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HP-UX

Overview

HP-UX is HP’s implementation of Unix. It was first released in 1986, and ran at that time on the HP 9000/500 series driven by HP FOCUS CPUs.

HP-UX up to version 9.x was an Unix with a very strong BSD-flavour (and supposedly very similar to HPBSD), from 10.x onwards the system became more System V-style. Up to version 10.x there were different releases for the HP 9000/700 workstations and 800 servers, each ones needed different install media though programs compiled on either would also run on the other.

HP-UX 10.20 was a very popular version, since it runs quite smoothly on older systems and was generally a very unbloated release with support for most of the distributed hardware. Due to the supposed Y2K problems of HP-UX versions below 10.x HP decided to make a free 10.20 upgrade media set available for all owners of a workstation (not server though).

From version 11.00 onwards, identical media and releases could be used for the servers and workstations (700s and 800s), the two main 11 releases are 11.00 and 11.11 (11i). These versions are quite slow on older systems and even newer ones require a good amount of RAM to work smoothly. 11.x was also supposedly the first true 64-bit version of HP-UX, it supported the full 64-bit features of machines based on PA-8x00 64-bit CPUs.

HP-UX 10.20 for 700s

It is reasonably fast on all machines with at least 64MB RAM. With CDE more than 128MB is definately a good decision. With the introduction of 10.20 HP-UX shifted to a more System V-like Unix, in contrast to versions up to 9.x with a stronger BSD flavor. HP-UX 10.20 is pretty straightforward to configure and install. Almost all admin duties can be carried out with sam the system administration manager, like adding devices, configuring the kernel, X-server, network and mounting filesystems.

System requirements

References

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HP-UX 10.20 for 800s

This version of HP-UX includes special device drivers and other components specific to Series 800 servers. This release should run on most PA-RISC servers with at least a PA-7000 CPU. Similarly to the 700s release, some newer 64-bit systems are not supported. 64MB of RAM should be the minimum amount to get the system running, more is probably better.

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HP-UX 11.00

Version 11.00 is HP’s first Unix to implement a full 64-bit kernel. Nevertheless, it still runs on a number of systems featuring a 32-bit CPU. All HP 9000/800 servers with at least a PA-7000 should be supported, although some expansion options have been discontinued for those systems. Official support for HP 9000/700 workstations was only continued for those systems featuring at least a PA-7100LC CPU. With careful review of the newer OS patches older systems with e.g. PA-7100 and PA-7150 CPUs can also be made to run 11.00.

The last 11.00 HP-UX version reported to run on 735 and 755 should be from March 2000. This also means that the latest "HP-UX General Release Patches" that do not hose the 735/755 are also from March 2000.

11.00 can run in either 64-bit or 32-bit mode on systems with a PA2.0 CPU (e.g. at least PA-8000) or in pure 32-bit mode on all PA1.1 CPUs.

System requirements

References

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HP-UX 11i (11.11)

Version 11i (or 11.11) is the latest HP-UX release for PA-RISC based computers and extends the hardware support from 11.00 to more high-end systems as e.g. SuperDome featuring up to 128 CPUs. As this is the current active HP-UX release most patches and available software are geared towards 11i.

With the release of this version the concepts of different Operating Environments (OEs) was introduced to target systems with different roles with appropriate software and OS collections. The HP-UX 11i Operating Environment (OE) is the smallest collection for normal workstations and servers. It is a subset of the Enterprise Operating Environment (TOE) which contains software and features aimed at larger servers. This in fact is again a subset of the Mission Critical Operating Environment (MCOE), which contains even more software needed for building large clusters and server systems. Another set are the Technical Operating environments, aimed at workstations for CAD/CAM and development uses. The smallest set is the Minimal Technical Operating Environment (MTOE) which in fact is a subset of the Technical Computing Operating Environment (TCOE) which contains more software for development purposes. The OEs are available as CD sets but can be installed via an Ignite-UX server. The 11i CD sets are made available bi-annually, newer releases always include the at that point actual patch sets and software enhancements.

System requirements

The list of officially supported systems was reduced even further compared to 11.00, the support for older systems was phased out in favour of new systems and hardware devices. The support matrices from HP in the References section below state which systems are officially supported; the [computers] index page and the particular model pages here in turn list which HP-UX releases are known to work, even if unsupported. In most cases officially unsupported systems are able to run 11i, though sometimes installing can be complicated. It is also needed to carefully review the OS patches on older systems as some SCSI patches can break the system. Since some newer release already contain these patches older 11i release have to be used for some of these older systems.

11i generally has the same requirements as 11.00, although 256MB of RAM is the bare minimum for a graphical environment. Some systems though run faster with 11i then e.g. with 11.00.

It has to be noted that some I/O-subsystems and devices aren't supported anymore in 11i. EISA is not support with a 64-bit kernel or installation.

References

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Software for HP-UX

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References

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