Why should I upgrade from HP-UX 11.00 to HP-UX 11.11 ?

[GIRIJA SWAIN]

Hi,

I have 8-way N-class servers running HP-UX 11.00 used as Iplanet webservers, and java based application servers. These are in dual node Mc Service Guard ver 11.09. I want to upgrade the OS to 11.11, but need to know, what tangible benefit one will expect out of this. Any discussion, case study or whitepaper will be helpful.

[harry d brown jr · Accepted solution]

PATCHES to KNOWN security, network, kernel, and IO vulnerabilities.

Remember what happend to M$ crap Saturday? That was because they failed to PATCH their servers.

live free or die
harry

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi Girija,

11i has more dynamic kernel parameters. Depending on the version of 11i you buy, there will be some softwares like apache, prm , serviceguard etc., packaged with the OS.

-Sri

[Pete Randall]

Frankly, I can't think of a definitive reason to upgrade - the differences are subtle.

The main thing is that doing it now when you can plan it at your leisure is a lot better than waiting until HP obsoletes 11.0 and then having to rush. I've been gradually moving to 11i for just that reason.

Pete

[Steven E. Protter]

11i(11.11) is more robust, more secure and more reliable.

It will cost you some time to make the upgrade but these benefits make a great OS(11.00) an even better OS.

As far as actual path to get there, don't run the migration process, go for cold install. With Service guard, you should be able to get away with taking the time. The success rate on cold installs is better than that for upgrades.

P

[Tim D Fulford]

If you use a database, Asynchronous IO in the kernel (KAIO)

The SMP (scalable Multi processing) is supposed to be better.

I also believe multiplexing of IO cahnnels

Depending on type (enteprise, base ..etc..) you can use VxVM

Tim

[GIRIJA SWAIN]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I agree on the point of FIX for known security issues in 11i. But my problem is to convince the developers with this. Is there some benefits like performance enhancement, stability, scalability ?

[John Bolene]

stability is found with the new dynamic kernel parms starting in 11.11 and continuing in 11.22

If you think you are going to go to 11.11, then consider just going directly to 11.22

And these are all called 11i.

[Patrick Wallek]

John - 11.22 won't run on a PA-RISC box. 11.22 (aka 11i v1.6) is for Itanium machines only.

[Martin Johnson]

You should also look at the products you are running on your system. Some of the latest releases may require 11i.

HP has mentioned in the release notes of OpenView Operations (OVO, aka VPO/ITO) the next major release will not be supported under 11.0.

HTH
Marty

[John Poff]

Hi,

We've upgraded some of our big database servers to 11i. I like the dynamic kernel parameters. Also, to move to some of the newer hardware you'll have to run 11i. We ordered a couple of rp5470 boxes recently and they were supposed to come with 750 Mhz CPUs. We need the boxes to run 11.0 and not 11i, and we found out that the 750Mhz CPUs will only work with 11i, so we had to drop back to slower CPUs. Not a big consideration if you plan to be on the same hardware for a while, but moving forward it will be something to think about.

JP

[Pete Randall]

Security issues can be addressed by patching no matter what the release is. Keeping your system current with patches is vital whether it's 11.0 or 11i.

One thing you might want to be aware of is that memory usage shows a dramatic increase in 11i. Make sure when you upgrade that you're not tight on RAM to start with.

Pete

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

One *small* thing I did not see yet: 11i updates are available on DVD, so you can upgrade all your software at once, without the reboot need between the different CD's

Enjoy, have FUN! H.Merijn

[Dietmar Konermann]

From a kernel perspective scalabitiy is the key. 11.11 scales better, epsecially when you go beyond 16 CPUs.

[Juan Manuel López]

And What about the upgrade process ?
I have seen many people telling there are a lot of problems with it.

Juanma.

[Dietmar Konermann]

Usually I point people to the Software Recovery Handbook. Chapter 7 deals with 11.11 upgrades. Most people have problems with the upgrade simply because they ignored the preparation steps.

http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/iv/node.do?node=prod%2FWW_Start%2FN1%7C16
http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/iv/node.do?node=prod%2FWW_Start%2FN1%7C16

Best regards...
Dietmar.

[sysadm_1]

Hi Girija,

Some points about 11i,

In 11i most of the kernel parameters are dynamic.

In 11i rebooting of server after loading softwares and patches are very less compared to 11.0

11i Supports partitioning.

11i with same hardware configuration performs better than 11.0(As per 11i release notes)


Shaji

[Todd McDaniel_1]

One more thing...

I remember something about more and more kernel parameters changes that can be made dynamically and with future releases an increasing list of kernel parms that can be changed dynamically without a reboot.

Also, that 64bit system can run both 32 and 64 bit applications.

_________________________________
Most importantly, I think I remember something about the year 2038 and the 32bit thing running out of memory?