topic Re: Corrupt patch problem in Operating System - HP-UX

Corrupt patch problem

Chris Fadrowski — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:56:05 GMT

I installed some patches on my 11.23 HPUX server. One came back "corrupt". When i look at the "state" of the patch it is indeed reporting corrupt. The system is up and running fine, but what is a good practice to deal with corrupt patches? Should i swremove the patch and re-install with a clean replacement or just leave it alone?

Re: Corrupt patch problem

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:23:15 GMT

Hi Chris:

Try installing the patch again, adding the '-x reinstall=true' and '-x reinstall_files=true' options to 'swinstall'.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Pete Randall — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:29:06 GMT

James makes a very good recommendation (of course!). I would be extremely leery of trying to swremove a patch that already has problems - what do you do if the remove fails? That's why you make an Ignite recovery tape before you start.

The only thing I would add to James' advice is to try redownloading the patch beforehand - and verify the cksum!!

Pete

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Chris Fadrowski — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:03:50 GMT

Thank you... points assigned.

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Dennis Handly — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:56:11 GMT

>Pete: try redownloading the patch beforehand - and verify the cksum!!

Typically the patch state "corrupt" isn't related to patch download problems.
This is more related to internal consistency problems with the IPD.

But if Chris still has the original depot, he can compare with a new one.

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Bob E Campbell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:04:03 GMT

When you reinstall the patch is is possible that the rollback information will not be in a valid state. You might consider committing that patch to eliminate the risk of a future failure. A command of the form:

# swmodify -x patch_commit=true PATCH

where "PATCH" is replaced by the patch in question.

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Torsten. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:08:44 GMT

Thats the reason why I like DRD - you patch the OS clone only. If something goes wrong, you have still the original version.

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:24:48 GMT

Shalom,

swverify \*

# Helps spot corrupt patches.

I've found sometimes problems with the patch download process leads to corrupt installations. These patches include check sum information and it is worth ones time to confirm the check sum is what is expected.

Also if possible to download patches using the ftp scripting method puts in an extra check, to make sure the whole thing comes down.

I would swremove any corrupt patches, check the downloads, and re-do the downloads followed by swinstall of the new patch sets.

SEP

Re: Corrupt patch problem

Laurent Menase — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:24:43 GMT

e carefull when using reinstall=true flag
if you reinstall a base patch like PHKL_31500, and not the superseding ones result may be worse that before.
so be sure to reapply a full bundle.

Re: Corrupt patch problem

James R. Ferguson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:57:15 GMT

Hi (again):

> SEP: I've found sometimes problems with the patch download process leads to corrupt installations.

You should re-read Dennis's comment. That said, SWA uses MD5 sums to verify its downloaded software. Even fetching individual patches from the ITRC and using the 'create_depot' shell script does a simple 'cksum' after unpacking.

@ Laurent: Yes, good point. THere are some "line-in-the-sand" patches that need extra special handling and reinstalling them can lead to horendous problems :-)

Regards!

...JRF...