vcm - custom support pack

[Andreas Husch]

hello!

i created a few months ago a custom support pack for version 7.10 that installs all things listed by default. with the standard support pack every time 2-3 items needed to be installed manually which means more time and more work for me.

now there are a few new drivers available that were NOT part of the original support pack 7.10 and these drivers must now be installed manually after the custom support pack 7.10 is installed.

now the question: is there a way to modify the existing support pack or do i really need to create a new support pack with my extra settings?!? i´d prefer the 1st way...

a setting somewhere in the custom support pack definition that installs automatically the newest available drivers would be the best solution i think! in that way it would never be neccessary to modify a support pack.

thank you very much for your help!

brgds Andreas Husc

[Jon Ward]

Unfortunately, this feature does not yet exist.

[David Claypool]

The concept behind the Support Pack is that just because something new comes out doesn't mean everyone wants to install it--even with a new Support Pack. The majority of what drives the release of a new Support Pack is a new server introduction, and if you don't have any of the new servers, it is not necessary to install the new Support Pack. In the general spirit of "if it works, don't fix it," unless there is something called out in the specific drivers' notes that is a problem you have experienced, you don't need to install the new version just because. Of course, sometimes there are new features delivered, particularly with the agents, so check the release notes.

One of the other designs behind the Support Pack and the individual components behind it is that it will only install if the hardware supports it (if you don't have a fibre channel adapter, the driver doesn't get installed automatically, even though it is part of the Support Pack) and it won't re-install a version of something already present on the system (although you can force that behavior if you want). In other words, if Support Pack 55.1 is installed and working on a system, when Support Pack 55.2 comes out, and, let's say, the only thing different is one driver, the Support Pack is intelligent enough no to try and install again all the un-changed things;it will only update the one driver that is changed.