SHIFT pa-risc itanium

[Yogeeraj_1]

Dear Experts!

to a recent post of mine, which is available at:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=949338

(Patrick, please allow me to quote)
Patrick Wallek said:

The rp model boxes have PA-RISC based CPUs. This is the CPU that HP developed and has used for many many years in its HP3000 and HP9000 lines of servers. The current PA8900 CPU is the last PA-RISC CPU. The rp machines will eventually stop being sold, though I don't know if any dates have been announced for that yet.

The rx model boxes use the ITANIUM CPU that has been co-developed by HP and INTEL. These boxes have the ability to run HP-UX, LINUX or Windows (if you must!). This is where all of the R&D is going and the direction is taking with HP-UX.

I would suggest that anyone looking to by any new machines look at the rx series of machines if your applications will work on them. I *think* most major vendors have now ported their applications to be Itanium compatible.

If you must run PA-RISC applications, HP-UX on Itanium has a PA-RISC emulator, called Aries, that will allow most PA-RISC apps to run on Itanium machines.

Itanium is definitely the future.


I am currently investigating about possible upgrade paths for my rp5430 servers.

Moving to the Itanium from the PA-RISC for my Oracle Database is BIG question mark for me!

Already gone through the following two important documents:
1. Oracle Applications 11i 11.5.9 split configuration installation with applications tier on PA-RISC Server and database tier on Itanium®2-based Integrity Server - May 2004.
(http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com/abstract.aspx?docid=100421&promo=999222&kw=itanium+oracle)
A white paper providing the detailed steps to use when implementing Oracle Applications 11i in a split configuration, where the applications software runs on an HP-UX PA-RISC server and the Oracle database (9.2) server runs on an HP-UX Itanium® 2-based

2. http://otn.oracle.com/tech/hp/PA-RISC_to_Itanium_wp.pdf
A paper describing the step required to move an Oracle database instance from a PA-RISC server to an Itanium® 2-based server


Do we have any figures on how many people have moved their databases from PA-RISC based systems to Itanium one? Any experiences that you want to share?


thanking you in advance for your replies

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Gavin Clarke]

We have rp4440's which replaced L-classes, at present I'm very happy with them.

Just thought I'd put my oar in.

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
We are just buying some new machines.
These will be RX models with Itanium CPU.
We have a RX4640 in test at the moment.
Pretty good and fast. But we already had to replace a voltage regulator module and a memory carrier board.
Another point is booting from Ignite tapes.
You need a medium like a bootable DVD / CD
to start the machine, then hand the boot to the tape. Reason is the structure of the Intel cpu's. If you do not have an Ignite server, that may become a problem.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[TwoProc]

I got reference calls from two different companies a while back. One was a large company running HPUX 11.23 on Itanium for their database backend apps only, they migrated the applications tier(concurrent managers) that used to be on HPUX 11.x PA-RISC to run distributed on the RH 3.x Linux middle tiers. This method sounds attractive to me as the concurrent managers themselves don't consume much cpu - it's really the database jobs that they spawn on the DB tier that require the large memory footprint and cpu cycles. This company loved the performance.

The other company had more of the conventional split - DB and applications tier (conc managers) on the same large HP Itanium box, and the middle tiers on RH 3.0 Linux boxes. But, here's the interesting twist -> the OS on the HP Itanium Box was RH Linux also! I found that quite interesting, but I think I would prefer the stability of HPUX for my main db side. They too love the performance of their DB server.

Just giving you two versions of what I've learned of concerning that next step that many of us are faced with.

[Geoff Wild]

If you can extend your parisc time - I would...The next generation Itanium is due end of this year (or early next?).

I know for us, that is what we are doing...

Rgds...Geoff

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi all,

thank you all for your precious replies and sharing your experiences.

More feedback would be most welcomed.

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Hein van den Heuvel]

The oracle database software was one of the earliest of the now 5000 applications ported to the itanium (native, no aries).

It was, and probably will remain, one of the most analyzed and optimized ports.

It is your safests entry into the the itanium world as it often needs minimal (none?) completer apps.

Furthermore there is 100% compatibilty on both the API (SQL*net) layer and the storage layer. No need to change the client code / libraries. Just take of the old network address, or point TNSnames to the new server.
For the data itself, just copy your (raw if you like) db files over and use them. Or if appropriate, just connect your existing storage to the new box and use it there.
And yes you can (but will not ;-) switch back without conversion also.

Yes, you can hold out for the 'next generation'. But maybe you want to get going now and eventually upgrade. Perhaps by the time a newer model Itanium server becomes available the current server can find a different place in your solution landscape?
It is much that 'new calculator' problem from 30+ years ago we had: I need one now, but next year they will be cheaper and better. What to do oh what to do. But contrary to back then you are more likely to find something useful to do later with a solution bought now.

fwiw,
Hein.

[morganelan]

From my HP local support engineer, they said that HP not fully support integrity system and still maintain PARISC generation that has been issued would end with PA-RISC 8900, and if HP stop produce PARISC and turn to IPF (Itanium).If this schenario really happens, i think many HP Customers will turn to linux OS that can running on HP Itanium platform???

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi Yogeeraj

I know of an Oil & Gas Company running SAP based applications on PA-RISC has recently tested their applications & Database functionalty in SAP environment with Itanium server and did not have any issue except Oracle & SAP Licensing for Itanium which was sorted out by vendors

Regards
Mahesh