Time Frame

You should begin the tasks described in this chapter as soon as possible, ideally three to four months before you plan to upgrade the system. This is not because the tasks themselves will necessarily take a great deal of your time, but to give yourself lead time to:

Order and install new hardware if you need to.
Modify pathnames (if you decide to do so) and command references, etc., in scripts and applications.
Make provision for interoperating with systems that you cannot (or decide not to) upgrade to 10.x (see Chapter 2 “Planning a Site Upgrade ”).




	NOTE: DO NOT wait until you are ready to upgrade before starting these tasks; don't expect to get all the preparation work done the same shift or weekend you do the upgrade. The pre-upgrade tools are designed so you can use them over a period of time, while the 9.x system is up and running, without inconveniencing your users or interfering with the operation of the system. The upgrade itself, on the other hand, must be done while the system is down. If you complete the procedures in this chapter before you start the upgrade, you should have your system back on line and fully operational in the minimum amount of time; if you do not, the upgrade may not succeed, and, if it does, the system is unlikely to function smoothly without considerable intervention on your part. The table that follows suggests a timetable.

Timetable for Pre-Upgrade Tasks

The table that follows provides rule-of-thumb guidelines for when to start each task (how many weeks ahead of when you plan to upgrade), roughly how much time you can expect to elapse between the start and the end of the task (including time when a program is running and you can be doing other things) and roughly how many hours of your undivided attention you should allow, in addition to the time you'll need for the actual upgrade.

Table 4-1 Title not available (Timetable for Pre-Upgrade Tasks)

Task	Start (weeks ahead)	Elapsed time	Your time (hours)
Load tools	16-20	0.5 hours	0.25
Read documentation	16-20	2-6 hours	2-6
Make procedural changes	16-20	1-4 hours	1-4
Analyze 9.x system	16-20	0.5-several hours	0.5-3
File system preparation	12-18	1 hour-many weeks	1-24
I/O-convergence preparation	12-18	1 hour-several weeks	0-8
"DUX" cluster preparation	12-18	1 hour-several days	0-8
Recheck system	2-4	0.5-3 hours	0.5-3




	NOTE: The times in the table apply to a "system," meaning a single machine. If you manage a group of systems that are similarly configured, the times apply to the first system you do the tasks on; for the remaining systems, the time you need to spend should be drastically reduced. For HP-UX ("DUX") clusters, the times apply to the cluster as a whole, and, in general, you should allow more time for larger clusters than smaller ones.

Time Frame

Technical documentation

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Timetable for Pre-Upgrade Tasks