HP9000 N4000 Server upgrading

[Clark Halstead]

Good day,
We have a HP9000 N4000 server with 6xN-Class 440Mhz PA8500 CPUs. 3Gb RAM and HP SureStore E Disk System FC10. HPUX-11.
Can the curent CPU boards be taken out and upgraded to faster CPUs? PA-8700 for example? or do I have to purchase a new server. It would be nice to keep as much of the existing hardware as possible.
We need to install new software (including HPUX-11i) and the current configuration is under powered.
Thanks in advance.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Clark,

A5866A HP PA-RISC processor upgrade kit - Includes one processor 550MHz PA-RISC 8600 with 1.5MB cache and attached heat sink

You can upgarde to PA 8600 550 Mhz procs.

Best regards,
Robert-Jan

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Clark,

You can uprgade to 550MHz cpus.

Try partsurfer.hp.com

http://partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/main?sel_flg=partlist&model=N4000&HP_model=&modname=9000+Server+-+N4000&template=main&plist_sval=Processor&plist_styp=subcat&dealer_id=&callingsite=&strsrch=&keysel=Processor&catsel=%3F

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

Hi Clark,

It is no simple answer. The answer depends on your N4000 base product number. You can read the product number on right side of the chassis.

N4000 base product number A3639A supports 360MHz and 440MHz PA8500 CPU's. If it is yours case, you can upgrade the server by adding 2 additional 440MHz PA8500 CPU's.

N4000 base product number A3639B supports 360 and 440MHz PA8500 CPU's as well as 550MHz PA8600 CPU's. In this case you can just remove existing 440MHz CPU's and install 6x550MHz CPU's A5866A. If you want to install 8x550MHz CPU's you must buy one additional processor support module (one for two additional processors) A5168A.

The base N4000 products A3639A and A3639B have different system board.

You can also add memory. It depends on your current configuration. N4000 can have max 4 memory carrier boards (A4882A), each carrier board can have 4 memory modules:

- A3763A 512MB memory module (2x256MB DIMMs)
- A4923A 1GB memory module (2x512MB DIMMs)
- A5864A 2GB memory module (2x1GB DIMMs)

You can look at the link for availability of processors, memory modules and memory carrier board:
http://invtoday.bbndirht.external.hp.com/invtoday/it/inventory/category?categoryId=20099

Regards,
Zygmunt

[Jesse Dougherty]

before you go and buy a bunch of 550MHz CPUs's to stick in there.. you need to upgrade your back plane board or make sure its the one that supports the 550MHz PA-RISC 8600 CPUs. The system board you need for the 8600's is A3639-69420 or A3639-60020, the one for the PA-RISC 8500's is A3639-69706 and A3639-60006

If you want to upgrade to the PA-RISC 8700 CPUs, it would probably be cheaper if you just bought an RP7400 and moved your memory & disk over rather than upgrade your existing N4000 server.

Hope this helps

[Bernhard Mueller]

Clark,

when you say the system is underpowered,
first: are you really sure it is a CPU issue?

from your config my first guess would be to check memory pressure and disk IO.

second:
as the others said you could upgrade (with a system board swap) to 750MHz CPUs, however, before you do that you should consider the follow-up maintenance costs as well. Also the FC10 disks tend to be expensive regarding expansion and maintenance.

also, if your FC cards are A3704, note that they are not supported with HP-UX 11i.

Typically in such a scenario, if you consider investment and maintenance cost over two to three years, you will be better off with e.g. a new rp4440 with 3 dual core CPUs, 8GB RAM, and a SCSI RAID contoller with an MSA30. And it comes with 11i pre-installed

Regards,
Bernhard

[Tim Sanko]

Underpowered is a relative term. Before you evaluate upgrades, or buy anything I would play with the tuning.

Well, I fixed a badly running K box that had 3 large oracle DBs on a sym3430. By changing tuning parameters I reduced transaction time by 90%. That's right 90%. You can also look at the ndd properties. The performance improvement wasn't enough to keep the box that much longer, but the 7420 that the DB was later moved to has ***GREAT*** performance. I tuned it and things were so fast there was little measurable difference.

If performance is an issue tune first...

Run sar and graph your memory and CPU load. If you have issues after tuning, Some can be application related. Youmah have to shoot it and go to an rp74XX at 900 MZ. It can cost less than the maintenance with maintenance for the next three years on an older box.

Tim Sanko

[Ted Buis]

The upgrades for the N4000 are no longer in production by HP. The A3639A was upgradeable to the A3639B or to even the A3639C (rp7400). It might be possible to find used or remarketed parts. However, I would suggest you ask HP for a quote for an rp4440, as it could be faster and have a longer life (better investment protection). If your system is under software support, you should be able to transfer software licenses. Also, this allows for more time to make the move from 11.0 to 11.11.

[Clark Halstead]

Thanks for all this input here! This has really helped. The application usage on this box increased 4 fold over the last 2 years. Turns out that we now have 8 CPU's in the box. I have been trying to work out the TPM-C value for this server but I am seeing some difference in values for a single CPU. Is it true to state that a single PA-8500 CPU has a TPM-C value of around 2443 ???? Or is it higher. If this is the case, then I probably need more than what 8 x 550Mhz CPU can give. I'm looking at the Itainium2 running HPUX 11i.

Any more help would be great

Thanks in advance

Clarkey

[Jesse Dougherty · Accepted solution]

If your looking for a ball park on the HP-UX itanium integrity, this one goes for 7k

1x A6837A HP rx5670 with 2 x 900MHz CPU
1x A6746A HP 2GB RAM
1x A6747A HP Memory carrier
2x A7049A HP 36GB 15k disc
1x A5557B HP DVD
1x A5556A Rack-Kit
2x BA503AC HPUX licence

hope this helps