How to find system install date ?

[Jerry_109]

HP-UXB.11.11 9000/800/A500-7X


Hi Team,

We need to get system installed date for my servers. Does any one has suggestion on how to get system installed date (May be OS installed date will be system installed date)? Please send me your suggestion(s).

Thanks
Jerry Sims
415 565-1630

[Mel Burslan]

unfortunately this does not get recorded anywhere on your OS. Your best bet is to call HP and ask the transaction history or installation date depending on the serial number. They should have racked it for you. Right ? Then they have records of it. No way that I know to retrieve it from a command prompt though.

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

Try this:

# swlist -l bundle -a date | grep HPUX

The date that shows for HPUXBaseOS should be the date the OS was installed on the system.

[Torsten.]

Hi Jerry,

look for some "contiguous" log files, like

/var/adm/shutdownlog

This may give you an idea of the install time.

HTH

[Olivier Masse]

If nobody ever cleaned wtmp, "last" should go on until the first boot.

You can also look in /etc/default/tz (timezone file), unless someone changed it since the install or the system was ignited, the file date could give you an idea.

[Cem Tugrul]

Hi,

could you please try this command?

print_manifest|grep -i created

Good Luck,

[Cem Tugrul]

an example from my pruduction server;

baan01:/archivedat/kast#print_manifest|grep -i created
NOTE: Could not read the /etc/resolv.conf file.
The system was created March 28, 2003, 16:33:14 MET.
It was created with Ignite-UX revision B.4.2.121.
baan01:/archivedat/kast#swlist -l bundle -a date | grep HPUX
HPUX11i-OE Fri Mar 28 17:32:30 EET 2003
HPUXBase64 Fri Mar 28 17:32:30 EET 2003
HPUXBaseAux Fri Mar 28 17:32:30 EET 2003

Good Luck,

[TwoProc]

Jerry - you can pretty much figure it out by trolling around in var.

Look for corresponding evidence of:
What is timestamp of /var/adm/diag dir?
What about the link for /var/adm/rc.log?
/var/adm/shutdownlog /var/ifor /var/obam /var/parmgr /var/stm /var/stm/config /var/stm/tools /var/stm/key_file /etc/dt
/etc/rpc, /etc/vue, /etc/switch, /etc/switch/setboot.

Also, look in /etc - there is probably a boat-load of symbolic links in there for commands pointing off to real locations ( backward compatibility with old HPUX versions). All of these probably have the same date, and these links would have all been created the day the OS was loaded.

Basically, if you see the same date for almost all of the above, that is more than likely the date of the OS install.

[Sandman!]

Either of swlist or print_manifest commands should work. The swlist command will tell you the time the OS was installed while the print_manifest command reports the system ignition date.

# swlist -l bundle -a date | grep -i hpux
or
# print_manifest | grep -i created

regards!

[TwoProc]

Good posting cem. The print_manifest is a made-to-order solution. Interesting to poke around with it. A "strings" on the executable shows references to the following:
/var/opt/ignite/local/manifest/template.def
/var/opt/ignite/local/manifest/manifest.info
/var/opt/ignite/local/manifest/manifest.oinfo

All of the above files are text. It looks like the "print_manifest" command just shows you what is in manifest.info file.

Interestingly enough, you can see what you ORIGINALLY had in the box by looking at manifest.orig file - it's interesting to compare that to the contents of manifest.info that is current.

[RAC_1]

swlist -a install_date HPUX11i-OE OR
HPUXBase64 Or HPUXBaseAux

[Cheryl Griffin]

There is no one fileset that can give you the install date of the system. The problem with looking for one particular fileset is that most can be updated by upgrades and installing patches.

In addition to the swlist commands already given you could also try:
# swlist -l product -a date
# swlist -a install_date
# /usr/sbin/swlist -a create_date | grep HPUXEng64RT

Look for the earliest common date.
Not the best way, but the only way currently.

[Marlou Everson]

You can also look at the file install.log in /var/opt/ignite/local. This is the install log from the last time the HP-UX was installed using Ignite-UX. It has all the steps that were done to install the OS and how long it took. So if the system has not been "re-installed" since you got it, this is like its original birth record.

Marlou