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

software distribution

navin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:52:05 GMT

Hello All,

I have merely 20 to 25 servers combination of hp risc and itanium based servers with 11.23 and v1 ,v2 OS insatlled. I'm looking for a solution that i can centrally install the softear on one system and distribute(like rdist) to all the servers. Any recommendation would be appreciable.
Thanks Much

Re: software distribution

Torsten. — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:58:03 GMT

You can "swcopy" the depots to one server, register the depot and install the software to other servers from there.

Example:
hostA:
# swcopy -s

hostB:
# swinstall -s hostA:/path-to-depot

Re: software distribution

navin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:03:44 GMT

Thanks Much - But I have to do it for all servers at once.
Please advice.
Thanks Much

Re: software distribution

Duncan Edmonstone — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:09:24 GMT

Navin,

You can swinstall software from a central location to more than one host at a time. I'd want to be pretty confident that the config of my hosts is consistent before attempting this though.

Here's an example from an older post of mine:

Let's assume you have your software called foo in a sd-ux depot called /tmp/bar.depot on nodeA and you want to install it to nodeB nodeC and nodeD

So first you need to make sure that nodes B, C and D trust nodeA for installtions so you need to run the following on each:

/usr/lib/sw/mx/setaccess nodeA

Now we should be able to run the following in nodeA

swinstall -s nodeA:/tmp/bar.depot foo @ nodeB nodeC nodeD

And that should install the software foo from the depot /tmp/bar.depot on nodeA onto the other 3 nodes.

Of course there are lots of extra variables that can come into play when installing software such as whether there is sufficient space, whether there are dependencies, whethere they require a reboot or not so all the other rules about runnning in preview mode first etc. still apply

HTH

Duncan

Re: software distribution

Torsten. — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:12:47 GMT

You can issue the install command from serverA, specify serverB as source and serverC and serverD as target, example:

serverA# swinstall -s serverB productA @ serverC serverD

for more information see
man swinstall

Re: software distribution

navin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:15:59 GMT

Thanks so much for the helpful hints. How should i do the preview install - i never done that before.
Thanks Much

Re: software distribution

Duncan Edmonstone — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:45:06 GMT

Navin,

To preview an install just add a '-p' to the swinstall command:

swinstall -p -s nodeA:/tmp/bar.depot foo @ nodeB nodeC nodeD

HTH

Duncan

Re: software distribution

navin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:40:00 GMT

Thanks .What could be the pros and cons on doing software distribution. I agree that i got to make sure couple of items on the target servers like space , truts to master server ,etc.
Thanks much

Re: software distribution

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:13:33 GMT

Hi:

> What could be the pros and cons on doing software distribution.

You have a central depot that you can build with a master set of patches and products. The overhead of building the depot occurs once, on the "master" server. The application of the depot contents is simply a remote operation. You might find this document useful:

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-2146/index.html

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: software distribution

Bill Hassell — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:45:37 GMT

The SD (Software Distributor) subsystem is designed to to accomplish exactly what you want. A central system acts as the depot server and all the other machines can install the needed software on command (ie, cron job or remote ssh execution).

As far as planning, like any software package, every installation must be examined for adequate space in /tmp, /var, /opt and /usr. The preview option can be run prior to each installation and the results examined, changes made as necessary.

NOTE: SD is primarily used by HP for HP-UX products, applications and patches. Many non-HP products are supplied as tar files and distribution/installation can be very difficult. A lot more planning and offline testing is required for these products.