Upgrading to 11i

[Edgar_8]

Hi,

Does anyone have any procedures for an upgrade of HP-UX 11 to 11i.

Thanks!

[Ravi_8]

Hi,
I would prefer cold installtion rather than upgrade as it leads to several problems.

here is the guide to upgrade
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5187-1827/5187-1827.html

[Edgar_10]

Hi,

We plan to upgrade to 11i from 11.0 but need consensus of the following:

1.Oracle 8i & Omniback 3.50 is installed, would a clean HP-UX 11i install require a clean install of Omniback & Oracle?

Thanks in advance!

[Jakes Louw]

A "clean" install would imply a re-install of EVERYTHING.
Attached is the 11.0-to-11i upgrade process that we followed.

[Francis_12]

Hello,

The upgrade from HP-UX 11.0 to 11.11 is no problem.

Concerning the application bits you are referring to, Omniback and Oracle 8i have the same bits for 11.0 as for 11.11.

For instance, if you noticed it, the OB/DP patches are the same for 11.11 and 11.0. To my knowledge, the Oracle 8i cdroms are the same for 11.0 and 11.11 (but not for 10.20).

There should be no problem by upgrading. Nevertheless, as for all ugpgrade procedures (whatever the OS is), please ensure that you have a decent recent backup of your datas and a good ignite in case of failure somewhere.

Ensure also that your kernel tunables have the same values before and after the upgrade.

Hope this helps, Bye.

Francis DERDEYN - HP-UX ASCE.

[Francis_12]

Hello,

I forgot one thing. Upgrading is one thing but "supportability" is another thing :-)

Check that your hardware is totally compatible with 11i :

- some HW cards are no longer supported on 11.11
- some servers needs a firmware PDC upgrade for instance)
- there are more resources changes to go to 11.11 (memory, swap, etc...)

To do that, go to

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/5187-3614/5187-3614.html

and click on 'install/update requirements'

and read carefully everything.

Hope this helps, Bye.

Francis DERDEYN - HP-UX ASCE.

[Steven E. Protter]

Here is my upgrade procedure and I'm not trying to be a smart-a--.

Backup all the data.

Do a cold install.

Reinstall applications

Restore and convert data.

Why? Because in spite of improvements in a lab setting HP Atlanta the upgrade failure rate was 35% in 2002. The more complex the system the harder this is going to be.

Its not a Windows Upgrade, and experienced admins will tell you cold install.

You'll learn more anyway.

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I consider myself to be a slightly experienced HP-UX admin and I find the 11.0 to 11.11 upgrade to be rather straightforward (unlike the 10.20 to 11.0 which almost never worked). The real key to the upgrade is to have plenty of spare space in / and /stand -- which can't be expanded 'on the fly'. If you built 11.0 with anything close to the default sizes for / and /stand then your only option is a cold install.

In any event to get OB2 back just like you have it:
1) Shutdown OB2.
2) Use a conventional (tar, cpio, fbackup) backup to backup /etc/opt/omni and /var/opt/omni and make sure that you have a copy of your custom /opt/.omnirc.
3) swlist | lp and note the OB2 patches.

4) Install OS + OS Patchsets
Install OB2
Install OB2 patches listed in swlist
Install OB2 licenses

5) Shutdown OB2
6) Restore /etc/opt/omni, /var/opt/omni, and /opt/.omnirc from your previous conventional backup
7) Start OB2.

[Marco Santerre]

I've done a couple of upgrades in the past and found them to be rather straight-froward. General consensus is that you'll have a "cleaner" system if you cold install 11i as opposed to upgrading.

Just a few things you might want to watch for that I found the hard way. Trusted Mode : It's better to actually unconvert your system prior to doing the upgrade. Predictive : If you have that software currently loaded on your system, it's better to remove it prior to doing the upgrade. For some strange reason, the upgrade process cannot remove Predictive and it causes the swconfig during the boot process to just hang.

As for your Oracle database, if it is located on a VG of its own, you shouldn't have any trouble recovering it whether it's a cold-install or an upgrade

[Edgar_10]

Hi All,

Thanks to all for the invaluable feedback!

[Jakes Louw]

Points would be nice.....

[Francis_12]

Hello,

I've done recently a 11.0 --> 11.11 AND MC-SG OPS upgrade on a 2 nodes cluster *online* and it worked. No down time.

So, as usual, 99.999% of the work was preparation (checking supportabilities, application bins, etc...).

Hope this clarifies, Bye.

Francis DERDEYN - HP-UX ASCE.

[Todd McDaniel_1]

I have to disagree with my esteemed MB colleagues... Esp the esteemed HP employees, who seem to offer the "safe" way to do everyting, which I have no problem with btw... it can be good to know the best practice in some cases.

IMHO, Cold installs are saved for major releases... ie 10.x to 11.x. However, in the case of 11.x to 11i. I must disagree...

Earlier this year I upgraded several boxes from 11.0 to 11i and had absolutely no problems...

Just ensure that you load all the packages that you will need like JFS online, Mirror/UX and the like.... and upgrade your filesystems to version4 as well... Make sure that you load the appropriate 32/64 bit OS for your needs.

I must say that if you have reservations of doing a cold install on such a minor upgrade. Then have no fear of doing an upgrade instead. Very simple to do, and straightforward.

I experienced no problems whatsoever.