HP-UX

Right now I am a Microfocus COBOL programmer, working on a HP-UX system. I want to now get Certified as a HP Certified Systems Administrator. I ordered a book from amazon and will start with it. I also will be working at my job with someone who applies the patches and things as we do NOT have a real UNIX admin! So I will get some experience at work. At home I would like a way to practice what I read. Is this possible? Is there a version of linux close enough that I can install and practice on?

One other thing...I was never good at learning from books...Any suggestions on the best way to study and practice to get ready for the test?

Thanks so much.....

Read at home, take notes on what is not clear or anything else you can think about on the subject, practice at work! (Or stay after work in your office...), you will not find a linux equivalent of HP-UX...

Thanks for the quick reply. I can practice on a live system? We do not have a test environment! I figured no linux would work, but I thought it was worth asking.

HP-UX is NOT gonna just run on any hardware, you need HP specific hardware, which will make it hard from home.

If you have any experience with Linux its not hard to use HP-UX, it just does not have all the "NICE" features that Linux has preinstalled. They basically only put in what is needed and you will have to figure out the differences. Example Linux uses GNU date command, HP-UX does not, therefore you cant use the date -d switch. I believe you COULD install a gnu version but generally that could make it hard to get support from HP.

HP-UX is pretty rock solid, we have very few problems here, and we have MANY HP-UX servers.

When I got this job in May 08 I had never touched a HP-UX system and now Im pretty confident with it. But there are some differences you will run into and have to figure out.