SUSE LINUX vs HP-UX

[ckchai]

Hi, My Current environment:-

1) SAP WAS 6.2.
2) Informix database
3) O/S HP-UX 11.11 64bits.

##The current system is running fine, but due to maintanance cost is very high for HP-UX platform. Our business unit is looking into SUSE LINUX platform to reduce the TCO.

Planning/ reviewing envinronment:-
1) SAP WAS 6.2
2) DB2 database
3) OS/ SUSE LINUX Enterprise.

Does anyone familiar with both platform? What is the disadvantage and advantage of both platform? Is SUSE LINUX ready for this enterprise application? And what HP-UX do,to counter this?

Please help. Thanks.

[Pete Randall]

You have already cited one of the main advantages of your HP-UX platform as a disadvantage. The fact that it is a rock solid hardware platform with excellent support directly from a highly reputable vendor makes it the near perfect enterprise application environment. True, it is expensive, but so is downtime caused by running on less reliable wintel based platforms running an operating system where your main line of support is a newsgroup.

It's your choice, but, for me, the choice is obvious.


Pete

[inventsekar_1]

Hi ckchai,

even though i am not familiar with ur problem, i am simply giving my view.

"The COST and SERVICE is always directly propositional to each other".

[Jaime Bolanos Rojas.]

Ckchai!

This is always a question that a lot of people ask themselves!
What is better, good linux that everybody knows and talk wonders about or HP-UX, with one of the biggest companies in IT in the world support it.
And the word overhere is support, no matter what OS you are running, you are going to get into troubles, it's at that moment that the company is going to start loosing money beucase of a hardware error or software error or a combination of both and your boss is going to want to kill you and then fire you :-)
If something happen to HP-UX or pa-risc box or itanium box, you just open a call with HP and they will fix it becuase they know their stuff, the levels of support are so many that HP will get the solution for you some how.
With Linux, you might have support from it, but it's not the same and will never be the same. Time to resolve an issue, could take a company out of the market.

Regards,

Jaime.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I'm sitting about to take the RHCE exam.

I will tell you honestly that HP-UX is stronger and more stable. You have to evaluate the situation carefully.

1) HP-UX hardware is more expensive. Especially on the PA-RISC side it is more reliable than wintel based PC. Also HP's service on HP-9000 and Integrity servers is far superior to the service provided to me in Israel and the US.

2) Linux is a younger, less stable platform. In my opinion even at the Enterrpise Level, it is being pushed to close to the envelope and the change cycle is too rapid.

3) The basic HP-UX license costs $300. You pay that once. While you make think Linux is free there are components and add ins that are not free. In addition the support per server is right up there with the cost of a software support contract on HP-Ux.

There are ways to make either server solution look expensive. Do a little cost benefit analysis, including the cost of moving to a new platform. An HP-UX to HP-UX migration is probably something you can handle with little outside help.

If they go Linux anyway, you'll be fine. Its moving into the Enterprise class well, just not the way I'd like it.

SEP

[Mancboy]

Hi,
you don't mention the hardware you are moving to. Will it be itanium or intel?
Also how old is the hardware? You shouldn't be paying more that $20K for a year's hardware maintenance. Average price should be about $6K.

I would also point out that Informix is much faster than DB2 - so I'd question any move away from a number cruncher like Informix. Also, the hidden costs to migrate will be a lot more than you will budget for.

Linux is one of the oldest Unixes out there, but owing to it's "geeky" upbringing, is still struggling with reliability.

For me, the only advantage Linux has got over it's younger cousins is that it has thousands of people, willing to sacrifice their time to write s/w for it - and also walk around the office, with "DEBIAN" on their tee-shirts - you know who I mean :-)

HPUX has had much more serious effort and money poured into it.

We run SUSE on Itanium alongside HPUX on Itanium and PARISE.

ALl the boxes stay up, but the support tools for SUSE are poor.

Cost wise, isn't HPUX free now-a-days? Whereas you'll pay through the nose for Enterprise SUSE - of course, you can try the beta-ware version which is free.

For me, assuming VMS isn't an option to you, I'd stick with what you've got. Review the situation in two years time.

If you want cheaper hardware and an industry supported Enterprise O/S - then try solaris. For me, it's the best UNIX out there. It's free. The hardware is cheap AND it runs on SPARC and Intel.

[Alzhy]

Shifting gears to Linux in lieu of traditionally more expensive UNICES like HP-UX, AIX and ertsthwhile Solaris 5/6/7/8/9 - has been making sense I would say in the last 3-4 years. Early on, the migrations were mostly for "edge" applications -- i.e. file/print, small web, messaging and database serving. But over the years, as the big 3 IT vendors made better "commodity servers" - the migrations shifted to mid-sized to large-scale implementations. Nowadays, Linux has both feet firmly planted in the Enterprise.

IT Research of Organizations of late have questioned whether the TCO dominance of Linux over Windows. While it may be that the gap has significantly narrowed - the same is not true for still proprietary UNIX implementations like HP-UX and AIX. With the commoditization of Solaris 10 - which now runs on hardware dominated by Linux and WIndows - the "UNIX-away" migration becomes interesting.

Performance is another matter - most X86-32 and X86-64 Linux/UNIX(Solaris 10)/Windows implementations simply outrun and out-TCO's similar implementations on proprietary UNIX implementations...

So the keys here for a successful migration are:

1. Compare the costs you will have on hardware costs and maintenance (the Linux platform you will choose) vis a vis continouance of your HP-UX system

2. Compare cost on software Licensing and support. Nowadays, the vendor support costs for Linux OS is up there with WIndows and even UNIX...

3. Make sure your shop has good Linux Talent on hand.


Good Luck.. FWIW.

[Duncan Edmonstone · Accepted solution]

Hi,

A couple of years old, but should provide some usefull info on this:

http://h20338.www2.hp.com/hpux11i/downloads/hpux11iroilinux.pdf

HTH

Duncan

[Silver_1]

ckchai,

Our setup has around 60 HP UX boxes and more than 100 DL's running Linux.

The HP-UX machines are pretty stable with 99.9 % uptime. Our downtime is only for patching.

DL with Linux, i will say 90-95%.

Some of the hpux servers, we have 15 oracle databases, it is just fine. On linux after 5, it starts to show its immaturity.

Hope this helps you !

[dirk dierickx]

linux works just fine, though i can't comment on Suse because i don't/never use it. it is true that Suse is more agressive in putting the latest tech into its distro and it is probably less reliable then RH because of this. On the other hand, you get the latest tools.

if the application is critical, it will be running in a cluster, so it doesn't matter that much if the uptime is 95% on linux on 99% on hpux (accroding to a previous poster, however here at my place of work, i would turn that figure around, we use RH though).