topic Re: OpenVMS patch management tools in Operating System - OpenVMS

OpenVMS patch management tools

ph0enix — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:17:54 GMT

I'm looking for a patch management program or a DCL script. I would like to run it to tell me which specific patches need to be installed on my VMS systems depending on the OS revision, installed software and patches. Have you come across such animal?

At the moment I'm running the following VMS versions:

Alpha:
7.3-2

8.3

IA64:

8.4

Ideally, I would like for the utility to work on all of the above.

Thank you! :)

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

Bob Blunt — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:46:59 GMT

phOenix, HP did offer, at one time to premium services customers and as a per-event offering, the use of software that would review your system or cluster's system disk(s) for patch level. Originally this tool was called Propatch but it has been rehosted and given another name internally. Propatch supported VMS and OpenVMS versions from before V6 through the current release for all architectures. Another company, PointSecure, offers what I believe is a similar service which may be free. There are also some other pointers at:

http://www.openvms.org/pages.php?page=Patches

Propatch worked in a very unique way and, in my experience, would be the preferred solution (granted I am biased because I maintained Propatch and it's knowledge base and understand what it compares and how it works). I'm not sure how the PointSecure tool or other publically offered tools collect their information for comparison.

bob

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

Steven Schweda — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:18:52 GMT

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

ph0enix — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:54:54 GMT

I'm a bit surprised by this response. While I realize that some patches are optional, there are some critical/recommended ones that should be installed on most if not all OpenVMS systems. Pretty much any modern OS has some sort of patch or software update management tools. I don't believe there is a need to define the "need" but I thank you for your reply anyway. :D

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

abrsvc — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:02:05 GMT

The environment in which many OpenVMS systems reside are extremely stable and do not require frequent patches as do most Windows based systems. I have a few V7.3-2 systems that have been running for years without the need for any patches at all. Other sites will have similar stats.

When patches are released, I usually see what images are affected and make the determination ion whether or not to install them. If my systems won't hit the problems listed, I don't install. I will retain the patches inhouse should my environment change and the update be needed in the future though.

Dan

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

ph0enix — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:03:41 GMT

@Bob Blunt
Thank you for the info. I have downloaded the PointSecure tool before posting yesterday but have not had a chance to play with it yet. What slightly turned me off is the fact that it's a Windows installer. I'm not sure how that works as I was expecting the tool to run on OpenVMS. I have a feeling that it's more of a vulnerability scanner than a patch management utility. I will give it a try at some point though and report back.

I would really like a DCL script that checks to see what patches are currently installed, compare the findings with HP's database of patches for the specific OS revision and come up with a list of recommended updates discarding ones that don't need to be installed (for example: my system does not need the TCP/IP Bind patch if if Bind is not installed, etc..). I'm not sure if that's even doable but that would be the ideal solution as far as I'm concerned.

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

David R. Lennon — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:26:16 GMT

Hi,

This is an area that ticks me off, too. I had a homegrown DCL script that went out to the FTP area and compared against what patches were installed on a system, similar to SHOW_PATCHES.COM - see:

http://www.openvms.org/pages.php?page=Patches

Now that there is no FTP access for patches, this becomes a manual download and feed into the command procedure using the new HP Support Center patch access. Using the web-based tools on that site are painful. I've met with HP OpenVMS management regarding the sorry state of patch automation on VMS (and tried to get some sort of FTP access restored) with no results to show for it.

If anyone has figured out how to use a VMS-based automated tool to download a file from a website (like Curl or wget) and can authenticate with a HP Passport to the HP Support Center, this could be done solely on VMS.

I've also spoken with the PointSecure data source maintainer, who is likewise somewhat manually gathering the info "by hand" off the HP Support web site using a web browser (although on VMS, I believe). Their "data base" file could be ftp downloaded and used by a command procedure on VMS. I haven't taken the time to figure out the format and do this, however.

Thanks,

Dave

Re: OpenVMS patch management tools

Steven Schweda — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:49:52 GMT