Error updating from 11.11 to 11.23

[John Huck]

I have a system that is currently running 11.11.0612.
The media for 11.23 that I have is at 11.23.0609

When I run update-ux it gives me this error, meaning that my DVD media is earlier than my existing OS. Is there any way I can work around this error without reordering media? Thanks

ERROR: You are attempting to update from your release of HP-UX to a version
of HP-UX that was released earlier in time. This is not supported.
The update process has stopped without making any changes to your
system. Please see the 'Supported Update Paths' section of the HP-UX
11i v2 Installation and Update Guide for more information.
ERROR: Pre-Update script DOWNDATE_CHECK.001 failed.

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

Make a full backup of your current system and thoroughly document any volume groups other than vg00, so you can re-import them.

Then perform a "cold" install of 11.23 (totally overwriting your 11.11 system's vg00 volume group).

If you've set up your system properly, the application data will be on volume groups other than vg00, and you can just re-import them, re-create the mount points and mount them back to where they used to be.

Then restore some selected parts of that full backup: the application directories that were located on vg00 and everything under /usr/local can probably be restored directly to their original locations as long as you don't overwrite anything.

The old /etc/, /sbin/init.d/ and /sbin/rc?.d directories should be restored to some different temporary location, compared with their 11.23 versions and *only* the application-related startup and configuration files (if any) moved to their original locations.

It's definitely more work than using update-ux, but according to the veterans here, a cold install seems to be a much better guarantee of success than using update-ux in any case.

MK

[John Huck]

Thanks, yes, that is one possiblity. Luckily this is a new system and doesn't have any applications on it yet.

I have other reasons for wanting to use update-ux, though, which is why I'm still looking for a solution that will allow that, even if I have to re-order media.

I've read the posts recomending cold-installing over update-ux and I disagree with that being a viable upgrade policy. In all but the most trivial environments it would be almost impossible. Installing and patching Lawson from scratch, for example, is a multiple day exercise. Having that much downtime simply for an OS upgrade is silly.

Thanks for your response.