HP-UX on non-Integrity machines

[Cosmin Pascu]

Hello all,

I'm having an argument with some colleagues and i turn to you for some help.
They want to install HP-UX on non-Integrity machines for educational purposes. AFAIK, it isn't possible to install/run HP-UX on virtual machines or non-Itanium hardware but they say they have found some HP desktops that support it.

Is it possible to install/use HP-UX or anything else than Integrity Servers? (virtual machines, other hardware etc).

Thanks a lot and sorry for the stupid question,
Cosmin

[Lijeesh N G_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

HP-UX is hardware dependent OS and you can install it in the following server platforms. Its not like desktop OS.

HP9000 PA-RISC, rp/SD series Servers
HP Intergrity Itanium rx/SD series servers.
HP Inetgrity Itanium BL series Blade servers.


Regards,
LIJEESH N G

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Cosmin,

You can install HP-UX on PA-RISC systems and Integrity Systems.

Sales of PA-RISC systems ceased December 31 2008, though they are still widely available on the used system market.

Regular Wintel Servers, no go, HP-UX will not install.

SEP

[Ganesan R]

Hi,

If i am not wrong, your colleagues might have talking about HP workstations which will have VGA card connected with monitors like desktops.

You can run HP-UX on workstations.

[Steven E. Protter]

Additional note.

There never was an Integrity based workstation.

There are PA-RISC based workstations and HP-UX 11i up to version 3, may run on them. Most of what I have seen will not run more than 11.11 11i v1.

There are a few people who have managed to get 11.23 to install on some of the more modern workstations.

SEP

[Cosmin Pascu]

Thanks for your answers Lijeesh and Steven, that's what i said to them :)

However, i thought there may be some HP-workstation that has an itanium/pa-risc CPU that i've never heard of (like those IBM Power workstations from some time ago).

Ganesan, from what you're saying it seems like you're talking about thin clients and from what i know the thin clients' OS is installed on the server so they're not really "running" HP-UX

[Cosmin Pascu]

@steven

i missed your reply as i was writing my own.
I think now that the problem is solved and this is the workstation he was talking about:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF05a/12132708-12132710-12132832-12132832-12132832-12132846.html

Do you have any idea if HP still sells them?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom again Cosmin and thanks for the points.

I received a memo from HP announcing that the sale of PA-RISC systems was to terminate on December 31, 2008.

This system is PA-RISC and I believe it comes under this memo.

This system is pretty modern and you probably can find them on Ebay. There might be a few of them lying around, you will have to talk to your HP rep about that. I don't know how strict HP is about these things.

SEP

[Ganesan R]

Hi,

Check it here..

http://www.hp.com/sbso/busproducts-workstations.html

[V. Nyga]

Hi,

this c8000 is the last sold pa-risc workstation.
As SEP said, it was sold by HP till December 31 2008.
You still get them as used ws from some reseller.
I've not heard that HP still sells any, but formerly HP also sold 'remarketing' (used) ws.

HTH
Volkmar
P.S.
But you can't say that this is a 'HP desktop' - it's a quite big maschine :-)
P.P.S.
More infos about older pa-risc workstations (also 'desktop' ones):
http://www.openpa.net/systems/

[Torsten.]

>> There never was an Integrity based workstation.

Not correct. There were several some years ago.

For example the zx2000 and zx6000 Itanium workstations.

[Steven E. Protter]

If the two workstations Torsten pointed out are Itanium 2, they might be a good alternative, though they were discontinued before the workstation you linked was discontinued.

I do not believe HP sells any Unix workstations at all. That is a shame. You can use a low end rx class server though.

This is interesting:http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1218774



SEP

[Torsten.]

As said, old hardware:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11664_na/11664_na.HTML

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11665_na/11665_na.HTML

[Olivier Masse]

AFAIK, the zx2000 and zx6000 are equivalent to the rx2600 but as they are workstations, 11.31 is not officially supported on these systems, only releases up to 11.23. Some people here in the forums have been able to boot 11.31 on itanium workstations, but I've seen reports that the USB keyboard and/or graphical display don't work. Maybe if you don't set the VGA port as the main console and use the serial port off the BMC instead, it might be able to work correctly as a server.

If you're lucky, you can get your hands on a rx2600/rx2620/rx2660 converted to a workstation, I think the name is "Office Friendly" server or something like that. It has quieter fans, a different bezel, and a pedestal. While these might be considered as desktops, they're as bulky as a server.

The least expensive way to run HP-UX on a good-enough machine is to grab a rx2600 off ebay. They ran for a few thousand bucks last time I checked. Assuming you have the correct license, you can even upgrade it with lots of third party memory to run VMs.

Good luck

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Hopefully last time for me in this thread.

http://docs.hp.com/en/AB419-9000C/AB419-9000C.pdf

See page 19.

There is a video card in the thing. If you don't mind the noise, you can use it as a workstation. You'd probably be violating workplace noise guidelines.

It also has an ilo card and could be controlled remotely via a Java/https interface. But this is not good enough for doing common workplace tasks like running CAD/CAM or complex IDE compile environments.

The thing is going PA-RISC is going with technology that will not be able to run HP-UX 11i v4, and is already obsolete.

SEP

[rick jones]

HP-UX is neither supported, nor likely works in anything but an HP-supplied system with either Itanium or PA-RISC processors (*). Which revision of HP-UX works where is a matter for another discussion.

Indeed, HP's HP-UX workstations, either PA-RISC or Itanium-based, are now long off the CPL. The closest thing to an HP-UX workstation today would indeed be an rx2660 in an "OFS" or Office Friendly Server (tower) configuration. It replaced the rx2620 OFS offering which itself replaced the rx2600 OFS offering. I recall seeing some rp3410's (PA-RISC) in "tower" configs but I do not know if those were official OFS offerings or someone "leveraging" the commonality of the chassis between the rp3410 and the rx2600.

(*) unless one wants to go WAY back to the days of workstations based on Motorola 68K processors :)