Pursing Sys Admin on HPUX

[Shivkumar]

Dear Sirs/Madam;

I want to pursue career as hpux system admin and want to be on the safer side from the job perspective (i mean i should be able to get job anywhere in developed countries in any market scenario). As the technology is changing and tough economy is forcing the business houses for cheaper solutions with regard to servers/operating systems also.

Sometime i think as the global economy is moving on the internet; business houses will be forced to adopt higher end servers/operating solutions rather than cheaper ones. Because higher end servers like hpux superdome are scalable and are designed to provide non-interruptive business.

Currently i think as a system admin i should have in depth understanding on hpux, backup software and san based disk arrays. Other areas i am not aware of.

I would appreciate if some seasoned and experienced system admin gurus of this forum can share their thoughts so that i can decide on the selection of right technologies.

Thanks,
Shiv

[Victor BERRIDGE · Accepted solution]

Hi Shiv,

Well your point of vue may seem common sence but I doubt the IT direction to have some some days...
Another alternatives would be grapes of blade servers and in this case I believe SUN is a better deal (only because its far cheaper...)

And since HP isnt very serious in its marketing strategies many companies would look at IBM P690 and followers because if you announce that you have to migrate and change of plateform what to go from PA-RISC to IA64 what is stopping you to change altogether especially if on the other side the vendor offers more for less $$$$

I tend to have accepted a philosophical point of vue:
The most important is to understand what and how UNIX works (the basics of OS, ths can take some time...) from then on its more a question of flavour (of course I prefer HPUX - it was my first love - I started my unix life with hpux followed by linux 099.118 ...) but with a clear understanding of what an OS is and its architecture the safe side would be :"Im a highly qualified unix system administrator maybe with more experience under HPUX but I can adapt...".


IMHO


All the best
Victor

[Steven E. Protter]

As someone the job market myself(hint hint Israeli's), I have the following advice:

1) Diversify, learn Linux, because it is the surging up and coming OS due to its low license cost.

2) In HP-UX learn the following:

Disaster recovery/backup with Ignite-UX(Essential)

LVM Logical volume management(urgent)
VXVM Veritas volume management(HP may standardize on it).
Serviceguard Clustering or whatever technology its upgraded too.
Npar/vpar
System Patching SD/UX
System Security, bastille, add in products, Bill Hassell's numerous lectures on the subject.
Learn the hardware, Sysadmins always have to do diagnosis to get the hardware people to show up.

SEP

[Himanshu_3]

Hi Shiv,

I am with what Victor has said and truely believe that if you have to basic understanding of one unix system, it would not be difficult for you to work on any of the varients. I my case we are working on HP-UX, AIX, SCO and the basics for all are almost the same.

As a system administrator, its always good to have control over both hardware and software as the combination is deadly !!!

Regards,
Himanshu

[Ranjith_5]

Hi Shiva,

As per the current market trands, the following selections wont be bad,before that Try to complete HP0-091- the basic system administration certification from HP if you like to go with HP-UX.

But frankly speaking AIX professionals have got better market rate ( in terms of salary). My persnal experience is , I like HP-UX than any other OS.

1. UNIX with C/C++ /perl( assuming that you have a programming background).Develop skills on shell scripting.

2. UNIX + Data Storage Solutions
3. UNIX + Enterprise Backup Solutions ( veritas Netbackup/Tivoli/Data Protector etc)

4. Superdome Administration ( You need to be very thorough with the hardware architecture concepts, vPAR,NPAR etc for this.)

5. Capacity Planning Experts.

6. UNIX-High Availability experts ( M/C Service guard/HACMP/Veritas Cluster)

By the way dont get confused by reading all these options. Take time and think about it. Select the stream which you really enjoy, because enjoying your work is really important.

But complete your HP-CSA certification ( HP0-091) if you havent done yet.


Regards,
Syam

[Shivkumar]

Dear Sirs/Madam;

I had some apprehension learning linux. I have worked on Red Linux version 6.1 for almost 2 years in the past. I came to realise that knowing linux will not give a sys admin job anywhere in the world unless one is developer also. The reason is linux is accessible freely and extremely easy version of all unix. It is like windows where almost no amdin job exist nowadays. Most of the developers who developes the codes also maintains those boxes.
Also i have experienced that scalable, robust, secure, and most advanced unix may not be available as cheap as linux. Let us remember that ibm mainframe has proved as the fastest data cruncher and predator in dataprocessing arena. Initially, i struggled like anything and no one offered me job for Linux Admin. On the other hand there are jobs for PA-RISC HPUX, IBM pSeries and zSeries etc. I find it difficult to grasp that linux would be able gain the might of hpux superdome or higher end ibm unix. Please note that i am thinking in terms big enterprise solutions. Linux appears to be more vulnerable and comparatively weaker flavor of unix.

Please educate me in case i have formed some misconception or gathered outdated/ incorrect information.

Thanks,
Shiv

[Devender Khatana]

Hi,

I would not find any reason to stop you from taking this decision. Like many others HPUx is my first love as well. I worked on many hardware and OSs including WINNT, Novell Netware 4.11, SVR4, SCO 5.0.5. But still like HPUx the most. My current job includes working only for HPUx OS as well as hardware. Knowing your hardware on which your OS runs in very important in system administration, so include that also in your plan.

Still I assume that apart from having expertise in one of the fields in HPUx you should also work on Linux or some other flavour of unix. By this you will be more safe from job prospective.

HTH,
Devender

[Ranjith_5]

Hi Shiva,

You can easily develope your skills on HP/AIX if you are having systems with you. No matter you are getting to play on those. By the time there are lot many courses from HP including practical sessions. Considering the benefits that you gain out of it, it wont be a loss for you at any point. HP/AIX trainings are very costly compared to Sun since the first two requires specific hardware to get it installed.


Here are few curriculam path which is offered by HP on HP-UX stream.
http://www.hp.com/education/sections/hpux.html

Assuming you are in US, here are the training centre locations. Go through the link below.
http://www.hp.com/education/edu-centers/edu-centers.html

Please let me know your exact location so that we ca help you better. Many of our ITRC leaders are there in US itself.


Regards,
Syam