HP-UX (PA-RISC|Itanium) virtualisation on (x86-64|x86)

I'm looking for a way to run HP-UX (for educational purposes), but I don't have HP hardware right now.

These options are not very suitable for me:

  • HP TestDrive program - Looks like it was discontinued 2 years ago.
  • Ski - looks like only CPU emulator. Is it worth trying?
  • HPPAQEMU - Patch for old Qemu for HPPA-Linux guest-OS only. Is it worth trying?
  • hp-ux Aires - I don't need to visualize HP-PA on HP-Itanium. That question is about using HP-UX without HP hardware.

A year ago I was working as a system integrator at TTI Telecom and now I'm (self-|un)employed and don't want to look for job right now because of institute graduation. TTI and some other companies with offices in my city use HP-UX. So better knowledge of HP-UX could be a very useful skill if I decide to work there.


Solution 1:

Buy an old server or workstation? I don't see a lot on eBay, but if you could find one locally, I bet a lot of places are like the last place I worked: we threw out a couple of 712 workstations that had been used for testing, and when I left there was still a E55 server sitting unplugged in the corner.

Solution 2:

I agree with Ward's post. For an Itanium/HPUX box you can get a ZX6000 off ebay - a lightly configured one can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. Older PA-RISC boxes can be purchased even cheaper.

Solution 3:

I can only offer some pointers:

QEmu virtualization instructions from April 2019:

Blog post: "Running HP-UX 11.11 on qemu-system-hppa" https://astr0baby.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/running-hp-ux-11-11-on-qemu-system-hppa/

Video: "HP-UX 11.11 on qemu-system-hppa with retro-terminal" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd3wTWO3IIs

Future HP-UX containers on Linux announced in May 2017:

"HPE offers an escape from the aging HP-UX OS -- with containers" https://www.computerworld.com/article/3195952/hpe-offers-an-escape-from-the-aging-hp-ux-os-with-containers.html

  • "HPE will provide containers to transition from conventional mainframe-style OSes to new hardware like x86-based Xeon servers. In this case, HPE is trying to get users to transition from Itanium chips."

  • "We will enable customers to re-host their HP-UX workloads on Linux-based containers running on industry-standard x86 servers in the future"

Cloud VPS

There are also a few HP-UX cloud hosts but they are expensive for individuals (upwards of $20 per day).