Upgrading hp-ux 10.20 to 11.00

[Darren Cook_1]

Hi,

We need to upgrade an Oracle database to 8.1.7 from 7.3.4.4, which requires an upgrade of the operating system. I am a DBA with only a small amount of sys admin experience and have a few questions that I hope all you experts can answer.
1) Is the existing software/data on the server be lost or is just the operating system upgraded?
2) How is the upgrade done? Any documentation that I should read?
3) Are there any pitfalls that I should look out for?
4) What is the difference between 32 and 64 bit? How can I tell what the current server is?

I hope there is not too many questions there!

Cheers,
Darren.

[melvyn burnard]

May I suggest before doing ANYTHING, read the documentation found at:
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/os/11.0/index.html#Installing%20and%20Updating

If you have limited experience, it may be worthwhile getting this done for you.

[Santosh Nair_1]

Darren,

First read the HPUX 11.0 Installation and Upgrade Guide. It has a section on how to upgrade to 11.0 from 10.20.

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5971-0642/5971-0642.html

As for the data, the only VG that should get affected it your root VG, typically /dev/vg00. None of your data should be affected. You might need to re-install some of the HP add-ons, i.e. OnlineJFS, etc., to the equivalent 11.0 versions.

Typically we've been vary of doing upgrades on the OS tending instead to do cold installs. But there are precautions you should take before doing this. This avoids all the baggage of older software, drivers, etc. But unless you're an experienced SysA I wouldn't recommend that you do this.

As for pitfalls, make sure you have at least the minimum free space requirement for the OS upgrade (referr to the documentation above). I would try to make sure that I have much more space than request just to be sure. Also make sure that your firmware is at least the minimum required.

The difference between 32 and 64 bits is as follows:

Support for larger memory space within applications

Support for more addressable memory in the OS

Support for larger filesystems.

Also keep in mind that the 64-bit OS can run both 64 and 32 bit applications.

Finally, 10.20 does not support 32 bits, but for 11.0 machines you can use the command getconf KERNEL_BITS to determine whether the OS is 64 or 32 bits.

-Santosh

[Santosh Nair_1]

Two more notes:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5967-3536/5967-3536.html

Instead of the link I mentioned before, use this...I believe its more current.

http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/onlinedocs.py?mpn=B3782-90785&service=hpux&path=../B3782-90785/00/00/1&title=Installing%20and%20Updating%20HP-UX%2011.0%20Additional%20Core%20Enhancements%2C%20November%201999

-Santosh

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Darren:

Here is a good guide to the whole process of installation. It is titled ?HP-UX 11.0 Installation and Update Guide? and can be found obtained in either html or pds format:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5971-0642/5971-0642.html

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/pdf/5971-0642.pdf

For 11.i see:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5971-2215/5971-2215.html

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/pdf/5971-2215.pdf

The collective experience of members of this forum has been that a cold-install is the easist and most-guaranteed of success. You will want to ?vgexport? your non-vg00 volume groups with map files before your install. A ?vgimport? after the installation of 11.x will then provide visibility of the disks and their data from the new OS. As always, however, you should make good backups of everything as insurance before you begin.

Since your current operating system level is 10.20, it can only be a 32-bit server. The documentation cited above will show you whether your server only supports a 32-bit 11.x environment or will support either 32- or 64-bits.

For the cold installation, load the Core OS followed by the Applications, the Diagnostics and then the GR release patches.

Capturie key configuration files on a tape or a disk that you will ?vgexport? and ?vgimport? after the installation. You can ?diff? them and applying the parts from 10.20 that specifically customize the new 11.x templates as needed.

The essential list of configuration files that I "carry" along, include the following at least so I can easily reference them as I finalize my 11.x build:

# /.forward
# /.profile
# /etc/profile
# /etc/group
# /etc/hosts
# /etc/inetd.conf
# /etc/inittab
# /etc/nsswitch
# /etc/ntp.conf
# /etc/passwd
# /etc/rc.config.d/netconf
# /etc/rc.config.d/netdaemons
# /etc/rc.config.d/nfsconf
# /etc/resolv.conf
# /etc/sendmail.cf
# /etc/services
# /etc/shells
# /etc/shutdown.allow
# /var/adm/cron/*.allow
# /var/adm/fbackupfiles/*
# /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*
# /sbin/init.d/

Make an Ignite 'make_tape_recovery' tape *before* you start. If all goes "south" and you want to return to ground-zero, you can. Another, perhaps less obvious, advantage of the 'make_tape_recovery' is that you get a copy of vg00. You can always extract (albeit slowing) a file from the tape that you forgot to include in your list. This includes the mapfiles for all of your volume groups, which makes like easier when you go to 'vgimport' volume groups after the installation.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Marcin Wicinski]

Hi,
I suggest to perform a cold install of 11.0 insted of upgrade. You should:
1. make a backup of existing system,
2. backup all customized configuration files:

/etc/group
/etc/passwd
/etc/hosts
/etc/rc.config.d/netconf
/var/spool/lp
/var/adm/lp
/etc/lp/var/spool/crontabs/root
/etc/inittab
/etc/fstab

3. execute vgchange -a n for all non-root volume groups and save configuration vgexport -s -v -m .map /dev/, then backup .mpa files.

4. Recover configuration from backuped files and dir and recover volume groups: vgimport -s -m .map

5. vgchange -a y for all non-root groups and mount filesystems.

This is only a brif and example, please read documentation and man pages.

Good luck,

[Santosh Nair_1]

In addition the files Marcin mentioned above, I would include /stand/system (to get kernel parameter settings), /etc/resolv.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf, /etc/shells and /etc/lvmtab (for reference).

-Santosh

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Darren:

If you use current Ignite software to capture your 10.20 vg00 configuration with 'make_tape_recovery' then you will have a gratuitous a system configurtion summary created for you:

/var/opt/ignite/recover/latest/manifest

This can be a valuable document during your 11.x installation.

Regards!

...JRF...