Problem installing AXPVMS-VMS83A_MANAGE 4.0

[John Gillings]

re: patch advice on rebooting...

>Given that reality, the OpenVMS Engineering
>team should correct the admittedly long
>standing bad phrasing to something along
>the lines of what I suggested.

Historically, most patches recommend rebooting after installation. Historically. most people, like Steven, ignore the advice.

Be aware that the phrasing of the message is basically a "butt cover" (to use the American vernacular), written by lawyers and managers, not engineers. As you're aware, such people care very little about poor phrasing, indeed, they may PREFER it over accuracy, as it increases the difficulty in finding a "beyond reasonable doubt" conclusion about the precise meaning.

In the last decade or so, there have been one or two patches released where the instructions stipulate "you must reboot all nodes booted from the modified system disk IMMEDIATELY after installing this patch". If you see words to that effect, I would advise you follow them, as they were written by engineers who have identified real risks.

If you see the usual imprecise boilerplate waffle, you can probably ignore it, except to realise that if you do have problems after installing the patch, the words may be used as a legal shield to protect the guilty from any consequences.

[Steven Schweda]

> Historically, most patches recommend
> rebooting after installation. Historically.
> most people, like Steven, ignore the advice.

No, Steven ignores the advice to reboot all
"other nodes in [his] VMS cluster" when only
one system has had its system disk changed by
a patch installation. Steven is actually
pretty good about doing a reboot of a patched
system when advised to do so.

The question is not whether a patch requires
a reboot of the patched system, it's whether
a patch requires a reboot of other cluster
members whose system disks have been left
unchanged by this patch installation.

[P Muralidhar Kini]

Hi Robert,

>> The most likely correct interpretation is likely:
>> ...
Thats a good suggestion.

I have forwarded your suggestion to the concerened team here.

Regards,
Murali