Following the discontinuation of Itanium processors, support for HP-UX ended on December 31, 2025.[3][4] HP-UX 11i remains certified toThe Open Group'sUNIX 03 standard. Previous releases were certified to the UNIX 95 standard.[5][6]
HP-UX 11i offers a common shared disks for its clustered file system.HP Serviceguard is thecluster solution for HP-UX. HP Global Workload Management adjusts workloads to optimize performance, and integrates with Instant Capacity on Demand so installed resources can be paid for in 30-minute increments as needed for peak workload demands.
HP-UX offersoperating system-level virtualization features such as hardware partitions, isolated OS virtual partitions on cell-based servers, andHP Integrity Virtual Machines (HPVM) on all Integrity servers. HPVM supports guests running on HP-UX 11i v3 hosts – guests can runLinux,Windows Server,OpenVMS or HP-UX. HP supports online VM guest migration, where encryption can secure the guest contents during migration.
HP-UX 11i v3 scales as follows (on a SuperDome 2 with 32 Intel Itanium 9560 processors):
Release 6.x (together with 3.x) introduced the context dependent files (CDF) feature, a method of allowing afileserver to serve different configurations and binaries (and even architectures) to different client machines in a heterogeneous environment. A directory containing such files had itssuid bit set and was made hidden from both ordinary and root processes under normal use. Such a scheme was sometimes exploited by intruders to hide malicious programs or data.[10] CDFs and the CDF filesystem were dropped with release 10.0.
This sectionis missing information about something. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(July 2013)
HP-UX operating systems supports a variety ofPA-RISC systems. The 11.0 added support forIntegrity-based servers for the transition from PA-RISC toItanium. HP-UX 11i v1.5 is the first version that supported Itanium. On the introduction of HP-UX 11i v2 the operating system supported both of these architectures.[11]
HP-UX 11i v2 and 11i v3 support HP's CX series servers. CX stands for carrier grade and is used mainly for telco industry with -48V DC support and is NEBS certified. Both of these systems containItanium Mad6M processors and are discontinued.
Prior to the release of HP-UX version 11.11, HP used a decimalversion numbering scheme with the first number giving the major release and the number following the decimal showing the minor release. With 11.11, HP made amarketing decision to name their releases 11i followed by a v(decimal-number) for the version. Thei was intended to indicate the OS isInternet-enabled, but the effective result was a dual version-numbering scheme.
HP-UX 11 logo; starting in 2000, the logo and version number were appended with ani to denote an Internet-enabled OSLogo used from 2010 to 2012
1.0 (1982)
First release forHP 9000 Series 500. HP-UX for Series 500 was substantially different from HP-UX for any other HP machines, as it was layered atop a Series 500 specific operating system called SUNOS (unrelated toSun Microsystems'SunOS).[13]
1.0 (1984)
AT&T System III based. Support for theHP Integral PC (HP 9807A). The kernel runs from ROM; other commands are disk based.
2.0 (1984)
First release for HP's earlyMotorola 68000-based workstations (HP 9816U, HP 9826U, HP 9836U)
5.0 (1985)
AT&T System V based. Distinct versions were available for the Integral PC, the Series 200/300 and the Series 500. Introduced the proprietaryStarbase graphics API for the Series 200, 300 and 500. The Series 300 5.x releases included a proprietarywindowing system built on top of Starbase namedHP Windows/9000, which was also available as an optional extra for Series 500 hardware.[14]
3.x (1988)
HP 9000 Series 600/800 only. Note: 2.x/3.x (for Series 600/800) were developed in parallel with 5.x/6.x (for Series 200/300/400), so, for example, 3.x was really contemporary with 6.x. The two lines were united at HP-UX 7.x.
6.x (1988)
Support for HP 9000 Series 300 only. Introduced sockets from4.3BSD. This version (together with 3.x) also introduced the above-discussed context dependent files (CDF), which were removed in release 10 because of their security risks. The 6.2 release addedX11, superseding HP Windows/9000 and X10.[15] 6.5 allowed Starbase programs to run alongside X11 programs.
7.x (1990)
Support for HP 9000 Series 300/400, 600/700 (in 7.03) /800 HP systems.[16] ProvidedOSF/Motif. Final version to include the HP Windows/9000 windowing system.[17]
8.x (January 1991)
Support for HP 9000 Series 300/400 600/700/800 systems.[16] Shared libraries introduced.HP-UX 9.0 installation software on QIC cartridge, 1992
9.x (July 1992)
9.00, 9.02, 9.04 (Series 600/800), 9.01, 9.03, 9.05, 9.07 (Series 300/400/700), 9.08, 9.09, 9.09+ (Series 700 only), 9.10 (Series 300/400 only). These provided support for the HP 9000 Series 300, 700 and 800 systems. IntroducedSystem Administration Manager (SAM). TheLogical Volume Manager (LVM) was presented in 9.00 for the Series 800. Adopted theVisual User Environment desktop.
10.0 (1995)
This major release saw a convergence of the operating system between the HP 9000 Series 700 (workstation) and Series 800 (server) systems, dropping support for previous lines. There was also a significant change in the layout in the system files and directories, based on theAT&TUNIX System V Release 4 standard. Applications were removed from /usr and moved under /opt; startup configuration files were placed under /etc/rc.config.d; users were moved to /home from /users. Software for HP-UX was now packaged, shipped, installed, and removed via theSoftware Distributor (SD) tools. LVM was also made available for Series 700.
This release included support for 64-bitPA-RISC 2.0 processors.Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) were introduced for use withinCDE. The root file system could be configured to use theVeritas File System (VxFS). For legacy as well as technical reasons, the file system used for the bootkernel remained Hi Performance FileSystem (HFS, a variant ofUFS)[19] until version 11.23. 10.20 also supported 32-bit user and group identifiers. The prior limit was 60,000, or 16-bit. This and earlier releases of HP-UX are now effectively obsolete, and support by HP ended on June 30, 2003.[20]
10.24
This is aVirtual Vault release of HP-UX, providing enhanced security features. Virtual Vault is a compartmentalised operating system in which each file is assigned a compartment and processes only have access to files in the appropriate compartment and unlike most other UNIX systems the superuser (or root) does not have complete access to the system without following correct procedures.
10.30 (1997)
This was primarily a developer release with various incremental enhancements. It provided the first support for kernel threads, with a 1:1 thread model (each user thread is bound to one kernel thread).
11.00 (1997)
The first HP-UX release to also support 64-bit addressing. It could still run 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system. It supportedsymmetric multiprocessing,Fibre Channel, andNFS PV3. It also included tools and documentation to convert 32-bit code to 64-bit.
11.04
Virtual Vault release.
11.10
This was a limited release to support the HP 9000 V2500 SCA (Scalable Computing Architecture) and V2600 SCA servers. It also added JFS 3.3, AutoFS, a new ftpd, and support for up to 128 CPUs. It was not available separately.
11.11 (2000) – 11i v1
This release of HP-UX introduced the concept of Operating Environments. It was released in December 2000. These are bundled groups of layered applications intended for use with a general category of usage. The available types were the Mission Critical, Enterprise, Internet, Technical Computing, and Minimal Technical OEs. (The last two were intended forHP 9000 workstations.) The main enhancements with this release were support for hard partitions,Gigabit Ethernet,NFS overTCP/IP,loadable kernel modules, dynamic kernel tunable parameters, kernel event Notifications, and protected stacks.
11.20 (2001) – 11i v1.5
This release of HP-UX was the first to support the new line ofItanium-based (IA-64) systems. It was not intended formission critical computing environments and did not support HP's ServiceGuard cluster software. It provided support for running PA-RISC compiled applications on Itanium systems, and forVeritas Volume Manager 3.1.
11.22 (2002) – 11i v1.6
An incremental release of theItanium version of HP-UX. This version achieved 64-wayscalability,m:nthreads, added more dynamic kernel tunable parameters, and supported HP's Logical Volume Manager on Itanium. It was built from the 11i v1 source code stream.
11.23 (2003) – 11i v2
The original release of this version was in September 2003 to support the Itanium-based systems. In September 2004 the OS was updated to provide support for both Itanium and PA-RISC systems. Besides running on Itanium systems, this release includes support forccNUMA, web-based kernel and device configuration,IPv6, and stronger random number generation.
11.31 (2007) – 11i v3
This release supports both PA-RISC and Itanium.[21] It was released on February 15, 2007.[22] Major new features include nativemultipathing support, a unified file cache,NFSv4, Veritas ClusterFS, multi-volume VxFS, and integratedvirtualization.Hyperthreading is supported on Itanium systems withMontecito andTukwila processors. HP-UX 11i v3 conforms toThe Open Group's UNIX 03standard.[23] Updates for 11i v3 were released once a year, with the final update, 2505.11iv3,[1] released in May 2025.
HP bundles HP-UX 11i with programs in packages they call Operating Environments (OEs).[24]
The following lists the currently available HP-UX 11i v3 OEs:
HP-UX 11i v3Base OE (BOE)
Includes the full HP-UX 11i operating system plus file system and partitioning software and applications for Web serving, system management and security. BOE includes all the software formerly in FOE & TCOE (see below), plus software formerly sold stand-alone (e.g. Auto Port Aggregator).
HP-UX 11i v3Virtualization Server OE (VSE-OE)
Includes everything in BOE plus GlancePlus performance analysis and software mirroring, and all Virtual Server Environment software which includesvirtual partitions,virtual machines, workload management, capacity advisor and applications. VSE-OE includes all the software formerly in EOE (see below), plus additional virtualization software.
HP-UX 11i v3High Availability OE (HA-OE)
Includes everything in BOE plus HP Serviceguard clustering software for system failover and tools to manage clusters, as well as GlancePlus performance analysis and software mirroring applications.
HP-UX 11i v3Data Center OE (DC-OE)
Includes everything in one package, combining the HP-UX 11i operating system with virtualization. Everything in the HA-OE and VSE-OE is in the DC-OE. Solutions for wide-area disaster recovery and the compiler bundle are sold separately.[25]
HP-UX 11i v2 (11.23)
HP dropped support for v2 in December 2010.[26] Currently available HP-UX 11i v2 OEs include:
HP-UX 11i v2Foundation OE (FOE)
Designed for Web servers, content servers and front-end servers, this OE includes applications such as HP-UX Web Server Suite,Java, and Mozilla Application Suite. This OE is bundled as HP-UX 11i FOE.
HP-UX 11i v2Enterprise OE (EOE)
Designed for database application servers and logic servers, this OE contains the HP-UX 11i v2 Foundation OE bundles and additional applications such as GlancePlus Pak to enable an enterprise-level server. This OE is bundled as HP-UX 11i EOE.
HP-UX 11i v2Mission Critical OE (MCOE)
Designed for the large, powerful back-end application servers and database servers that access customer files and handle transaction processing, this OE contains the Enterprise OE bundles, plus applications such asMC/ServiceGuard and Workload Manager to enable a mission-critical server. This OE is bundled as HP-UX 11i MCOE.
HP-UX 11i v2Minimal Technical OE (MTOE)
Designed for workstations running HP-UX 11i v2, this OE includes the Mozilla Application Suite,Perl,VxVM, and Judy applications, plus theOpenGL Graphics Developer's Kit. This OE is bundled as HP-UX 11i MTOE.
HP-UX 11i v2Technical Computing OE (TCOE)
Designed for both compute-intensive workstation and server applications, this OE contains the MTOE bundles plus extensive graphics applications,MPI and Math Libraries. This OE is bundled as HP-UX 11i-TCOE.
HP-UX 11i v1 (11.11)
According to HP's roadmap,[26] was sold through December 2009, and supported until December 2015.[27]
^"HP-UX support matrix".HPE Integrity: standard support through 31-Dec-20255 Mature Software Product Support without Sustaining Engineering through at least 31-Dec-2028
^Wang, Scott W. Y.; Lindberg, Jeff B. (March 1984)."HP-UX: Implementation of UNIX on the HP 9000 Series 500 Computer Systems".Hewlett-Packard Journal.35 (3):7–15. RetrievedOctober 4, 2020.The basic strategy of the HP-UX implementation is to layer the HP-UX kernel definition on top of the SUN kernel. The exact System III UNIX semantics and syntax are kept, but the HP-UX intrinsics are implemented using SUN kernel support instead of porting the Bell Laboratories kernel implementation to the Series 500.
^"HP Catalog 1987"(PDF). Hewlett-Packard. 1987.Archived(PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. RetrievedOctober 26, 2021.
