This should be simple - swremove question

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

Does swremove automatically restore any superceded patches? (providing the superceded patch files exist in the /var/adm/sw/save directory).

and

Does it also remove patches that are dependent on the removed patch?

I see the man page states that if 2 patches use the same fileset, that the swremove will not remove the fileset, but it doesn't state that it will remove the dependent patch.

tia,
Jeremiah

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

I am suprised, I figured that this one would be easy points for someone. Maybe the answers will come after everyone has their morning cup of coffee. :)

[Stefan Farrelly]

The answer is no, it does not remove any superceeded patches - it retains all patches in /var/adm/sw/save, unless someone runs swmodify -x patch_commit=true (which removes superceeded patches). This allows you to rollback to a previous version(s) of the patch.

And consequently, it wont remove any dependency patches either, unless someone has run the above swmodify to free up some space in /var.

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

I'm not sure now that I worded the question correctly.

I installed some hardware enablement patches and now there are some slowdowns with applications on the system.

I want to swremove one of the patches (patch1), but it is a dependecy to another patch (patch2).

patch1 also superceded another patch (patch3).

I want to remove the suspected patch1 and was wondering if the swremove command (swremove patch1) will restore patch3 from /var/adm/sw/save (its there). Also I am curious if the removal of patch1 will remove patch2 due to patch2 depending on patch1.

I think I have figured it out as follows;

yes, the swremove command will restore the old patch (patch3) while removing the new patch (patch1).

and no, the swremove command will leave the fileset that the dependent patch (patch2) requires.

So... who's on first?

[Nobody's Hero]

I would run an ignite recovery from tape or disk, prior to any patch loads.

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

I have twice weekly ignite backups going on, and the tapes are currently being recalled from the off-site storage. I am just trying to prevent a total re-ignite of the system by backing out the suspected patch first.

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeremiah:

When used with patches, 'swremove' has limitations. These differ depending on whether you are running 11.0 or 11.11+.

On 11.0 it's up to you to insure that you don't break any patch dependencies if you 'swremove' a patch. On 11.11, you cannot remove a patch required by another.

In all cases, a committed patch cannot be removed, as you already know.

An excellent, if not detailed, discussion of patch management can be found in the HP-UX Patch management document:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/pdf/5967-3578.pdf

Regards!

...JRF...

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

I will have to look at that doc in more detail a little later, its quiting time for me now. But I am using 11.00, so I will have to remove the dependent patch first. Then the patch I want off the system.


thanks,
Jeremiah

[Steven E. Protter]

Since you are using 11.00 you will have to check dependencies yourself.

go to itrc home page

patches

hp-ux

punch in the patch id of what you want to remove and check dependencies.

SEP

[Jeremiah Campbell_1]

Thanks, I had gathered that from James' reply. I was able to get all the dependency info from the support plus cd that I installed from. I don't think this was even a patch issue, but due to it (the patches) being the main change to the system between point A (system fine) and point B (system slow) it was ruled that it would be removed. It is quite possible that the job the application was trying to run was just written improperly, but as any sysadmin knows ... It's always the system's fault.

Thanks all. Appreciate the help.
Jeremiah