HP-UX 10.x - A User-Driven Workshop, University of Durham, 11 July 1996
by David Ledger, IVD Computer Services
On Thursday and Friday 11 and 12 July, Mike Ellison and Lyn Greenwood of Durham and
Newcastle Universities organised two workshop sessions at Durham University. The Thursday
session was a whole day on HP-UX 10.10; the Friday was a half day on Java.
Firstly Mike and Lyn covered some of the more general differences between HP-UX 9.x and
10.x.
The main topic covered was the installation of 10.10, which has been extended since the earlier
10 releases. At 10.x, 'Software Distributor' replaces 'netdist' and its parts.
Lyn started the installation session by initiating an install from CD-ROM by booting from it. We
went back to this periodically whenever it reached an interesting stage, but generally it happened
in the background. As installing from CD uses a limited system, we could only really follow it
from Lyn's descriptions. The rest of the workshop was displayed on all the screens that we had
access to using shared X, so we could see what was happening.
Mike demonstrated the way that 'Software Distributor' works from a software 'Depot' similar in
function to the old netdist server areas. The data is held as 'Filesets' which are grouped into
'Products' or 'Sub-products'. 'Products' are made up of 'Sub-products' or 'Filesets'. There is a
higher level of grouping called a 'Bundle', but at present only HP can create 'Bundles'.
Software Distributor can install Bundles or Products, and installation can be controlled down to
Fileset level. For some system products, the Fileset is too coarse. It is not possible to install a
system without a large number of non-English language parts that can safely be deleted later.
Software Distributor now supports installations from a Depot area resident on an HP-UX 9.x
host. This should greatly ease the upgrade process. Netdist Product Specification Files can be
converted to the new format, so installing other products should not be a problem. Software
Distributor (or the Bundle definitions) allow different levels of installation for machines with
different memory and disc configurations. This may sound similar to the Apollo Large, Medium
and Small / Aegis, Bsd, SysV choices, but here the non-installed parts are not linked to another
host. The size of the Kernel does change according to configuration choice, however.
As an extension to the installation theme, we were also taken through the startup / shutdown
sequence customisation. Each group added their own text only routines to one of two test hosts.
These were then rebooted to show exactly what happens when. A very useful exercise.
For more information mail kernel@hpworks.demon.co.uk
