Archive
Patching a server using Dynamic Root Disk
Dynamic Root Diks, or DRD for short, is a nice and handy tool that IMHO every HP-UX Sysadmin must know. In an HPVM related post I showed how to use DRD to clone a virtual machine but today I will explain the purpose DRD was intended when it was first introduced… patching a server. I’m going to suppose you have an spare disk for the task and of course have DRD installed in the server.
1.- Clone the root disk.
root@sheldon:/ # drd clone -x overwrite=true -v -t /dev/disk/disk2 ======= 04/21/10 09:05:53 EDT BEGIN Clone System Image (user=root) (jobid=sheldon-01) * Reading Current System Information * Selecting System Image To Clone * Selecting Target Disk * Selecting Volume Manager For New System Image * Analyzing For System Image Cloning * Creating New File Systems * Copying File Systems To New System Image * Making New System Image Bootable * Unmounting New System Image Clone * System image: "sysimage_001" on disk "/dev/disk/disk2" ======= 04/21/10 09:38:48 EDT END Clone System Image succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=sheldon-01) root@sheldon:/ #
2.- Mount the image.
root@sheldon:/ # drd mount ======= 04/21/10 09:41:20 EDT BEGIN Mount Inactive System Image (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) * Checking for Valid Inactive System Image * Locating Inactive System Image * Mounting Inactive System Image ======= 04/21/10 09:41:31 EDT END Mount Inactive System Image succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) root@sheldon:/ #
Check the mount by displaying the drd00 volume group.
root@sheldon:/ # vgdisplay drd00 VG Name /dev/drd00 VG Write Access read/write VG Status available Max LV 255 Cur LV 8 Open LV 8 Max PV 16 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 Max PE per PV 4356 VGDA 2 PE Size (Mbytes) 32 Total PE 4346 Alloc PE 2062 Free PE 2284 Total PVG 0 Total Spare PVs 0 Total Spare PVs in use 0 root@sheldon:/ #
3.- Apply the patches on the mounted clone.
root@sheldon:/ # drd runcmd swinstall -s /tmp/patches_01.depot ======= 04/21/10 09:42:55 EDT BEGIN Executing Command On Inactive System Image (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) * Checking for Valid Inactive System Image * Analyzing Command To Be Run On Inactive System Image * Locating Inactive System Image * Accessing Inactive System Image for Command Execution * Setting Up Environment For Command Execution * Executing Command On Inactive System Image * Using unsafe patch list version 20061206 * Starting swagentd for drd runcmd * Executing command: "/usr/sbin/swinstall -s /tmp/patches_01.depot" ======= 04/21/10 09:42:59 EDT BEGIN swinstall SESSION (non-interactive) (jobid=sheldon-0006) (drd session) * Session started for user "root@sheldon". * Beginning Selection ... ... ... ======= 04/21/10 09:44:37 EDT END swinstall SESSION (non-interactive) (jobid=sheldon-0006) (drd session) * Command "/usr/sbin/swinstall -s /tmp/patches_01.depot" completed with the return code "0". * Stopping swagentd for drd runcmd * Cleaning Up After Command Execution On Inactive System Image ======= 04/21/10 09:44:38 EDT END Executing Command On Inactive System Image succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) root@sheldon:/ #
4.- Check the installed patches on the DRD image.
root@sheldon:/ # drd runcmd swlist patches_01 ======= 04/21/10 09:45:29 EDT BEGIN Executing Command On Inactive System Image (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) * Checking for Valid Inactive System Image * Analyzing Command To Be Run On Inactive System Image * Locating Inactive System Image * Accessing Inactive System Image for Command Execution * Setting Up Environment For Command Execution * Executing Command On Inactive System Image * Executing command: "/usr/sbin/swlist patches_01" # Initializing... # Contacting target "sheldon"... # # Target: sheldon:/ # # patches_01 1.0 ACME Patching depot patches_01.acme-RUN * Command "/usr/sbin/swlist patches_01" completed with the return code "0". * Cleaning Up After Command Execution On Inactive System Image ======= 04/21/10 09:45:32 EDT END Executing Command On Inactive System Image succeeded. (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) root@sheldon:/ #
5.- Activate the image and reboot the server.
At this point you only have to activate the patched image with the drd activate command and schedule a reboot of the server.
If you want to activate and reboot at the same time use the -x reboot=true option as in the example below.
root@sheldon:/ # drd activate -x reboot=true ======= 04/21/10 09:52:26 EDT BEGIN Activate Inactive System Image (user=root) (jobid=sheldon) * Checking for Valid Inactive System Image * Reading Current System Information * Locating Inactive System Image * Determining Bootpath Status * Primary bootpath : 0/1/1/0.0.0 [/dev/disk/disk1] before activate. * Primary bootpath : 0/1/1/0.1.0 [/dev/disk/disk2] after activate. * Alternate bootpath : 0 [unknown] before activate. * Alternate bootpath : 0 [unknown] after activate. * HA Alternate bootpath : <none> [] before activate. * HA Alternate bootpath : <none> [] after activate. * Activating Inactive System Image * Rebooting System
If everything goes well after the reboot give the patched server some time, I leave this to your own criteria, before restoring the mirror.
Juanma.
Howto get VxVM diskgroup version
If you need to determine the version of a Veritas diskgroup it can be done by two ways:
- vxdg command:
Execute vxdg list <diskgroup> and look for the version field in the output.
root@vmnode1:~# vxdg list dg_sap Group: dg_sap dgid: 1273503890.14.vmnode1 import-id: 1024.10 flags: cds version: 140 <--- VERSION! alignment: 8192 (bytes) local-activation: read-write ssb: on detach-policy: global dg-fail-policy: dgdisable copies: nconfig=default nlog=default config: seqno=0.1076 permlen=24072 free=24068 templen=2 loglen=3648 config disk disk27 copy 1 len=24072 state=clean online config disk disk28 copy 1 len=24072 state=clean online log disk disk27 copy 1 len=3648 log disk disk28 copy 1 len=3648 root@vmnode1:~#
- vxprint command:
Run vxprint -l <diskgroup> and again look for the versión field as shown in the example.
root@vmnode1:~# vxprint -l dg_sap Disk group: dg_sap Group: dg_sap info: dgid=1273503890.14.vmnode1 version: 140 <--- VERSION! alignment: 8192 (bytes) activation: read-write detach-policy: global dg-fail-policy: dgdisable copies: nconfig=default nlog=default devices: max=32767 cur=1 minors: >= 4000 cds=on root@vmnode1:~#
And as Nelson Muntz like to say… smell you later ;-)
Juanma.
Mirror operations with VxVM and LVM
In today post I will show how to create and brake a mirrored volume in Veritas Volume Manager and Logical Volume Manager.
## LVM ##
Creating a mirror of a volume and later split it in LVM is quite easy an can be done with a few commands. I’m going to suppose that the original volume is already created.
- Extend the Volume Group that contain the lvol.
It has to be done with the same number of disks and of the same size that the ones within the VG.
[root@sheldon] / # vgextend vg_oracle /dev/disk/disk26 Volume group "vg_oracle" has been successfully extended. Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg_oracle has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg_oracle.conf [root@sheldon] / #
- Create the mirror.
[root@sheldon] / # lvextend -m 1 /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle /dev/disk/disk26 The newly allocated mirrors are now being synchronized. This operation will take some time. Please wait .... Logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle" has been successfully extended. Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg_oracle has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg_oracle.conf [root@sheldon] / #
- Check the configuration.
[root@sheldon] / # lvdisplay /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle --- Logical volumes --- LV Name /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle VG Name /dev/vg_oracle LV Permission read/write LV Status available/syncd Mirror copies 1 Consistency Recovery MWC Schedule parallel LV Size (Mbytes) 208 Current LE 13 Allocated PE 26 Stripes 0 Stripe Size (Kbytes) 0 Bad block NONE Allocation strict IO Timeout (Seconds) default Number of Snapshots 0 [root@sheldon] / #
- Perform the split.
[root@sheldon] / # lvsplit -s copy /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle Logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oraclecopy" has been successfully created with character device "/dev/vg_oracle/rlv_oraclecopy". Logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle" has been successfully split. Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg_oracle has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg_oracle.conf [root@sheldon] / #
- Reestablish the mirror.
If the VG are 1.0 or 2.0 version the merge can not be performed if teh group is in shared mode, for the 2.1 volume groups the lvmerge can be done in any mode.
The order to do the merge is the copy FIRST and the master SECOND. This is very important if don’t want to sync the mirror in wrong direction.
[root@sheldon] / # lvmerge /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oraclecopy /dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle Logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oraclecopy" has been successfully merged with logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oracle". Logical volume "/dev/vg_oracle/lv_oraclecopy" has been successfully removed. Volume Group configuration for /dev/vg_oracle has been saved in /etc/lvmconf/vg_oracle.conf [root@sheldon] / #
## VXVM ##
The process in VxVM is in many ways similar to the LVM one.
- Add a new disk/disks to the diskgroup
Launch the vxdiskadm tool and select Add or initialize one or more disks.
[root@sheldon] / # vxdiskadm Volume Manager Support Operations Menu: VolumeManager/Disk 1 Add or initialize one or more disks 2 Remove a disk 3 Remove a disk for replacement 4 Replace a failed or removed disk 5 Mirror volumes on a disk 6 Move volumes from a disk 7 Enable access to (import) a disk group 8 Remove access to (deport) a disk group 9 Enable (online) a disk device 10 Disable (offline) a disk device 11 Mark a disk as a spare for a disk group 12 Turn off the spare flag on a disk 13 Remove (deport) and destroy a disk group 14 Unrelocate subdisks back to a disk 15 Exclude a disk from hot-relocation use 16 Make a disk available for hot-relocation use 17 Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM's view 18 Allow multipathing/Unsuppress devices from VxVM's view 19 List currently suppressed/non-multipathed devices 20 Change the disk naming scheme 21 Change/Display the default disk layouts 22 Mark a disk as allocator-reserved for a disk group 23 Turn off the allocator-reserved flag on a disk list List disk information ? Display help about menu ?? Display help about the menuing system q Exit from menus Select an operation to perform: 1
Enter the disk and answer the questions according to your configuration and exit the tool when the process is done.
Add or initialize disks Menu: VolumeManager/Disk/AddDisks Use this operation to add one or more disks to a disk group. You can add the selected disks to an existing disk group or to a new disk group that will be created as a part of the operation. The selected disks may also be added to a disk group as spares. Or they may be added as nohotuses to be excluded from hot-relocation use. The selected disks may also be initialized without adding them to a disk group leaving the disks available for use as replacement disks. More than one disk or pattern may be entered at the prompt. Here are some disk selection examples: all: all disks c3 c4t2: all disks on both controller 3 and controller 4, target 2 c3t4d2: a single disk (in the c#t#d# naming scheme) xyz_0: a single disk (in the enclosure based naming scheme) xyz_: all disks on the enclosure whose name is xyz disk#: a single disk (in the new naming scheme) Select disk devices to add: [<pattern-list>,all,list,q,?] disk28 Here is the disk selected. Output format: [Device_Name] disk28 Continue operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) You can choose to add this disk to an existing disk group, a new disk group, or leave the disk available for use by future add or replacement operations. To create a new disk group, select a disk group name that does not yet exist. To leave the disk available for future use, specify a disk group name of "none". Which disk group [<group>,none,list,q,?] (default: none) dg_sap Use a default disk name for the disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) n Add disk as a spare disk for dg_sap? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) Exclude disk from hot-relocation use? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) Add site tag to disk? [y,n,q,?] (default: n) The selected disks will be added to the disk group dg_sap with disk names that you will specify interactively. disk28 Continue with operation? [y,n,q,?] (default: y) Initializing device disk28. Enter desired private region length [<privlen>,q,?] (default: 32768) Enter disk name for disk28 [<name>,q,?] (default: dg_sap02) VxVM NOTICE V-5-2-88 Adding disk device disk28 to disk group dg_sap with disk name dg_sap02. Add or initialize other disks? [y,n,q,?] (default: n)
- Check the configuration.
[root@sheldon] / # vxprint -g dg_sap TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0 dg dg_sap dg_sap - - - - - - dm dg_sap01 disk27 - 228224 - - - - dm dg_sap02 disk28 - 228224 - - - - v sapvol fsgen ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - pl sapvol-01 sapvol ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - sd dg_sap01-01 sapvol-01 ENABLED 204800 0 - - - [root@sheldon] / #
- Create the mirror.
[root@sheldon] / # vxassist -g dg_sap mirror sapvol dg_sap02 [root@sheldon] / # [root@sheldon] / # vxprint -g dg_sap TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0 dg dg_sap dg_sap - - - - - - dm dg_sap01 disk27 - 228224 - - - - dm dg_sap02 disk28 - 228224 - - - - v sapvol fsgen ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - pl sapvol-01 sapvol ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - sd dg_sap01-01 sapvol-01 ENABLED 204800 0 - - - pl sapvol-02 sapvol ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - sd dg_sap02-01 sapvol-02 ENABLED 204800 0 - - - [root@sheldon] / #
- Break the mirror.
To do this just disassociate the corresponding plex from the volume.
[root@sheldon] / # vxplex -g dg_sap dis sapvol-02 [root@sheldon] / # vxprint -g dg_sap TY NAME ASSOC KSTATE LENGTH PLOFFS STATE TUTIL0 PUTIL0 dg dg_sap dg_sap - - - - - - dm dg_sap01 disk27 - 228224 - - - - dm dg_sap02 disk28 - 228224 - - - - pl sapvol-02 - DISABLED 204800 - - - - sd dg_sap02-01 sapvol-02 ENABLED 204800 0 - - - v sapvol fsgen ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - pl sapvol-01 sapvol ENABLED 204800 - ACTIVE - - sd dg_sap01-01 sapvol-01 ENABLED 204800 0 - - - [root@sheldon] / #
- Reattach the plex to the volume and reestablish the mirror.
[root@sheldon] / # vxplex -g dg_sap att sapvol sapvol-02 [root@sheldon] / #
And we are done for now, more VxVM stuff in a future post :-)
Juanma.
Howto identify the EMC LUN ID in HP-UX 11iv3 – Symmetrix arrays
DISCLAIMER NOTE: This method is based only on my personal experience working with HP-UX 11iv2, 11iv3 and EMC Symmetrix. I tested it with near a hundred LUNs from a DMX-3 and with six different servers. As far as I know this isn’t an official or supported procedure neither from EMC nor from HP.
Every time the storage people add a new LUN to your servers from an EMC disk array they provide you with a Logical device ID (or LUN ID) to identify the disk with PowerPath. If you are in HP-UX 11iv2 no problem here, just run a simple powermt command and look for the new LUN.
[root@totoro] / # powermt display dev=all | more ... ... Symmetrix ID=000281150123 Logical device ID=0CED state=alive; policy=SymmOpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0 ============================================================================== ---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats --- ### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors ============================================================================== 20 0/0/10/1/0.11.15.0.0.1.3 c7t1d3 SP A0 active alive 0 1 23 0/0/10/1/0.11.47.0.0.1.3 c8t1d3 SP B0 active alive 0 1 26 1/0/8/1/0.21.15.0.0.1.3 c10t1d3 SP A1 active alive 0 1 29 1/0/8/1/0.21.47.0.0.1.3 c11t1d3 SP B1 active alive 0 1 ... ...
But if you are in 11.31 you will find a small problem to perform this. PowerPath is not recommended in HP-UX 11iv3 because it can cause conflicts with the new native multiplathing of the v3.
You can use the trick of doing a simple ll -tr in the /dev/disk directory just after the hardware scan and the device file creation, but this way is valid only if you have one or two disks with the same size. What if you have several disks with multiple sizes and want to use each disk for a different VG and/or task? The storage people will only provide the LUN IDs but you will not have the tool to match those IDs with your disks.
Fortunately there is way to circumvent the lack of PowerPath in 11iv3. We are going to use the same disk as in the previous example, the 0CED.
First get the disks serial number with scsimgr.
[root@totoro] / # scsimgr get_attr -D /dev/rdisk/disk30 -a serial_number SCSI ATTRIBUTES FOR LUN : /dev/rdisk/disk30 name = serial_number current = "100123CED000" default = saved =
Take note of the serial number.
100123CED000
As you can see the last the last three digits of the LUN ID are included in the disk serial number and if look carefully will see also the four last digits the Symmetrix ID (0123) just after the LUN ID.
Juanma.
EMC PowerPath basic commands
PowerPath is a multipathing software for Unix operating systems from EMC. If you have ever worked or you are going to work in an environment that includes EMC storage systems it is more than sure that Powerpath will be installed in the Unix hosts.
Following are some notes and tips I’ve been creating since the very first time I found Powerpath, of course this isn’t a full user guide but a sort of personal quick reference. I decide to put it here in the hope that it will be helpful to anyone and for my personal use.
- Show powermt command version
[root@totoro] / # powermt version EMC powermt for PowerPath (c) Version 5.1.0 (build 160)
- Display PowerPath configuration.
[root@totoro] / # powermt display Symmetrix logical device count=898 CLARiiON logical device count=0 Hitachi logical device count=0 Invista logical device count=0 HP xp logical device count=0 Ess logical device count=0 HP HSx logical device count=0 ============================================================================== ----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ I/O Paths ----- ------ Stats ------ ### HW Path Summary Total Dead IO/Sec Q-IOs Errors ============================================================================== 5 0/2/1/0.101.16.19.0 optimal 61 0 - 0 0 6 0/2/1/0.101.16.19.1 optimal 102 0 - 0 0 7 0/2/1/0.101.16.19.2 optimal 97 0 - 0 0 8 0/2/1/0.101.16.19.3 optimal 113 0 - 0 0 9 0/2/1/0.101.16.19.4 optimal 82 0 - 0 0 11 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.0 optimal 128 0 - 0 0 12 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.1 optimal 49 0 - 0 0 13 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.2 optimal 57 0 - 0 0 14 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.3 optimal 83 0 - 0 0 15 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.4 optimal 74 0 - 0 0 16 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.5 optimal 33 0 - 0 0 17 0/2/1/0.101.43.19.6 optimal 19 0 - 0 0 19 0/5/1/0.102.16.19.0 optimal 61 0 - 0 0 20 0/5/1/0.102.16.19.1 optimal 102 0 - 0 0 21 0/5/1/0.102.16.19.2 optimal 97 0 - 0 0 22 0/5/1/0.102.16.19.3 optimal 113 0 - 0 0 23 0/5/1/0.102.16.19.4 optimal 82 0 - 0 0 25 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.0 optimal 128 0 - 0 0 26 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.1 optimal 49 0 - 0 0 27 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.2 optimal 57 0 - 0 0 28 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.3 optimal 83 0 - 0 0 29 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.4 optimal 74 0 - 0 0 30 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.5 optimal 33 0 - 0 0 31 0/5/1/0.102.43.19.6 optimal 19 0 - 0 0 [root@totoro] / #
- Check for death paths and remove them.
[root@sheldon] / # powermt display Symmetrix logical device count=34 CLARiiON logical device count=0 Hitachi logical device count=0 Invista logical device count=0 HP xp logical device count=0 Ess logical device count=0 HP HSx logical device count=0 ============================================================================== ----- Host Bus Adapters --------- ------ I/O Paths ----- ------ Stats ------ ### HW Path Summary Total Dead IO/Sec Q-IOs Errors ============================================================================== 17 UNKNOWN failed 1 1 - 0 0 31 UNKNOWN failed 1 1 - 0 0 37 1/0/14/1/0.109.85.19.0 optimal 32 0 - 0 0 39 0/0/14/1/0.110.85.19.0 optimal 32 0 - 0 0 [root@sheldon] / # powermt check Warning: Symmetrix device path c17t9d6 is currently dead. Do you want to remove it (y/n/a/q)? y Warning: Symmetrix device path c31t9d6 is currently dead. Do you want to remove it (y/n/a/q)? y [root@sheldon] / #
- List all devices.
[root@totoro] / # powermt display dev=all
- Remove all devices.
[root@totoro] / # powermt remove dev=all
- Add a new disk in HP-UX, configure it and save the config:
After a rescan of the disks with ioscan and the creation of the device files with insf run the following command to add the new disk to PowerPath
[root@totoro] / # powermt config
Now display all the devices and look the for the Logical device ID of the disk.
[root@totoro] / # powermt display dev=all | more ... ... Symmetrix ID=000287750035 Logical device ID=0004 state=alive; policy=SymmOpt; priority=0; queued-IOs=0 ============================================================================== ---------------- Host --------------- - Stor - -- I/O Path - -- Stats --- ### HW Path I/O Paths Interf. Mode State Q-IOs Errors ============================================================================== 20 0/0/10/1/0.11.15.0.0.1.3 c20t1d3 SP A0 active alive 0 1 23 0/0/10/1/0.11.47.0.0.1.3 c23t1d3 SP B0 active alive 0 1 26 1/0/8/1/0.21.15.0.0.1.3 c26t1d3 SP A1 active alive 0 1 29 1/0/8/1/0.21.47.0.0.1.3 c29t1d3 SP B1 active alive 0 1 ... ...
If everything went fine save the config.
[root@totoro] / # powermt save
And these are the most common tasks I’ve been doing with PowerPath. I’ll try to put some order into my notes and personal how-to files and write more posts like this one.
Juanma.
New Generation Integrity Servers
Last week was, without any doubt, one of the most exciting of the year. The new Integrity Servers have been finally unveiled.
This new whole line of Integrity machines are based on Tukwila, the latest iteration of the Itanium processor line which was presented by Intel early this year, and with one exception all of them are based in the blade form factor. Let’s take a quick look of the new servers.
- Entry-level
In this area, and as the only rack server of the new line, we have the rx28000, at first look it seems no more than a remake of the rx2660 but if you go deeper will find a powerful machine with 2 Quad-core or Dual-core Itanium 9300 processors and a maximum of 192GB of RAM.
That’s a considerable amount of power for a server of this kind. I personally like this server and have to convince my manager to kindly donate one for my home lab ;-)
- Mid-range
In the mid-range line there are three beautiful babies named BL860c_i2, BL870c_i2 and BL890c_i2.
The key for this new servers is modularity, the BL860c_i2 is the base of her bigger sisters. HP has developed a new piece of hardware known as Integrity Blade Link Assembly which makes possible to combine blade modules. The 870 is composed by two blade modules and the 890 by four. The 860 is no more than a single blade module with a single Link Assembly on its front. This way of combining the blades makes the 890 the only 8 socket blade currently available.
The 870 and the 890 with 16 and 32 cores respectively are the logical replacement for the rx7640 and rx8640 but as many people have been saying since they were publicly presented there is of the OLAR question or really the apparently lack of OLAR which in fact was one of the key features of the mid-range cell-based Integrity servers. We’ll see how this issue is solved.
- High-End
The new rx2800 and the new blades are great but the real shock for everybody came when HP announced the new Superdome 2. Ladies and gentlemen the new mission critical computing era is here, forget those fat and proprietary racks, forget everything you know about high-end servers and be welcome to the blade land.
This new version of the HP flagship is based on the blade concept. Instead of cells we have cell-blades inside a new 18U enclosure based in the HP C7000 Blade Enclosure. Just remember one word… commonality. The new Superdome 2 will share a lot of parts with the C7000 and can be also managed through the same tools like the Onboard Administrator.
The specs of this baby are astonishing and during the presentation at the HP Technology At Work event four different configurations were outlined ranging from 8 sockets/32 cores in four blade-cells to a maximum of 64 sockets/256 cores in 32 cell-blades distributed through four enclosures in two racks. Like I said, astonishing :-D
There have been a lot rumors during last year about HP-UX and Itanium future mainly because the delays of the Tukwilla processor. The discussion has recently reach ITRC.
But if any of you had doubts about HP-UX future I firmly believe that HP sent a clear message on the opposite direction. HP-UX is probably the more robust and reliable Unix in the enterprise arena. And to be serious, what are you going to use to replace it? Linux? Solaris? Please ;-)
Juanma.
I’m not dead or how much I hate to write documentation
Hi everybody! No you aren’t lucky, I’m not dead yet ;-). It’s only that I’ve been very busy these weeks, my current project is almost finished and there is a lot of stuff to deliver to the customer. This part also reminds me that, even knowing that is an essential part of any project, I hate to write documentation with all my heart.
But there are also great news for me and a new opportunity has arise and I’ve been offered to become not just a full time HP-UX Sysadmin but also a storage one in another customer. I never been a full storage guy but I love new challenges and working with HP storage hardware like XP and EVA looks great to me. If I finally manage to be assigned to that project you will see here storage related posts from time to time.
But I don’t want write more, I have to be patient and let the events develop by themselves, wish me luck my dear readers.
Juanma.
