Second hand Servers?

[Andrew Austin]

Good evening,

I want to purchase a second hand box capable of running HP-UX 11i v2 and would also, if possible, like it to be able to support vPars (two vPars is sufficient).

I need a sand box purely for education and experience, so it does not need to support applications, just the OS and partitions.

What model and price am I looking at?
This will have to come out of my own pocket :(

Thanks,

Andrew Austin.

[marie-noelle jeanson_1]

Andrew,

You can see the platforms that support vpars on 11i v2 on the vpars release note for 11i v2:
http://docs.hp.com/en/6768/vpars.rn.ed100.a0401.pdf

Details from the release note:

vPars A.04.01 supports these Integrity servers (requires firmware upgrade):
â HP Integrity Superdomes
â rx8620
â rx7620
as well as the previously supported PA servers:
â HP Superdomes (PA)
â rp8420
â rp7420
â rp8400
â rp7410 and rp7405
â rp7400/N4000
â rp5470/L3000 and rp5405

Marie-Noelle

[Torsten.]

Andrew,

look for the last 2 (rp7400/N4000 and rp5470/L3000). These are the oldest - (best price for you), but I guess you will need external disks for vpars.

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

I'd take a L2000/L3000 system, definitely.

For VPAR You'll need above 2*512MB of memory, so maybe 1536MB, also I'm not sure if You can split the Core I/Os scsi channels, so You'll be best off getting a second scsi/lan combo card.

But in my thinking it would be much more reasonable to get one A440 and order 'HP-UX virtual partitions' from amazon :)
There is not so much about VPARs to learn.
From the money You save You can go on a nice holiday, or go to the 'new' HP world and take some of the free exams.

If You want I can search out the notes from the VPAR workshop for You.

[Andrew Austin]

My thanks to those who have replied so far.

The bottom line is I am planning to go for HP CSA. I have a few years HP support, but there are gaps in my knowledge and the customer which I support has the older versions of HP-UX (11.0 and 11i v1) and L, N and equivalent renamed rp servers. There is a possibility that they are going to move some of their business critical systems off these older servers to newer, long-term supported servers. That will also mean a jump from HP-UX 11.0 to HP-UX 11i v2 and the possibility of vPars.

We do not have sand boxes to prepare for such a migration, and I would also like to further my HP knowledge hence my thinking about getting my own sand box to 'bone up'.

My copy of the HP-UX CSA: Official study guide arrived today from Amazon, all I need is a server to play with!

I will assign points soon.

[Torsten.]

regarding florian's answer: only the L3000 is supported with vpars - L2000 isn't. It's also supported to run hp-ux 11i v2. perhaps the best solution for you. But I'm quite sure you can all the internal disks only for 1 vpar, so you should think about the combo card.

[Bill Hassell]

I would be very cautious about migrating without sandbox or development systems. Modern OS versions do not have a good track record when it comes to upgrades. If the new system is going to be the sandbox for testing, then you'll be OK. HP provides excellent documentation through docs.hp.com as well as a number of great textbooks. And of course, you've found the ITRC Forums. Be sure to bookmark itrc.hp.com software.hp.com and partsurfer.hp.com for some useful locations.

[Mel Burslan]

Andrew,

L3000 is a good starting point for your needs. I have seen one on fleabay the other day selling for around US$ 1K but I am sure it is quite barebones. To enjoy the vpars, I think you will at least need an additional SCSI and and additional network interface as well.

Check the Ted Dasher website for used equipment availability and pricing at:

http://www.dasher.com

They are located in Birmingham, AL and I just noticed you are at the other side of the big pond, so I am not sure what to suggest over there.

[Raj D.]

Hi Andrew ,

You can buy RX4610 Server , Itanium. 4X800Mhz , 2GB.
From E-BAY.

Please check out the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hewlett-Packard-HP9000-RX4610-Itanium-Server-HP-A6447A_W0QQitemZ5799779982QQcategoryZ73322QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
--------------------------------------

Cheers ,
Raj.

[Torsten.]

RX4610? It was HP's first itanium box, right? First generation in itanium cpu's? I have seen a lot, but never this box.