HP updates 9x9 end of support

Company trims its support plans for older K-Class HP 3000s

HP has been pointing to strong demand for its latest e3000 models, but the 3000 division (CSY) has been driving that demand with a proactive end-of-support campaign for existing systems. When the company introduced its newest A- and N-Class e3000 units in February, it said all other HP 3000s would be dropped from HP support by February of 2006. In the months after the announcement, several of the existing 9x9 “K-Class” 3000 systems have had their lifespan shortened even more.

Not long after the rollout, HP announced its Series 939KS systems and Series 959KS systems won’t be supported beyond March 31, 2003. Now even newer systems are being added to the end of support deadline well before the 2006 date. Series 969KS systems will now be dropped from HP support on December 31, 2003. These 969s are the computers first introduced in 1995, using the Tigerhawk processors which were first released in the Series 959s. The end of 2003 is the end of the line for this version of the PA-7200 processor.

For the time being, customers running Series 969 HP 3000s with the “fat cache” versions of the PA-7200 seem to have more time to remain on support. Series 969/x20 systems have an end of support date of January 31, 2006, the same date as the remainder of the 9x9 line: the Series 929KS/020 systems; Series 939KS/020s; and the more recent Series 979s and 989s.

Those 979s and 989s use the PA-8000 processors, and will apparently be the last K-Class HP 3000s to drop off HP’s support schedule, early in 2006. HP said it will discontinue selling all 9x9s sometime this year; demand has dropped off considerably for these systems with the introduction of the A-Class and N-Class e3000s.

Meanwhile, the HP-IB interface cards which are standing in the way of some customer upgrades will go off support soon. Some Series 9x8 and 99x servers use HP-IB interfaces for access to tape and disk drives, as well as printers. HP’s end of support date for these cards is August 2004. Customers can get HP’s support for the card itself through that date — but no version of MPE/iX will be supported to communicate with the cards beyond April of next year. MPE/iX 6.0 is the last version of the operating system to have HP-IB support, and HP won’t support 6.0 beyond next spring.

Third parties are stepping up to offer support for this HP-IB capable 6.0 version of MPE/iX, as well as for some HP 3000 hardware models going off support. Beechglen Development (www.beechglen.com) has been providing Account Management Support for older HP 3000s for years, including operating system support for releases HP won’t support and 9x7 support. InnerVu Corp. (http://www.innervu.com) offers software assistance for Series 9x7 systems running MPE/ix releases 5.5 through 6.5, in conjunction with service firm Terix Computer.

Sites which have HP 3000s which still carry an HP-IB interface card don’t have to pull the cards when they upgrade to MPE/iX 6.5. Gilles Schipper, who provides third-party HP 3000 support from Gilles Schipper Associates (www.gsainc.com), reports that a few harmless error messages on boot-up is all a manager has to endure to leave the HP-IB interfaces in place in Series 9x7s, 9x8s or 997s.

“There’s no problem with leaving the HP-IB card in,” Schipper said. “If you boot on 6.5 and the card and associated peripherals are configured, you will see the appropriate LLIO error and ‘higher component configuration failure’ messages, before otherwise successfully booting. If the card and associated peripherals are deleted from sysgen IO configuration, the system boots up without any error messages — as if the card did not exist.”

Schipper added that sites that like to switch among different operating systems without worrying about performing associated physical hardware removals and additions “can rest easy — 6.5 will not present a problem for you.”