Planning Your Move to MPE/iX Release 6.0

by Rich Webber
 Commercial Systems Division 
 

This article lists requirements for installation of or updating to Release 6.0 system software. This includes requirements for adding-on subsystem purchased products (SUBSYS) and updating your system software version level, and installing your system software. If your system does not meet the requirements listed here, make the appropriate corrections prior to installing or modifying your system.

The requirements described in this article are:

System Software Version Compatibility
Third-Party Software Compatibility
CD-ROM Disk Drive Compatibility
LDEV 1 Disk Drive Minimum Capacity
LDEV 1 Disk Drive Maximum Usage
Estimating Disk Space Requirements

System Software Version Compatibility

Verify you are starting with a compatible version of the system software. Only systems on General Release 5.0 or Release 5.5 are supported for the update to 6.0. If you are running a system software version that is older than 5.0 (General Release), you must perform two updates:

Update to 5.0 (General Release) or Release 5.5.
To update to 5.0, the media options and corresponding documentation are as follows:
- Tapes—HP 3000 MPE/iX Installation, Update, and Add-On Manual, MPE/iX Release 5.0 (General)
- CD-ROM—Using CD-ROM to Update Your HP 3000 System Software, MPE/iX Release 5.0 (General)
To update to Release 5.5 using either Tape or CD-ROM system software release media, use the following manual:
- HP 3000 MPE/iX System Software Maintenance Manual
Then update to version 6.0 system software using tape or CD-ROM system software release media and the following manual:
- HP 3000 MPE/iX System Software Maintenance Manual

Refer to the appropriate manuals for further information on what is required for updating to 5.0 or 5.5 including any hardware requirements. Contact your HP support representative if you need more information.

Third-Party Software Compatibility

Verify that any third-party software product you are running is compatible with the latest version of the operating system software. Do this before you modify the system.

CD-ROM Disk Drive Compatibility

To update or add-on to your system software using a CD-ROM, you must have a CD-ROM drive installed and configured. Verify that the CD-ROM drive you are using is one of the following:

HP Series 6100 Model 600/A HP-IB (C1707A)
HP Series 6100 Model 700/S SCSI (A1999A)
Toshiba XM-3401TA
Toshiba XM-4101TA

An Upgrade Kit (C2293U) for the Series 6000 peripheral package allows you to use internal SCSI drives on some HP 3000 computer systems.

If you do not have one of these compatible drives, contact your HP representative to order one.

LDEV 1 Disk Drive Minimum Capacity

LDEV 1 (the system disk) requires a minimum capacity of 500 MBytes. Therefore, you cannot use an older HP7933 or HP7935 disk drive as LDEV 1. When you update to MPE/iX Release 6.0, you may still use HP7933 and HP7935 drives elsewhere on your system, but these drives do not have a large enough capacity to serve as the system disk.

To identify your LDEV 1 device, use either the SHOWDEV 1 or DSTAT ALL command to determine the logical device numbers of configured devices.

If the device configured as your LDEV 1 is one of the supported devices, proceed with your system modification (update or add-on).
If the device configured as your LDEV 1 is not one of the supported devices, you must replace your LDEV 1 device with a supported device.

LDEV 1 Disk Drive Maximum Usage

If you have a CIO system and you are using a disk drive with over 2 GBytes capacity as your LDEV 1, any disk space over the 2 GBytes is not available for use. It cannot and will not be used for system or user files.

If you have an NIO system and you are using a disk drive with over 4 GBytes capacity as LDEV 1, any disk space over the 4 GBytes is not available for use. It cannot and will not be used for system or user files.

The 9 and 18 GByte disk drive may be used as LDEV 1, but this not recommended because a maximum of 4 Gb is usable by LDEV1.

The predefined variable hpcpuname contains the name of your computer model as shown in this example:

:SHOWVAR hpcpuname
HPCPUNAME = Series 957

The following table lists NIO/CIO systems.

Table 2-1 NIO/CIO Systems

NIO Systems	CIO Systems (Support CIO and NIO Cards)	CIO Systems
Series 9`x`7RX, 9`x`7LX, 9`x`7SX, 9`x`8LX, 9`x`8RX, 9`x`9KS, 99`x` Update this	Series 920, 922, 932, 948, 958	Series 925, 935, 949, 950, 955, 960, 980

Estimating Disk Space Requirements

Before you begin to modify your system software make sure that you have enough disk space to complete the modification. Modifying system software includes: updating or reinstalling your system software and adding on purchased products from the SUBSYS tape. There are three types of disk space requirements that are referenced during the modification process:

The permanent (net) amount of non-contiguous disk space required by the system software after it is modified.
The maximum (peak) amount of non-contiguous disk space required during the system software modification process.
The amount of contiguous disk space the update tool (either AUTOINST or HPINSTAL) requires to modify the system software.




	NOTE: The disk space values listed in this section are estimated values only. The actual amount of disk space used on your system will vary.

Non-Contiguous Disk Space Estimates

The following table lists the amount of non-contiguous disk space sectors required for the three operating system components (SLT, FOS, and SUBSYS) of the currently supported versions of the operating system software. During the modification process, some files are duplicated temporarily, sometimes older versions of files are retained temporarily. This causes the peak amount of disk space usage to be greater than the net amount when the modification is complete.

You must have the peak amount of disk space available on your system during the process to successfully modify your system.

The combined System Load Tape (SLT) and Fundamental Operating System (FOS) are the minimum net requirements for any system software version level. Ensure that you have enough room on LDEV1 for all the SLT files. The FOS files do not have to go on LDEV 1.

Table 2-2 Disk Space Requirements in K Sectors for Supported Releases

System Software Components	Disk Space in K Sectors for Version Level
	5.0	5.5		6.0
	5.0	Peak	Net	Peak	Net
SLT only *	1,318	n/a	1,268	n/a	1,274
SLT and FOS	2,027	2,378	2,092	2,821	2,533
SLT, FOS, SUBSYS	3,226	3,637	3,170	3,926	3,489
* Provided for reference only. An operational system requires the SLT and FOS files at a minimum.

To estimate the amount of additional permanent (net), non-contiguous disk space required to update your system software, subtract the value of your current version from the value of the version to which you are updating.

The values listed for the SUBSYS (purchasable subsystem products) are the maximum possible. This value is the total disk space sectors required for all possible purchasable products. You may have ordered only selected SUBSYS products.

Estimate additional disk space requirements based on the number and kind of software subsystem products purchased. If you are not adding-on any new purchased products, the disk space sectors currently being used by your existing products will probably not change significantly.

Converting Between Disk Sectors and MBytes

If your products are listed in MBytes, particularly third-party products, estimate the disk space sectors by performing the following conversion:

n MBytes x 1,000,000 sectors/256 bytes = m sectors

where:

n = the number of MBytes
m = the number sectors

Example 1. MBytes to sectors:

If VALIDATE reports 20 MBytes total on a tape:
- 20 x 1,000,000/256 = 78,125 sectors

Example 2. Sectors to MBytes:

If a disk has a device size of 7,824,336 sectors:
- 7,824,336 x 256/1,000,000 = 2,003 MBytes
- Therefore the disk is a 2000 MByte disk, (also known as 2 Gbyte disk).

For a closer estimate, use the value 1,048,576 instead of the value 1,000,000.

For a quick estimate, use the value 4,000 instead of the conversion value of 1,000,000/256.

Contiguous Disk Space Requirements

The maximum amount of contiguous disk space sectors required to complete a system modification on any system is:

120,000 sectors

Use CHECKSLT to estimate the amount of contiguous disk space sectors required to complete a system modification on your system.

Refer to the HP 3000 MPE/iX System Software Maintenance Manual for directions on using CHECKSLT.

Reserving Disk Space

The update and add-on process requires a minimum number of contiguous and non-contiguous disk space sectors. Ensure that you have enough contiguous disk space on LDEV 1 to complete your task. The total amount of non-contiguous disk space does not need be available on LDEV 1.

Reserve enough contiguous and non-contiguous disk space on your system before you perform an install, update, or add-on. Refer to Appendix C, "Managing Disk Space," in the HP 3000 MPE/iX System Software Maintenance Manual for information on reserving disk space.