Sun Connection Sun Connection

Sun Connection automatically manages downloads from Sun, RedHat and Suse. When a job is sent to 100 machines, each machine requests the proper patch or RPM from the management server. The management server then goes once to the internet, downloads the patch or RPM, caches it and provides it to all the machines.

This cache size is limited to make sure the disk is not getting full. The default value, however, is relatively small – only 512 megs, so if you have a big baseline to download, it's probably not going to be enough. The following procedure will allow you to increase this cache size so you can optimize the cache operation.

Increasing the cache size in Sun Connection 1.1

All server components have "uce.rc" file with default values, and a ".uce.rc" file with values that were customized by the user. The location of the configuration file is:
$UCEDIR/server/cgi-bin/uce.rc
$UCEDIR/server/cgi-bin/.uce.rc

By default - Linux $UCEDIR is /usr/local/uce/ and Solaris $UCEDIR is /opt/SUNWuce/.
Never change the file "uce.rc". You would want to copy the relevant line from "uce.rc" into ".uce.rc" and modify it there.
The relevant line is:
( all ) ( invisible.server.__general.cache_size, 512000 );

You can easily copy this line with the following command:
# cd /usr/local/uce/server/cgi-bin/
# grep general.cache_size uce.rc >> .uce.rc
Before performing this, make sure you don’t have this line already in .uce.rc.
In addition, make sure you have enough disk space available in /usr/local/uce/server/ (or /opt/SUNWuce/server in Solaris) - that's where the cache is being stored.

Then, change the value in .uce.rc - for example, in order to get about 2.5 gigs of cache, change it to:
( all ) ( invisible.server.__general.cache_size, 2500000 );

It is recommended to have anywhere between 2.5 to 5 or even 10 gigs of cache.

You would then want to restart the server:
If the management server is installed on a Solaris machine:
# svcadm disable SUNWuce/server

Wait for the service to be offline:
# svcs –a | grep SUNWuce | grep server
disabled 10:47:21 svc:/application/SUNWuce/server:default

Restart the service:
# svcadm enable SUNWuce/server

If the management server is installed on a Linux machine:
# /etc/init.d/uce_server stop
# /etc/init.d/uce_server start

If you have any questions or suggestions for future best practices, please feel free to contact me at Eran.Steiner-AT-Sun-DOT-com.

Happy patching!

Eran Steiner
Field Enablement Team