HP-UX 11i v3 Installation and Update Guide, March 2011 (Edition 9.2)

Choosing cold-install or update
Now that you have evaluated your system and ordered any needed hardware, you need to decide
whether to cold-install or update to HP-UX 11i v3 on your system.
When to cold-install
NOTE: If you have ordered a new system with the Instant Ignition option (also known as factory
integrated), the cold-installation process described here has already been performed. You can skip
this section.
Cold-install means installing system software on a new (uninstalled) or existing system by completely
rebuilding the root volume group, erasing the existing operating system and data on that volume,
and installing the new operating system and specified software and data.
CAUTION: The cold-install process erases software on the root volume before installing. If you
want to retain any existing software, make sure to back up that software before migrating or use
update. Cold-installing using Ignite-UX overwrites everything on the target volume.
You can cold-install rather than update to HP-UX 11i v3 when:
• You have a new system.
• You are managing several systems with similar OS configurations.
• Your disk space needs reconfiguration. See “Determining disk space requirements” (page 10).
• Your systems are organized with clean separation of the OS from user, application, and data
files.
• Overwriting the root (/) volume on existing systems will not cause a loss of applications or
data.
• Your system configuration is not listed as a supported update path. See “Supported update
paths” (page 17).
An advantage of cold-install is that supported software can be installed without regard for the
software currently on the system, or concern for cleaning up old software.
You can cold-install on any supported system. See “Supported systems” (page 10).
For information about choosing installation and update sources, see “Choosing an installation
source” (page 18).
See Chapter 4: “Before you begin” (page 20) for more information about preparing your system
for cold-install. Then read the cold-install process using Ignite-UX in Chapter 5: “Cold-installing
HP-UX 11i v3 from local media” (page 31).
When to update
Update means using update-ux to selectively overwrite the operating system and application
software from a DVD or network source depot.
You can update to HP-UX 11i v3 from HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23). Updating from any other HP-UX
OS directly to HP-UX 11i v3 is not supported. You must first update to an HP-UX 11i v2 Operating
Environment. If you want to migrate from HP-UX 11i v1 to HP-UX 11i v3 by updating, see the
HP-UX 11i v2 Installation and Update Guide for information on how to update from HP-UX 11i v1
to HP-UX 11i v2 first.
You can update rather than cold-install HP-UX 11i v3 when:
• You are updating from a supported HP-UX 11i v2 or HP-UX 11i v3 system. See “Supported
update paths” (page 17) for specific details.
• You are concerned about recovering unique applications and data on your root volume, and
do not want to write over non-OS files, which occurs when cold-installing HP-UX 11i v3.
16 Choosing your installation methods