Why should I upgrade to 11.0?

[Ted Flanders]

I am running HPUX 10.20, with very few problems. I need to convince my boss to let me upgrade to 11.0. His point is, "if its not broke, dont fix it." I cant come up with any reasons as to why not upgrade. I think SAM is more user friendly on 11.0. Our software will run on 11.0. Is it worth the hassle of upgrading my system or should I just stay where I am at?

[Berlene Herren]

Hi Ted,
More information about the capabilities of 11.0 can be found in the release notes
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B3782-90716/B3782-90716.html.

If the decision is made to upgrade, you can find instructions at
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90679/B2355-90679.html

I know this doesn't really answer your question, but maybe looking at the enhancements offered at 11.0 will help.

Berlene

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Ted:

Here's a document that addresses that very question:

http://www.hp.com/visualize/programs/hpux11/tools/transt.htm

...JRF...

[Ted Flanders]

Thats exactly what I was looking for James, thank you! I tried giving you points several times, but I keep getting a 404 error. I will come back and assign your points later.

[CHRIS_ANORUO]

Ted,

I go with James, his link just hit the nail on the head. Bear in mind that the general consensus on this forum is to do a cold installation of HPUX 11.0 and not upgrade from 10.20 to 11.0 because of the numerous problems encountered. make a recovery tape using Ignite UX and do the fresh installation.

[Ted Flanders]

Thanks Chris, thats what I have been reading on the forums. It is better to do a fresh install, instead of the upgrade. But I appreciate the reminder because an upgrade, to me, would be safer and easier. But since I am short on experience and long on my own opinions, I will take your advice on this matter. Once again......thanks everyone.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Ted:

I'm glad you found the document helpful. Chris's point is very well taken too. Here are some other comments (opinions) that I hold, and offer for your consideration. I use the word "upgrade" in the most general sense; here, mechanistically independent.

Choose the time for an Operating System (OS) upgrade to your advantage, as well as your organization's, if you can. I prefer not to be the "first-on-the-block", but rather wait for some stabilization of a release.

If you have developmental servers, these are ideal as the first candidates. If you don't, have development boxes, choose servers that are the least mission critical, first.

Regardless of the server, if you have a slack period in your workload, that's a perfect time to upgrade. Choosing a period of otherwise light work gives you time to explore and leverage new features as well as a less-pressured period to resolve problems.

Be proactive. If you anticipate an application, database, or hardware upgrade, update the operating system well beforehand if there is a concomitant requirement. I like to stay current with OS releases (platform aside) in order to be able to be positioned to upgrade hardware without simultaneously upgrading an OS. It's obviously easier to be able to swap hardware while running the same software versions than to have to upgrade both.

With regards for a Happy New Year, Jim.

...JRF...

[Ted Flanders]

Havent I also read that 11.0 has a memory leak problem? If so, has that been fixed. I have one server that I work with and one test box. I will definetely do the testbox first. Will all of the custom scripts still work in 11.0? Like lsl does the same thing as ls -l.
I have to check out uniplex, visi-fax and double vision to make sure that they are compliant. Since I only have one server, it all needs to be done over a weekend. Including the above software installs. How long does it take to do a fresh install and move an 8gb database back, roughly?

[Bruce Regittko_1]

Hi,

Installing HP-UX 11.00 off a CDROM takes me a little over an hour on our lab's D220's. If you have third party apps. that need to be reinstalled, plan on longer, of course.

As a rule thumb, when estimating the time required for maintenace, I take my best guess, double it, convert to the next highest units, and add 1 :).

--Bruce

[Bill Hassell]

Ted asked:

> Havent I also read that 11.0 has a memory leak problem? If so, has that been fixed.

I don't know of any specifically but I would always install 11.0 followed by the SupportPlus CDROM, HWCR patches first and then GR patches. New with 11.0 is the MatchPatch feature in swinstall...makes for very reliable patching.

> I have one server that I work with and one test box. I will definetely do the testbox first. Will all of the custom scripts still work in 11.0? Like lsl does the same thing as ls -l.

Of course. POSIX and ksh are industry standards along with the majority of section 1 and section 1m commands.

> I have to check out uniplex, visi-fax and double vision to make sure that they are compliant.

I run VSI-fax on a 10.20 server but AFAIK it runs 11.0 just fine. Remember that this isn't anything new...11.0 was released in Nov 1997!

> Since I only have one server, it all needs to be done over a weekend. Including the above software installs. How long does it take to do a fresh install and move an 8gb database back, roughly?

There is no need to restore the database back. A cold install creates just the vg00 partitions. After patches are completed, yhou can use SAM's (very useful) VG import feature to restore the database. (this assumes your database is on separate disks, even better, separate I/O channels) If not, make that change before you upgrade.

[Haitham Hamad]

I am interested in the link that james posted (Reply #2) but I keep getting 404 error. Is the link still valid, please point me to the correct one otherwise.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

I think the revised link you are looking for is this:

http://www.hp.com/workstations/products/unix/operating/index.html

Regards!

...JRF...

[Haitham Hamad]

Thanks a lot James, I wish I could assign 10 points to you from this thread :)

HHH