What is HP-UX?
Three suppliers dominate the Unix server market: Sun with
Solaris, IBM with
AIX, and Hewlett-Packard with HP-UX. All three conform to the
single Unix standard maintained by the Open Group, and can run on
one another's hardware. All three jockey to introduce technical
innovations which are quickly taken up by the others. But despite
aggressive programmes inviting customers to change their
allegiance, each system's user base remains loyal and stable.
While
Unix
isn't achieving the same growth as Windows and Linux, and may
in fact be entering into long-term decline, Unix servers are likely
to keep their place in the datacentre, and in other
mission-critical applications demanding mainframe-level reliability
and availability, for long enough to provide an IT professional who
chooses Unix with a sound career.
According to
IDC's
August 2007 figures, HP's PA-Risc servers lead the high-end
Unix market, although HP is also the largest supplier of
Itanium-based systems, on which HP-UX is also shipped. Recent
releases of HP-UX have majored on security and reliability: secure
resource partitions and mission-critical virtualisation. With its
Serviceguard disaster recovery products, HP also claims to have
the lead in business continuity.
Where did it originate?
HP-UX emerged in the early 1980s, based upon
AT&T
System V with later additions from Berkeley Software
Distribution Unix.
What's it for?
Like IBM and Sun, HP has been focusing on virtualisation and
partitioning, making maximum use of resources and even enabling
applications to be moved from server to server, more or less
eliminating scheduled downtime.
HP ships its operating system in integrated bundles called
operating environments for different applications with Mozilla
Application Suite for web servers, for example, or Serviceguard and
Workload Manager for mission-critical database servers.
HP supplies the full Java platform on HP-UX, including its own
tools such as
Java
Out-of-Box, which improves the behaviour of large server-side
Java applications. It provides a Linux porting kit and Linux
runtime environment. For native development on HP-UX, HP supports a
variety of languages including C, C++ and HP Micro Focus Object
COBOL.
HP also ships and supports a lot of mainstream open source
products, including
Perl and
PHP, the
Apache web server and Jakarta Tomcat. The Oracle-compatible
EnterpriseDB implementation of the PostgreSQL open source
database has been optimised for HP-UX.
What makes it special?
Rather than developing its own primary file systems and
clustering solutions, HP has a long-standing relationship with
best-of-breed supplier
Veritas.
HP, thanks to the long-term success of its
OpenView product family, is particularly strong in systems
management.
How difficult is it to master?
Experienced Unix systems administrators can move to HP-UX with a
five-day course. Unix beginners will need up to 19 days. In the
same way IBM has increasingly introduced "autonomic" management
features, HP has been adding "self-healing" and auto-tuning, and
provides a "single pane of glass" view via the
HP-UX System Management Homepage.
Where is it used?
Like IBM, HP is increasing its focus on business information,
claiming that a substantial number of the world's largest data
warehouses run on HP-UX.
What systems does it run on?
On HP's PA Risc and Itanium processors.
Rates of pay
Systems administrators, £34-40k.
Training
HP runs
classroom
and online courses but provides fewer opportunities for
self-starters with no budgets to acquire its skills - there is no
equivalent to IBM's
Developerworks, for example.