How relyable is the Custom Patch Manager?

[Ralf Seefeldt]

I have run cmp_collect.sh
on a server with patch PHKL_20477. The resulting file servername.fs contains the line:
"PUADPHKL_20477020910configured HP-UX_B.10.20_700"
The Custom Patch Manager lists this patch as not installed.
I did not edit the fs.file.
Does anyone know what can cause this problem and how reliable the results of the Custom Patch manager are?

[Paula J Frazer-Campbell]

Hi

What is the state of that patch on your server?

swlist -l patch | grep 20477


It it applied?


Paula

[Darrell Allen]

Hi,

I completely rely on CPM. I've never had an issue with it.

Have you run check_patches?

Darrell

[Stefan Farrelly]

In my experience Custom Patch Manager cant be anywhere near as good as the HP regular Quality pack (and older General Release) patch bundles. The HP patch bundles are tested rigorously before release to ensure reliability and no problems. If you use a custom patch bundle you are on your own - untested by HP - good luck!

Just because youve used the Custom patch bundle without problems doesnt mean your not going to or its anywhere as good quality control wise as an HP bundle.

Stick to the QPK/HWE HP bundles - a recent survey in /USR magazine found over 80% of all HP Sys admins use them!

[Cheryl Griffin]

Stefan your statements here are not correct.
Custom Patch Manager generates a list of needed patches based on the the patch catalog, compares it to a swlist generated from a specific machine and generates a customized patch bundle. These patches have been tested and have their respective ratings.

Your statement makes several implications that are false and lead others to not trust the tools which have been released to help make the patching process easier.

Cheryl

[Ralf Seefeldt]

Paula, I will check, after the modem is on again. But the problem, that was to be solved by the patch is now gone (actually, it is heavily decreased)
Darell, check_patches, I have only found it for HP-UX 11.00 and 11.11. I have 10.20. Is it available for 10.20?

[Stefan Farrelly]

Cheryl,

my point is HP dont test the cutom bundle as generated for a particular user. The individual patches may be tested - but not together and how they interact together in a spcific user required bundle. And theyre not tested on HP internal servers first like the quarterly bundles are. I still believe my previous comments to be correct as are these above.

Stefan

[Darrell Allen]

Sorry for the assumption that you were on 11.x. It seems check_patches is not available for 10.20.

Ross Martin offers an unsupported script to perform similar functionality in this thread:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x937c1cc6003bd6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html

Darrell

[Anil C. Sedha]

Hi Ralf,

I feel it is pretty strange that if it is installed on your system the patch manager script was not able to collect the data correctly.

I have used it on many occasions and haven't found any issues.

Probably the patch has an associate patchname and it looked for that vis-a-vis your OS.

Regards,
Anil

[Mark Landin]

Cheryl is right: The CPM does a good job of indetifying which patches are availabe that aren't installed on your particular system.

Stefan is right: CPM can easily build a patch bundle that 1) may not install properly or 2) put together two patches that do not behave well together, because HP's testing did not reveal a problem with those particular two (or more) patches being installed together. That's why the Quality Pack patches are recommended ... they undergo more testing than patches which aren't in the bundle, AND those patches are tested TOGETHER WITH all the OTHER patches in the Quality Pack.

As for the original problem, it's possible that the patch is not in a configured state. Try running swconfig to make sure all "installed" patches are actually "configured".

[Darrell Allen]

A further thought...

I agree with Stefan that the Quality Pack CD is tested as a bundle and should thus be more dependable than CPM. This may be best for many sysadmins.

I still stand by my statement that I've never had an issue with CPM. That doesn't mean that issues don't exist, I've just not ran accross them.

Also, when using CPM I'd only select the recommended patches, not the latest. Regardless of whether you use CPM or the Quality Pack, the sysadmin still needs to do his homework (check out what the patches are for, check for dependencies, and check if there are any known issues with applications you may be running).

Back to your original question: CPM will reliably package patches for installation. Things can happen when installing patches no matter the source. Patches must be verified for correct installation afterwards. check_patches makes it much easier.

Darrell