Patches Intallation Error

[apple]

Dear HPUX Admin,
we encountered this error when tried to install patch in the HPUX server. what should we do?
may need to use the swreg or swacl command to give permission. or to manage applications designed and packaged for nonprovileged more, see the "runs_as_superuser" option in the "sd" man page


would really appreciate your awaiting reply.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Patches must be installed as root.

SEP

[Bob E Campbell]

As Steven mentioned the short answer is that swinstall must be run as root. The reason for this is quite simple, it is a fairly large security hole for anyone else to be able to overwrite system files.

That said, there is support in HP-UX for fine-grained priviledges. Look to the HP-UX 11i Security Containment product for more information (docs at http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-8678/index.html).

If you have or are creating a distinct product that is intended to be directly installable by a non-priviledged user then SD can support that with some dusty but supported options. If this is the intended direction let me know and I can look for more information.

[apple]

very interesting reply. what is full name for SD? thanks a lot

[Torsten.]

SD stands for software distributor.

If you want to read about history and background see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Distributor

[apple]

all the information makes my journey very interesting.
would like to seek your advice on the best practise of the patches installation. i have successfully installed the patches in one server.
i put the .tar file that i downloaded from hp pathces database in /tmp/patches

after installed, can i delete this diretory? will it impact the patches that i have installed. the contents of the /tmp/patches are:

PHSS_33903, PHSS_33903.depot, PHSS_33903.text, PHSS_34395,
PHSS_34395.depot, PHSS_34395.text, PHSS_34853, PHSS_34853.depot,
PHSS_34853.text, PHSS_36519, PHSS_36519.depot, PHSS_36519.text,
PHSS_37492, PHSS_37492.depot, PHSS_37492.text, PHSS_37498,
PHSS_37498.depot, PHSS_37498.text, PHSS_37500, PHSS_37500.depot,
PHSS_37500.text, README_hp-ux, create_depot_hpux.11.23,
depot, depot.psf, hpux__11.23_02120436.tar, patch_manifest

hope to hear from you. promise of good points for all the reply previously and future reply. thanks a lot

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

>can i delete this directory? will it impact the patches that i have installed.

Yes. No. You should be able to download them again if you need to.

You may want to keep the combined depot if you wanted to patch multiple machines.

[apple]

very Interesting, but all this while i just copy the .tar that i donwloaded from patch database to all server and untar and make depot one by one.
my understanding after this (please correct me if i'm wrong), i just need to untar and make depot in one server and transfer the depot to all the other servers w/o the need to untar and make depot in each and every servers.
2. where can i see all pathces that being installed in my server, i mean the directory that store all the patches. before this i run swlist -l product

tahnks a lot
>can i delete this directory? will it impact the patches that i have installed.

Yes. No. You should be able to download them again if you need to.

You may want to keep the combined depot if you wanted to patch multiple machines.

[Dennis Handly]

>i just need to untar and make depot in one server and transfer the depot to all the other servers w/o the need to untar and make depot in each and every servers.

Even simpler than that.
You can install other machines from that depot.
Just use:
#swinstall -s original-machine:/path/depot \*

>2. where can i see all patches that being installed in my server, i mean the directory that store all the patches. before this i run swlist -l product

The patches are installed. Only the info about the patches is in /var/adm/sw/products/.

You should just use swlist:
# swlist -l patch
# swlist -l product "PH??_*"

[Bob E Campbell]

If you are new to HP-UX patching I recommend that you download the Software Assistant (SWA) tool from https://www.hp.com/go/swa. SWA will not only help you identify recommended patches, but can be used to download directly to a depot.