Patch Updates

[Steve Massey_1]

Hi all

I am after opinions here.

Often we see an announcement of new patches - and then sometimes later a recall.

What do you people do - are you guinea pigs and put everything in ? or do you leave it until the patches have been tried by others ??

Thanks

Steve

[James R. Ferguson]

Steve:

You can do serveral things.

1. Don't necessarily be the first. Leading is sometimes bleeding.

2. Install patch bundles on a development or "least critical" server first to see if you have any problems.

3. Install patches so you can back them out if necessary. Avoid the "no save" option by always having enough space in /var for patch application.

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Steve:

Ah, too fast; one more suggestion: When possible, apply the General Release patch bundles. They represent the best tested, integrated sets of patches that HP can certify on the broadest environments.

...JRF...

[Stefan Farrelly]

Over 80% of HP's customers use the quarterly General Release patch bundles. You should too. HP test them rigorously, even on their own internal system and selected customer sites before relasing them to the public. I havent yet seen any good reasons why some customers dont use them.

HP only recalls individual patches (OK - once they had to recall a quarterly GR bundle but that should never happen again!). If you have a particular problem or a new piece of hardware or application you may need to use individual patches for them. Some will be released later in a quarterly GR bundle so if you can wait for the GR bundle do so.
If you need to use individual patches then you take your chances - so test them as much as possible and wait as long as you can (in case HP replace it with an even newer version or recall it - this is usually done within a few weeks of release) before you go live with it.

[Cheryl Griffin]

What you do depends on your patch philosophy and the risk that you are willing to take.

Although HP does rigorous testing of the patches, some things still shake out when the patch is released and used in every un-imaginable system configuration and application environment.

Consider the risk factor.
Is the machine a production or high availability system? If the risk is high, wait until the patch has been released in the field for a while. HP's new patch status shows which patches have been field tested, and are marked "HP Recommended" in the patch database.

Is the machine non-production or test? If the risk is low, apply the patch as you see fit.

[Steve Massey_1]

Thanks All

I pretty much follow your methods - just checking

Steve