topic Re: Patch distribution in Operating System - HP-UX

Patch distribution

Peter Lachnitt — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:28:52 GMT

Hello, I have to administrate 25 Servers with hpux 10.20 on it. It?s need mutch time to install the patches manualy. Are there an easier way to do this?

Re: Patch distribution

CHRIS_ANORUO — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:33:11 GMT

Do have a look at Ignite UX network server/client functions

Re: Patch distribution

Cheryl Griffin — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 14:11:31 GMT

Ignite would be the solution. You can set up the server and identify which patches, applications, etc. to push to the clients.

The benefit of using Ignite is that you can administers many different machines with one application.

Check out the Ignite's information page at:
http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/docs.html

Specifically, the Ignite-UX Startup Guide for System Administrators will address this issue. Here's a description: "This is a cookbook approach to setting up and using an Ignite-UX server. The focus is on handling large replicated sites."
http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/docs/sysadm.html

Re: Patch distribution

Stefan Farrelly — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 14:39:51 GMT

Yes, you want the Software Distributor Push agent for ITO/Openview. This allows you to use a graphical windows to see your servers/nodes and to simply drag and drop software (patch) updates to them at the click of a mouse. Very handy for large numbers of servers.

Re: Patch distribution

Patrick Wallek — Mon, 30 Oct 2000 16:33:07 GMT

I think I have to disagree with Chris and Cheryl. I don't think Ignite would be such a good fit for pushing patches to servers. Ignite is a good utility for re-installing the OS on servers, at which time you can install the current patches, etc., from a Golden Image you create. But if you already have everything installed and just want to push out the latest patches, I don't think re-installing the OS every time is such a good solution.

I would be more inclined to go with Stefans recommendation, although I don't have any experience with that product.

Installing the patches on multiple machines is going to be tedious and time consuming. I think the route I would take is to set up a server to house the patch depots and run the installs on all the machines from there. I realize that there would still be manual intervention on all machines, but I'm not sure I would want the patches installed automatically without my input. It would be too easy for something to go wrong.

Just my 2 cents worth.