Corrupt patch problem

[Chris Fadrowski]

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?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris:

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

Regards!

...JRF...

[Pete Randall]

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

[Chris Fadrowski]

Thank you... points assigned.

[Dennis Handly]

>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.

[Bob E Campbell]

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.

[Torsten.]

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

[Steven E. Protter]

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

[Laurent Menase]

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.

[James R. Ferguson]

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...