-UX version.

Often application vendors do not *support* old applications on new HP-UX releases, but that does not neccessarily mean that they do not *work*.

Lots of people are very happily running very old code on new HP-UX releases. For example I have 13 year old code, probably from HP-UX 7.X or some such, which happily runs on the latest and greatest HP-UX 11i.

[keith persons]

Alex,

All prior remarks are accurate and reliable - another perspective that may help is backward vs. forward compatability. Your original question is essentially asking if 9.x is forward compatable with hardware that did not exist at the time of the release of 9.x. Forward compatability is not possible in sw releases, anything that might work is purely coincidence.

It is possible you might get it to work (most everything in sw is possible with enough time, effort and hacking) but not as the sw was shipped - you would need the source code and some idea of the proprietary code necessary to drive the newer hardware - needless to say, very, very expensive with low probability of success.

As for your original app, the version you have probably won't work on anything past 9.x due to the IO subsystem convergence initially implemented on 10.0 and continued on subsequent releases.

If you can't effectively migrate the app/data to a newer OS release, you choices are have the application ported to a newer version or convert to a comparable application for the newer hardware.

Sorry to echo the bad news, but your options are severely restricted.

Keith