Solaris Patching with smpatch April 5, 2006
Articles
You probably want to get your Solaris systems up to date. I rather like the tool smpatch.
In order to use smpatch you first need to register the system.
 You can register a system with the following procedure (http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-9-82688-1 ):

 

 

Create a file /tmp/registration.properties:

userName=testuser
password=testpass
hostName=solaris1
subscriptionKey=abcd1234
portalEnabled=false
proxyHostName=
proxyPort=
proxyUserName=
proxyPassword=

This will register the system which hostname is solaris1 using the Sun Online Account testuser which password is testpass. This user has a Sun Service Plan so the subscriptionKey parameter is abcd1234. If you are going to register your system using a proxy, you will need to fill the 4 last parameters in the above example.

Now you can register the system:

# /usr/sbin/sconadm register -a -r /tmp/registration.properties

After a successfull registration you can just do "smpatch update" and it will apply most of the patches you need. Or you can do it step by step:

 

  •     smpatch analyze    : see what should be applied
  •     smpatch download    : download them
  •     smpatch update    : applies them

 

Again, I note that you don't need analyze and download. Update will do that.

By default, update will only install patches that are fairly safe. I.e. they can be installed with the system running normally, and won't cause trouble. Patches that require an immediate reboot will be skipped, and put into a file /var/sadm/spool/disallowed_patch_list. When you're ready to do them, kick everybody off the system, shut down as much as you can, and do

 

# smpatch add -x idlist=/var/sadm/spool/disallowed_patch_list

then reboot.