SUMMARY: Q: Solaris 9 Sparc "smpatch", SMC issues -> Recommended Standard Solution(s) ?

Hi All,

As I should have maybe suspected, there was a resounding zero response on
this query. Likely too far into the domain of "That lazy clod, why can't he
read and learn this kind of trivial stuff on his own, without bogging down
the mailing list!?!?" I would guess (which is a legitimate complaint
actually).

I've had further attempts at getting smpatch and SMC working, but given the
importance of "patching-over-elegance", I resorted to the "classic" (easy)
solution of downloading the latest recommended patch cluster (~150meg
zipfile), scheduling some maintenance time and applying patches in
single-user mode via ./install_cluster.  Of course, this has worked just
fine.  I'm just saddened that it was so easy to get smpatch working on
Solaris8, but that on Solaris9 it appears to be ... significantly less
straightforward.

Possibly when I have "plenty of spare time" I'll be able to get smpatch
working on my Solaris9 boxes. Until then, Jumbo Patchers Unite! (etc)

Many thanks all for tolerating my noise on the list. Hopefully my next
query/posting will be more relevant.

--Tim Chipman


---Original Posting Follows---

Hi all,

I'm in the process of patching a group of servers which have been ... left
unpatched .. by previous sysadmins for a variety of reasons.  I used
"smpatch" on a few solaris8 machines with great success and I was very happy
with the outcome.

Alas, I have tried using the "same" (at least in name) tool on
Solaris9/Sparc platform, and have been having difficulties in actually
getting it to work.  I gather that the product has evolved since sun
originally released it, with dependencies on "patchpro" at one time (which
is no longer available for Sol9Sparc it seems) and thus a variety of
subsequent patches and packages needed to try to work around this
"evolution".

I've attempted to update the "sun management console" with (initially,
112945-34 but then more appropriately, 112945-40 - the latest iteration of
this patch/package) - alas, now when I try to start SMC from cmd-line as
root, it simply sits there "all day long" with a friendly message,
"Configuring the Management Server..... starting the server for the first
time may take a few minutes .. please wait until you see 'welcome to the
solaris management console'"... but NO progress..

Command line on this machine tells me that smpatch cannot connect to the
SMC, while contradictory info from SMC daemon suggests otherwise:

---paste---
root@box #  /usr/sadm/bin/smpatch download -p PASSWORD -u pmuser --
There is no Solaris Management Console Server running on kt-4800.

root@box #  /etc/init.d/init.wbem status
Solaris Management Console server version 2.1.0 running on port 898.
---endpaste---

It seems that the new improved patch solutions run best on Solaris 10, but
I'm NOT keen to migrate our boxes just to gain access to easier patch
management... but I'm also less keen to remain "in the dark ages" and revert
back to patching via bulk-download of jumbo-patch-clusters which are applied
"forever" while machines sit in single user mode for the whole process.

If anyone has comments to shed light on what things are "relatively doable"
without too much pain, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also for reference, the machine in question is running: (more or less
unpatched, from what I can tell:)

----paste----
root@box # cat /etc/release
                        Solaris 9 8/03 s9s_u4wos_08a SPARC
           Copyright 2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
                        Use is subject to license terms.
                             Assembled 13 June 2003

----endpaste----


Many thanks for assistance .. summary to follow (of course)

---Tim Chipman
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