New version of Software Assistant is available

[Bob E Campbell]

Version C.02.30 is now available from https://www.hp.com/go/swassistant. This version provides scheduled reporting and review of past reports to the HP SIM HP-UX CMS integration.

SWA is a client-side tool that allows patch and security bulletin analysis to be performed on HP-UX systems. It can be used as a command-line tool or through HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM).

Please post any comments or questions to this thread.

[Patrick Wallek]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bob. Going to download and install now.

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

This is very new version, good to hear.
I just wonder how much size do I need to install ? besides, it needs some dependencies.
I could not find in site when I glanced.

[Bob E Campbell]

There are no new dependencies so this should be able to install on any 11.23 or 11.31 system as is. On all releases the dependencies are:

Java (Jre15 r>=1.5.0.02.01, Jre60, Jre14r>=1.4.2.09.04)
Judy libraries (Judy-lib r>=B.11.11.04.00)

and 11.11 systems need patch PHSS_22898 or later

If you have HP SIM already installed on the HP-UX system, their dependencies meet ours.

As for size:
8847360 1111_0910_WEB_SWAmega1.depot
14438400 112331_0910_WEB_SWAmega1.depot

As for usage it depends on if you are just creating reports, creating multi-system reports in SIM, or creating depots from the command line. The first uses space in the users home directory while the others can use 100s of Mb under /var.

Be aware that SWA can be installed on one system and analyzer others. The impact on systems being remotely analyzed is less than 1Mb in the remote users home directory.

[Patrick Wallek]

No dependencies required, other than what is included with SWA.

You don't need much space. The download is approx. 13 MB and the /opt/swa directory itself is 28 MB after installation is complete.

You will need some room as a cache for patches is you let SWA retrieve patches from HP.

[Viveki]

Is the installation is an upgrade? Or a remove - install one?

Sorry to bother you, but I do not have a system to experiment with.

[Bob E Campbell]

The depots can be used for install or update. Check out the info available from https://www.hp.com/go/swassistant. Our friend @HP_UX_Docs on Twitter has even found a way to embed video in our user guide PDF. Let us know what you think.

There are a few odd corner cases with HP SIM, but they can all be addressed through some combination of a SIM restart and use of the script /opt/swa/lbin/configHPSIM.

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

I will use in my Lab server small c3000 and do not have extra space (this is why I asked about space), I cannot put HP SIM due to this problem, I will try just SWA as command line options.
Regards.

[Bob E Campbell]

I understand. If you are generating reports the disk space requirements are modest. You may well have more space being used by syslog or the SD logs under /var/adm/sw than SWA reporting will need.

If you wish to create depots you will need working room. On HP-UX 11.11 (11iv1) for example the QPK patch bundles require 2 x 600MB. On 11.23 this balloons to 2 x 1.6GB.

If you have an ignite or depot server, that would be the ideal place for SWA. For experimenting anywhere should be fine.

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

Thank you for your information.
I want to share specific during my trials new SWA software:

1- Server needs an internet connection to get catalog; if you see this error like me:
->>
ERROR: Failed to read: https://ftp.itrc.hp.com/wpsl/bin/doc.pl/screen=wpslDownloadPatch/swa
_catalog.xml.gz?PatchName=/export/patches/swa_catalog.xml.gz Message: URL cannot be
opened. ftp.itrc.hp.com
->>

2- 2nd issue is for HP UX 11iv1 needs patch PHSS_22898 but when you go to the patch database you will see a recommended another patch and last patch replacement here and one of them is crital fix Kernel Patch needs reboot your system:
->>
PHSS_33945passed functional, customer, stress & performance tests
posted: 2007/04/30
notes:critical fix special instructions/other dependencies

PHSS_33946passed functional and customer tests
posted: 2008/06/30
notes:special instructions/other dependencies
->>

So it seems better to apply PHSS_33945 AND dependencies; PHKL_29243 is for critical fix.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

> Hakki: want to share specific during my trials new SWA software: 1- Server needs an internet connection to get catalog; if you see this error like me:

You can configure a Proxy access with SWA if you don't have direct internet access. There is a very good discussion of the subject of access in this thread:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1334542

> 2- 2nd issue is for HP UX 11iv1 needs patch PHSS_22898...and one of them is crital fix Kernel Patch needs reboot your system:

You're making this more difficult than it is. Bob referenced a mininum (older) patch: PHSS_22898. I would take PHSS_33946 (with a 2-star rating) since this is the most recent successor patch. Yes, read the insatallation instructions, but PHSS_33946 does _NOT_ require a reboot. Besides, you said, Hakki, that your server was a "lab" one.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

>James: Yes, read the insatallation instructions, but PHSS_33946 does _NOT_ require a reboot.

No PHSS_33946 does _NOT_ require a reboot, but dependency patch PHKL_29243 requires.

-is there any way to get PHSS_33946 alone ??

-After Lab trial I was planning to put into customer servers ..

[Patrick Wallek]

>>-is there any way to get PHSS_33946 alone ??

You **SHOULD NOT** get PHSS_33946 by itself. It depends on the other 2 patches you mention. If you install a patch without its dependencies, then you risk a broken system.

[Bob E Campbell]

Hakki, PHSS_22898 dates back to December of 2000. There are 10 patches that are newer than it. Try the command:

# swlist -l fileset -a supersedes *.*,c=patch | PHSS_22898

If that finds anything then you are OK and the depot we posted at https://www.hp.com/go/swa will not reboot the system.

If it is truly missing then that system is almost a decade out of date. As fond as I am of the systems from that era, my first recommendation is to look into a new system and consolidate.

Failing that, I can tell you that in the last 9 years HP engineers have been busy. If you wish to update your environment you will need to schedule some maintenance windows.

SWA shares code with the ITRC patch assessment tools. If you cannot start with all of SWA you can download swainv from the ITRC and create an inventory. That inventory can be uploaded to the ITRC for analysis (http://www11.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/assessSystemsPage.do?BC=main|) or if you like you could post it here and I could generate an SWA HTML report for you to see what it does.

[Bob E Campbell]

Sorry! My brain meant for the fingers to give the command:

# swlist -l fileset -a supersedes *.*,c=patch | grep PHSS_22898

Read what I meant, not what I typed ;-)

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

>Bob: If that finds anything then you are OK and the depot we posted at ..

Yes , I got it. I found some patches
PHSS_26946.CORE-64SLIB PHSS_24638.CORE-64SLIB,fr=* PHSS_22898.CORE-64SLIB,fr=*
PHSS_26946.CORE-SHLIBS PHSS_24638.CORE-SHLIBS,fr=* PHSS_22898.CORE-SHLIBS,fr=*
PHSS_26946.LANG-64ALIB PHSS_24638.LANG-64ALIB,fr=* PHSS_22898.LANG-64ALIB,fr=*
PHSS_26946.LANG-MIN PHSS_24638.LANG-MIN,fr=* PHSS_22898.LANG-MIN,fr=*

,so I do not need to reboot in this case .Good news.
Thank you very much. So I am going to establish a proxy access as recommended here.
Regards.

[Bob E Campbell]

Great to here that will work for you. Let us know how things work out.