HP-UX 11.00 Frequently Asked Questions

This document provides answers to frequently asked questions, and contains :

• General Questions
• Specific to ISVs and Developers
• Specific to Systems Administrators

General Questions

Q : What is a concise description of HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : HP-UX 11.00 is a development and deployment release for 64-bit and kernel threaded applications. HP-UX 11.00 supports NIS+, NFS PV3. HP-UX also has limited workstation support to facilitate server development only (that is, 2D graphics). Servers support localization, but the limited workstation support is English only.

Q : Why would I want to upgrade to HP-UX 11.00 ? Why use HP-UX 11.00 over 10.20 ?

A : 11.00 offers 64-bit capability with expandability, scalability and potential performance improvements. 11.00 also supports kernel threads, NIS+, NFS PV3 and a host of other advanced features. Lastly, 11.00 also has a 32-bit capability to support legacy 32-bit servers using the PA-7x00 CPUs. HP-UX’’s new flagship V-class 64-bit system is supported on 11.00.

Q : Is this a push or a pull release ?

A : HP-UX 11.00 is a PULL for both 11.00 servers and workstations.

• PUSH : You receive the media regardless of whether you want it or not. Shipment happens early for Response Centers, Internals, and VABs.

• PULL : HP sends you a letter describing the release features. If you want the release, you send the letter back to HP. HP then sends you the OS along with the applications on your contract.

• SILENT PULL : Like a true PULL from a manufacturing perspective, but no letter is sent to you. You will learn of the release through FOCUS News, Summ Announcement Section, or other communications.

Q : What is the availability of HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : HP-UX 11.00 is expected to be available for general release in November 1997.

Q : How do I order HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : To order HP-UX 11.00 for servers, please consult the latest HP 9000 Enterprise Server Ordering Guide, Section 5, titled How to Order Software.

For the limited support version of HP-UX 11.00 for workstations, please
consult the latest HP 9000 Enterprise Workstation Ordering Guide.

Please note that HP-UX 11.00 workstation support is strictly
server-oriented. HP-UX 11.00 is not generally supported for workstations running
technical/CAE applications.

Q : Does HP-UX 11.00 support Year 2000 ?

A : Yes. HP-UX 11.00 has Year 2000 support.

Q : Does HP-UX 11.00 support binary compatibility with previous releases ?

A : Yes. In general, well-behaved, non-architecture dependent 10.x (and 9.x applications qualified on 10.x) applications will execute on 11.00. Applications that relink 10.x relocatable objects with 11.00 relocatable objects on 11.00 may work, but are not supported. Refer to the HP-UX 11.00 Software Developer’s Guide

for more information on the definition of a well-behaved application.

Q : Will 9.x binaries run on 11.00 ?

A : Yes ! HP-UX 11.00 delivers binary compatibility for 9.x executable applications certified on 10.x and 10.x executable applications. This means that well-behaved applications from 32-bit versions of HP-UX will run on 11.00.

Q : Are transition links supported ?

A : HP-UX 11.00 supports transition links to the extent that they were available in 10.x.

Q : What is the data model used for 64-bit HP-UX ?

A : LP64 is the de facto industry standard. The L represents long

and the P represents pointer. Both are 64-bit, whereas int is
32-bit.

Q : Is HP-UX 11.00 exclusively a 64-bit OS ?

A : HP-UX 11.00 is available as either a 32-bit or a 64-bit OS. This extra flexibility ensures that the widest number of customers can take advantage of the many features in 11.00 that are not explicitly related to 64-bits (e.g., NFSv3, NIS+, SAM, etc.).

Q : Can 32-bit applications access more than 4 GB on 11.00 PA8xxx systems ?

A : NO ! Although more than 4 GB memory can be installed in these systems, less than 4 GB memory is addressable by 32-bit applications on 32-bit 11.00 systems. Installing more than 4 GB memory on 32-bit 11.00 systems would be wasteful. Only 64-bit applications on 64-bit 11.00 HP-UX systems can access more than 4 GB memory.

Q : Can 32-bit applications access more than 4 GB on 64-bit HP-UX 11.00 systems ?

A : NO ! 32-bit applications cannot access more than 4 GB on a 64-bit HP-UX system.

Q : What is the minimum memory required for a 64-bit server ? In general, how much memory growth should I expect for a server moving from 10.20 to 64-bit 11.00 ?

A : The 64-bit server is best utilized when more than 4 GB of memory is installed.

Q : What are performance expectations in the following situations ?

A : Note that the following worst-case expectations do not account for performance enhancements realized via POPS or other 11.00 performance enhancements :

• 32-bit application on 11.00 32-bit : parity or better
• 32-bit application on 11.00 64-bit : 1-2% slight degradation over the same 32-bit application on the 11.00 32-bit OS
• 64-bit application on 11.00 64-bit : degradation of 8-9% over the same 32-bit application on the 11.00 32-bit OS

Q : What systems are supported ?

A : The Hardware Support table below indicates the systems supported for 32-bit and 64-bit environments.

Q : What new hardware is available in HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : See the Hardware Support table above.

Q : I noticed that D-class servers are only supported on 32-bit 11.00. Why can’t I run 64-bit HP-UX 11.0 on D-class ? Are there any plans to allow 64-bit D-class in the future ?

A : D-class does not support > 4 GB RAM. D-class can be used for 64-bit development, although testing of 64-bit applications must be performed on a 64- bit HP9000 that supports HP-UX 11.00 64-bit OS. HP is evaluating the possibility of support for D-class in the coming year.

Q : What localization support is available ?

A : Servers support localization, but the limited workstation support is restricted to English only.

Q : Will HP support 11.00 32-bit PA-7000 platforms ?

A : Yes.

Q : Sun’s version of NFS is threaded ; is HP-UX 11.00 NFS PV3 threaded ?

A : No, it is not desired. HP-UX NFS performance is considerably faster than Sun’s implementation, despite the perceived threaded advantage ; and threads add some overhead in management and scheduling. Publicly-available benchmarks such as SPEC SFS show that Sun’s threaded NFS is clearly slower.

Q : What is the support strategy for releases prior to 11.00 ?

A : HP provides both the current release and one release prior on the price list. HP-UX 9.x is no longer available on the price list, but support for it will continue through 1998.

Q : To which standards does HP-UX 11.00 conform ?

A : The HP-UX 11.00 release conforms to the following standards :

• ANSI/IEEE P1003.1-1996 (POSIX system calls and libraries) and P1003.2 (POSIX commands)
• Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS-151-2 (P1003.1 plus Federal interpretations) and FIPS-189
• X/Open Portability Guide release 4 (XPG4) and UNIX95 of XPG4 specifications
• LP64 industry de facto standard 64-bit data model
• Single UNIX Specification (SPEC 1170)

Q : How can I get the 11.00 Release Notes without yet upgrading to HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : See HP-UX 11.00 Release Notes.

Q : If I am simultaneously executing independent 32-bit and 64-bit applications that both have requirements for shared memory, does that mean that they will both be competing for the same pool of shared memory segments ?

A : No. The shared memory segment for 32-bit applications is separate from the shared memory segment for 64-bit applications. Thus, the 32-bit application has simultaneous access to 1.75GB (2.75GB with SHMEM_MAGIC) and the 64-bit application has access to 4TB shared memory in one contiguous segment. The 64-bit application can choose to share memory segments with 32-bit applications if desired. In this case, the limits will be based on what the 32-bit application can access.

Specific to ISVs and Developers

Q : Do I need a 64-bit platform to develop a 64-bit application ?

A : No. HP-UX 11.00 can be installed as a 32-bit or a 64-bit system. The 32-bit development environment is automatically installed on both the 32-bit and the 64- bit systems. The 64-bit development environment is automatically installed on the 64-bit system, but it can be optionally installed on a 32-bit system. The 32- bit executable can be tested or debugged on either the 32-bit or the 64-bit system ; however, the 64-bit executable can only be tested or debugged on the 64-bit system.

Q : Is Softbench available on HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : Softbench is not supported in the initial release of HP-UX 11.00. For more information on Softbench, see http://www.hp.com/go/softbench .

Q : Do new applications deployed on 11.00 have to be 64 bit ?

A : No. Developers will have the option of creating 32-bit or 64-bit applications to run on 11.00 platforms.

Q : Can a single application be both 64-bit and kernel-threaded ?

A : Yes. Kernel threads and 64-bit are capabilities that can be built into the same application. However, you cannot build a 64-bit libcma-threaded application, since libcma is not supported in 64-bit.

Q : How do I build a 64-bit C program ?

A : You can use the C compiler option +DA2.0W. Please see HP-UX 11.00 Release Notes for a discussion of the languages that support 64-bit. Note that you must use only 64-bit libraries to build a 64-bit application. Similarly, 32-bit applications cannot link to any 64-bit libraries.

Q : Can I generate two binaries (one 32-bit and one 64-bit) from a single source file ?

A : Yes. The HP-UX 11.00 compilers have compile-time flags that can create a resulting object file that is 32-bit or 64-bit. Both the 32-bit and the 64-bit HP-UX, including the kernel and libraries, are built from the same source files. 64-bit specific code in the header files and source files is defined using #ifdef as appropriate to support the single source file for both 32-bit and 64-bit. Note that you can build 64-bit executables on a HP-UX 11.00 32-bit system, but need a true 64-bit system to execute it. You can also build and execute 32-bit executables on a 64-bit system.

Q : If my product is a thread-safe library, then how can I make the library thread-safe so that both kernel-threaded applications and DCE-threaded applications can link with this library ?

A : If the library consists of re-entrant functions (no internal state, no global data) that call thread-safe functions from other libraries, then a single version of the library can be used with both kernel-threaded applications and DCE-threaded applications, after compiling the library with –D_REENTRANT.

If the library uses any synchronization primitives such as mutexes,
installs any cancellation cleanup handlers, creates any threads, or calls the
POSIX.1c _r interfaces in libc, then the library is
affected by the source and binary incompatibilities between DCE threads and
kernel threads, and separate versions of the library should be used for linking
with DCE-threaded and kernel-threaded applications.

Q : Should I convert my application to 64-bit ?

A : Here are some reasons to convert your application to 64-bit.

• Kernel drivers and kernel applications need to be converted to 64-bit to be supported with the 64-bit kernel.
• Library providers are encouraged to provide a 64-bit version of customer accessible libraries, since application providers who wish to develop 64-bit applications can only use 64-bit libraries to build the application. You cannot link an application with both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries.
• If your code needs to access large process data spaces (> 1 GB or > 1.9 GB using EXEC_MAGIC) or large shared memory (> 1.75 GB) you will need to convert it to 64-bit.
• If your code needs to deal with large addressing (> 4 GB addresses) you may need to convert your application to 64-bit.

Conversely, there is good reason NOT to convert to 64-bit if you do not
need to do so. In most cases, the performance of a 64-bit application may
degrade up to 8-9% from the corresponding 32-bit application due to the size
increase, unless the benefits of the 64-bit memory outweigh this effect.

Q : What languages support 64-bit ?

A : ANSI C, K&R C, ANSI C++. Note that Cfront is deprecated and there are no plans to support 64-bit in Cfront. Support for 64-bit in Fortran90 will be provided in a DART release after 11.00.

Q : What languages support kernel threads ?

A : ANSI C, K&R C, ANSI C++. Note that Cfront is deprecated and there are no plans to support kernel threads in Cfront.

Q : What HP-UX debugger supports 64-bit ?

A : DDE supports 64-bit.

Q : What HP-UX debugger supports debugging kernel threads ?

A : DDE supports debugging kernel threads.

Q : What tools exist to help me move to 11.00 ?

A : The HP-UX 11.00 STK provides both tools and documentation to facilitate your transition of source code to 32-bit or 64-bit HP-UX 11.00. It can be installed on any 10.x or 11.00 system.

Q : What tools exist to help in converting 32-bit code to 64-bit code ?

A : The C compiler/lint provide a new option +M2 that can be used to detect 64-bit data model coding problems. Third-party tools such as FlexeLint can be used to detect 64-bit data model coding problems for C and C++. FlexeLint can be purchased from Gimpel Software (<A HREF="http://www.gimpel.com/">http://www.gimpel.com). The HP 64-bit configuration file for FlexeLint can be found in Using the HP-UX STK FlexeLint Script.

Q : What do I have to do to convert my 32-bit application to a 64-bit application ?

A : You may not have to do anything if you currently follow good programming practices as described in Appendix A in the

HP-UX 11.00 Software Developer’s Guide,
especially the sections titled Data Types, Header Files,
and Undocumented Usage. Essentially, you need to avoid bad programming
practices such as assigning longs to ints and
pointers to ints. For more information and examples, see
How to Transition Software.

Q : What are the limits on 64-bit supported graphics ?

A : Only 32-bit versions of 2-D and 3-D libraries are provided in 11.00. Because it is not possible to mix both 32-bit and 64-bit objects in one binary, applications that will be converted to 64-bit should be designed such that the GUI can remain as a 32-bit application, while the processing component can be converted to take advantage of 64-bit HP-UX.

If the GUI component and the processing component are in the same
process, the GUI component can be split into a separate process and can
communicate with the back-end processing component via standard interprocess
communication mechanisms such as pipes, signals, and shared memory. Using
interprocess communication with X clients requires proficient knowledge of the
intricacies of the X event-handling mechanisms to avoid race conditions,
blocking X clients, and so on.

See the reference for using interprocess communication with X clients, "Xt
Clients Communicating with Sockets", Dan Budne, X Journal,
November-December 1996. See the white paper
Interoperability of 32- and 64-Bit
Applications on 64-Bit HP-UX for details and examples.

Q : I would like to transition my HP-UX 9.x application to HP-UX 11.00. Do I need to transition my application to HP-UX 10.x first ?

A : No. You DO NOT need to transition your 9.x application to 10.x and test it on 10.x prior to transitioning it to 11.00. You should transition your application directly to 11.00. Note that your application will be affected by any compatibility issues that occurred in 9.x and 10.x, as compatibility issues are generally cumulative.

However, when updating your HP-UX operating system from HP-UX 9.x , you
must update it to 10.x first. See the the next section for details.

Specific to Systems Administrators

Q : Can I upgrade directly from 9.x to 11.00 ?

A : No. A move to 10.x is required before a system can be upgraded to 11.00. HP supports only the current and previous release of HP-UX. See page 60 of the HP-UX 11.00 Software Developer’s Guide for a graphic showing the supported upgrade paths.

Q : What are the hardware requirements to support an upgrade to HP-UX 64-bit 11.00 ?

A : You need to have PA8000 hardware as indicated in the support table in this FAQ plus a firmware upgrade. Please read "Readme Before Installing and Updating HP-UX 11.00" ; it will help you decide if you need a firmware upgrade. If a firmware upgrade is needed, you can arrange the upgrade through your local HP Customer Engineer.

Q : Which systems required a firmware upgrade to utilize HP-UX 11.00 64-bit ?

A : For older systems that contain PA8x00 CPUs, the PCD firmware must be upgraded to support HP-UX 11.00 64-bit. These older systems include earlier PA8x00 models of the K- and T-class systems. Please contact your local HP Customer Engineer to schedule a firmware upgrade.

Q : How can I tell if I am on a 64-bit HP-UX system ?

A : Use the command getconf KERNEL_BITS. If run on a 64-bit 11.00 system, it will output 64. If run on a 32-bit 11.00 system, it will output 32. If run on HP-UX prior to 11.00, getconf

will complain about KERNEL_BITS being an unknown option.

Q : What are the RAM and disk requirements of 11.x ?

A : 11.00 32-bit and 64-bit can boot with as little as 64MB RAM and 1GB disk, but the performance would be very slow. Here are the recommended minimums :

• 11.00 32-bit : 128MB RAM, 1-2GB disk
• 11.00 64-bit : 512MB RAM, 2-3GB disk

The 11.00 64-bit system doesn’t require twice the disk space of an
11.00 32-bit system. The size of the 64-bit executable has been optimized
since 10.x and has shown modest growth.

As mentioned earlier, the full benefits of 64-bit computing will not
be realized until a system has more than 4GB RAM and large amounts
of swap space (4GB and higher). This is the first step in
exploiting the large memory address space that 64-bit provides.

Q : How can I tell how much memory exists on my HP-UX system ?

A : The top(1) command can be used to ascertain how much memory has been configured on the system. Here are some combinations of commands that can be used :

     dmesg | grep Phy
     cat syslog | grep Phy

Q : Will the system administrators and users have to be re-trained once I upgrade my system to 64-bit ?

A : NO. The vast majority of the commands and user interfaces will remain identical between 32-bit and 64-bit HP-UX. Furthermore, the differences that do exist usually involve minor formatting changes in command responses to allow for the potentially larger address and data fields allowed by 64-bit HP-UX.

Q : When a customer upgrades from 32-bit HP-UX to 64-bit HP-UX, will they have to reload or reformat their data ?

A : The upgrade of HP-UX to 64-bit will not necessarily cause a customer to have to reload their data. All of the 32-bit files are accessible on the 64-bit system. However, the application-specific data may have to be reloaded if the application requires it. For example, if binary data or pointers are stored in the database, then these may need further attention. For these cases, see Interoperability of 32- and 64-Bit Applications on 64-Bit HP-UX for details and examples.

Q : What additional system resources are recommended for 64-bit HP-UX 11.00 ?

A : The additional resources required by 64-bit HP-UX 11.00 are :

• Add extra disks to provide more than 4 GB of swap
• Add memory cards to provide more than 4 GB of memory
• Increase kernel parameters
• maxdsiz more than 0x40000000
• maxdsiz_64bit more than 0x400000000
• maxswapchunks 10000