Older-Timer (HP-UX): Installing OS on N-Class

[preston3271]

Hi, Everyone:

Go easy on me, as I am an old time HP-UX administrator who last touch HP-UX K-Class 580. Now after year of HP Openview, I need to go back to building OS's on N-Class and Superdome servers. I understand the Ignite-UX image blows down to new servers, but what if you are starting with one HP-UX server and have to build the OS up for scratch. Do you still use Ignite-UX or Logical Volume Manager to establish the boot disks and mirroring?

[Bill Hassell]

A K580 Ignite image is worthless for the Nclass and SuperDome. Simple Ignite images taken from an existing server are hardware specific, both CPU and I/O, so you'll need a real Install DVD for the new boxes. All HP servers are sold with media (DVD) so use that (or newer) to install the boxes. When you install, the advanced menu will have you LVM layout. However, don't use your K580 LVM layout for the new boxes -- they are probably far too small.

[preston3271]

I understand that I would not use the K-580 imaging for the N-Class. But, you did answer my first question for a fresh install of a standalone system. I would still use the Install DVD for the OS and I assume the Mirror-UX package to setup the boot disk for mirrored root disk. So, this is still all this same. I am not familiar with the zone hardware (Isolated OS Partitions). Could you point me to the starting place (documents) to learn more about this.

[Bill Hassell]

Disk mirroring is not standard with HP-UX. Mirroring, Online JFS and many other optional packages can be bundled into an operating environment. The fundamental or basic OE does not have these optional features. There are 3 actively supported versions of HP-UX, 11.11, 11.23 and 11.31 but the Nclass will not run 11.31. There are several models of SuperDome which will place datecode limits on older DVDs. Newer servers cannot be installed with old DVDs.

You'll need to inventory the DVDs that you have to determine whether you have the required versions and packages.

The Nclass has no partition capability. The SuperDome can be partitioned into separate computer systems using physical separation (cell boards and I/O chassis) or with optional (priced) software using vPars (virtual partitions).

There are plenty of docs covering HP-UX features. The marketing docs are very confusing:

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/us/en/os/hpux11i-partitioning-continuum-components.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Mostly because they ignore 11.11 and 11.23 and focus on Itanium (new hardware).

Here is a start:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Product.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=10008&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64255&prodTypeId=18964&prodCatId=391525&prodSubCatId=3197900

and
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodClassId=10008&contentType=SupportManual&docIndexId=64255&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=417289

The manuals have been reorganized (sorry about the ugly URLs) so you may have to do a lot of browsing to catch up. Here's a semi-useful doc to find HP-UX information:

http://docs.hp.com/en/Locating-HPUX-Docs-on-BSC-Guide.pdf