How to patch Solaris 8 1

[khine]

Hello,
I have inherited a Solaris 8

#uname -a
SunOS unknown 5.8 Generic_108528-18 sun4u sparc SUNW,UltraAX-e2

which has not been updated for some time now, i guess ;(

can i presume that the 108528-18 is the last patched applied to this machine?

Also is there a patch or an easy way to update the entire server to the latest patch or do i have to do it step-by-step

Many thanks

 

[KenCunningham]

You can download the latest patch cluster from Sun and apply away!

 

[khine]

Hi,
Sorry, but where can I find the latest patch cluster, I am on my account and the patches available are:

...
SunOS5.8: 108987

Thanks

 

[khine]

OK, I found it google is my friend

 

[KenCunningham]

Indeed!

 

[daFranze]

the output from uname -a "5.8 Generic_108528-18" just means on your system is kernel update patch 108528-18 installed. This does not mean it ist the last installed patch!
run "showrev -p" or "patchadd -p" to view your current patchlevel (you propably want to use it in combination with "|more" ;-) )
There are "Patch Cluster" (others call this Service Pack or Gold Patch) available from

http://sunsolve.sun.com

or you can update your system patch by patch (nota: there might be patch dependencies which will turn your hair grey)
You could download a utility from Sun which is called patchdiag to find out how far you are behind from latest patch levels and which (recommended and security) patches are missing

Best Regards, Franz
--
UNIX System Manager from Munich, Germany

 

[khine]

Hi again,
What is the procedure to boot into single user mode from a remote shell inorder to install the patches?

I have downloaded the zip archive and am going to do

bash-2.03# cd J2SE_Solaris_8_Recommended
bash-2.03# ls
108434-21 108940-74 109326-18 111310-01 112472-01 116602-01 copyright
108435-21 108987-18 110386-03 111317-06 113648-04 117000-05 install_cluster
108528-29 108989-02 111023-03 112003-03 113886-37 117350-39 patch_order
108773-24 108993-59 111111-06 112396-03 113887-37 119067-02
108921-25 109147-40 111308-05 112438-03 115827-01 CLUSTER_README
bash-2.03# vim CLUSTER_README
bash-2.03# ./install_cluster


but after reading the CLUSTER_README there is a BIG warning!!!

Can this be done remotely?

Many thanks

 

[coffeysm]

I really would not patch a machine remotely. I mean sure you can do it, but I have had instances where it would hangup afterwards and what not. Luckily the machines are in the same room as me so it's easy to fix.

 

[SamBones]

I found a much better way to patch Solaris. You can download Solaris Patch Manager for free for Solaris 8 or 9, and it's already included with Solaris 10. It will analyze your system and download and apply patches. The good thing about it is, it analyzes your system and will only apply patches that you need. It can even patch your licensed products if you have a valid SunSolve account that covers it.

I don't think I've ever done a Solaris_8_Recommended patch cluster where I didn't have problems with it. The problem with "Recommended" is it has EVERY patch that sun currently has, even if you don't have the software it's patching.

Anyway, Patch Manager boils it all down to a single command, "[tt]smpatch[/tt]". After setting it up, the command "[tt]smpatch update[/tt]" will do the whole analysis, downloads, and apply the patches in the proper order. If you just want a list of patches that you need, "[tt]smpatch analyze[/tt]" will just tell you what you need.

Since it needs the network, you need to run it in run level 3. Make sure no users are on and the system is quiescent. Any patches that absolutely require single user mode get set up to automatically run during the next reboot. At the end it will tell you to reboot, when you do, they install. Any failed patches get put into a file that you can later use to try them again when you've corrected whatever's wrong.

If you do want to do them yourself in single user mode, you can use Patch Manager to just analyze, then download only the patches you need.

Here's a patching session on a Solaris 10 box (my commands in [tt]bold[/tt] (including my comments))...

# [b]# Set the proxy values[/b]
# [b]smpatch set patchpro.proxy.host=myproxy.mydomain.com \[/b]
> [b]patchpro.proxy.port=5150 \[/b]
> [b]patchpro.proxy.user=proxyuser \[/b]
> [b]patchpro.proxy.passwd=proxypasswd[/b]
#
# [b]# Show the settings[/b]
# [b]smpatch get[/b]
patchpro.backout.directory      -               ""
patchpro.download.directory     -               /var/sadm/spool
patchpro.install.types          -               rebootafter:reconfigafter:standard
patchpro.patch.source           -               [URL unfurl="true"]https://getupdates1.sun.com/solaris/[/URL]
patchpro.patchset               -               current
patchpro.proxy.host             myproxy.mydomain.com      ""
patchpro.proxy.passwd           ****            ****
patchpro.proxy.port             5150            8080
patchpro.proxy.user             proxyuser       ""
#
# [b]# See what needs patching[/b]
# [b]smpatch analyze[/b]
121430-11 SunOS 5.8 5.9 5.10: Live Upgrade Patch
119254-25 SunOS 5.10: Install and Patch Utilities Patch
119985-02 SunOS 5.10: perl patch
122911-01 SunOS 5.10 : Apache Patch
121004-02 SunOS 5.10: sh patch
122856-01 SunOS 5.10: sendmail patch
119213-09 NSS_NSPR_JSS 3.11.2: NSPR 4.6.2 / NSS 3.11.2 / JSS 4.2.4
118667-06 J2SE 5.0: update 7 patch, 64bit
#
# [b]# Apply all patches[/b]
# [b]smpatch update[/b]
121430-11 has been validated.
119254-25 has been validated.
119985-02 has been validated.
122911-01 has been validated.
121004-02 has been validated.
Installing patches from /var/sadm/spool...
121430-11 has been applied.
119254-25 has been applied.
119985-02 has been applied.
122911-01 has been applied.
121004-02 has been applied.
WARNING: The installer cannot find the patch.
WARNING: The installer cannot find the patch.
WARNING: The installer cannot find the patch.
/var/sadm/spool/patchpro_dnld_2006.07.18@17:33:39:PDT.txt has been moved to /var/sadm/spool/patchproSequester/patchpro_dnld_2006.07.18@17:33:39:PDT.txt
#
# [b]# It couldn't find three patches, so...[/b]
# [b]smpatch analyze[/b]
122856-01 SunOS 5.10: sendmail patch
119213-09 NSS_NSPR_JSS 3.11.2: NSPR 4.6.2 / NSS 3.11.2 / JSS 4.2.4
118667-06 J2SE 5.0: update 7 patch, 64bit
#

Here's the link to download it for Solaris 8 and 9.

http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=40c8c2ad

Anyway, this utility rocks! It makes patching a breeze!

 

[KenCunningham]

Very useful, Sam, have a star. I would only add that for the traditional method (if you like), there is a useful list of patch return codes in the FAQ to this forum. Good to check whether the code returned when patching is significant or not.