Patch Corner: Patch news and best practice

I'm delighted to announce the availability of 10 new free online patch training modules.

This is the result of a lot of work from those nice people in Sun Learning Services, the Install Revenue Product Engineering (RPE, a.k.a. Sustaining) team, and my own folk.

The modules concentrate on using Live Upgrade for patching, as well as providing background on Deferred Activation Patching, Kernel patches, and other useful information.

You can access the modules as follows:

• Direct link to the course: Book 3-10: Solaris Patching Best Practices: https://learning.sun.com/solc/tblocontainer/1179270477

• MyLearning: https://learning.sun.com/display/Courses/WS-2700-S10+Solaris+10+Patching+Best+Practices
  

• Link to the Sun Online Learning Center (SOLC): https://learning.sun.com/solc/smartstart

I think even experienced Sys Admins will find the modules useful in clarifying patching best practices and providing context and background information on the evolution of patching technology and best practices in Solaris 10.

If you don't like the online course format, or if you want a reference document to refer back to after taking the course, please see the attached .pdf.

Enjoy!

Best Wishes,

Gerry Haskins,

Director, Software Patch Services

The Solaris 10 Live Upgrade Zones Starter Patch Bundle has been released.  It is designed to make it simpler for customers running on systems below Solaris 10 5/08 (Update 5) to apply the pre-requisite patch level needed to be able to utilize basic Live Upgrade functionality in a Zones environment.  These patches need to be applied to the live boot environment to enable Live Upgrade to work correctly in a Zones environment.

Aside: Customers with systems running Solaris 10 5/08 (Update 5) or later already have all the  pre-requisite patches pre-installed on the live boot environment and hence do not need to apply this patch bundle.

After this, Live Upgrade itself can be used to create an inactive boot environment and apply any additional patches referenced in SunSolve document 206844 'Solaris[TM] Live Upgrade Software: Minimum Patch Requirements' (formerly Infodoc 72099) to provide advanced Live Upgrade functionality such as support for ZFS Root. The document is available from: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-61-206844-1

The Solaris 10 Live Upgrade Patch Bundle is available from the normal patch cluster download center on SunSolve.  To download the patch bundle, login to SunSolve, http://sunsolve.sun.com , click on the Patches and Updates link, click on Recommended Patch Clusters, and scroll down the window under the heading "Recommended Solaris Patch Clusters, J2SE and Java Enterprise System Clusters" to find the "Solaris 10 SPARC Live Upgrade Zones Starter Patch Bundle" or "Solaris 10 x86 Live Upgrade Zones Starter Patch Bundle".  As always, you need a valid support contract to access patch clusters.  See previous postings for further information on support contracts.