13.1 Introduction to HP Workstations and Servers | HP Certified: HP-UX System Administration

On older machines, HP used 700-series numbering on workstations and 800-series numbering on servers. This convention has been changed, and all of these systems are now called 9000-series servers and workstations. The most common types of HP servers for entry-level solutions are the L-series, A-series, and R-series. For midrange use, K-Series and N-Series servers are recommended. The V-series servers are the most powerful machines from HP. These are considered best for performance, availability, and scalability. HP-UX workstations have the high performance and graphical capabilities required for personal or office use.

HP-UX has both 32-bit and 64-bit capabilities. Not all HP servers and workstations can run 64-bit HP-UX. Before installation, you need to know which CPU you have and whether it supports the 64-bit version of operating system.

Processor Dependent Code (PDC) is used to check and verify hardware configuration at boot time. It detects and shows what hardware devices are available to the system. From an installation point of view, you use PDC to determine the disks and CD-ROM drives attached to the system so that you may specify the installation device and boot options. There are minor differences in PDC commands for different servers and workstations. After checking the attached devices, the PDC tries to boot a machine from the primary boot device. You can interrupt the automatic boot process to check what commands are available on your system or boot from a device other than the primary boot device. There are other installation differences between servers and workstations, but in general the procedure applies to both. If you have installed HP-UX on one machine, you are able to install it on the other.

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