Updating the Software on Your Oracle Solaris 11 System

With IPS, you can update all of the packages on your system that have available updates, or you can update individual packages that are not constrained by the system. If a package is constrained, an appropriate message indicating why it has been constrained is provided. Package constraints generally represent a dependency or a versioning issue. For all package update operations, either a new BE is created or a backup BE is created before applying the software updates to the running BE.

The following options are available:

• Adding software packages after an installation – The Live Media contains a set of software that is appropriate for a desktop or laptop. The text installation media contains a smaller set of software that is more appropriate for a general-purpose server system. The text installer does not install the GNOME desktop. To add packages, including the Oracle Solaris Desktop (GNOME 2.30), after a text installation, see Adding Software After Text Installation in Installing Oracle Solaris 11 Systems.

• Updating all of the packages on your installed system – To update all of the packages on your system that have available updates, use the pkg update command, as follows:

  # pkg update

  Running this command updates packages that you might not otherwise consider updating, for example, kernel components and other low-level system packages.

  See an example of using this command to update a BE in Managing Boot Environments.

  Display those packages on a system that require an update without actually installing the packages.

  # pkg update -nv --accept

  You can also perform updates by using Package Manager and Update Manager. See Chapter 2, IPS Graphical User Interfaces, in Adding and Updating Oracle Solaris 11 Software Packages.

  To upgrade a system that is running Oracle Solaris 11 Express or the Oracle Solaris Early Adopter release, see Oracle Solaris 11 Release Notes.

• Adding or updating individual packages – To add individual software packages, use the pkg install command. Any dependent packages are also updated at the same time.

  Install an individual package as follows:

  # pkg install communication/im/pidgin

  Update an individual package as follows:

  # pkg update system/management/ocm

• Install package updates that deliver fixes– A pkg update operation might include bug fixes, so the operation is similar to applying a specific patch or patches in previous Oracle Solaris releases.

Installing Maintenance Updates on an Oracle Solaris 11 System

Oracle customers with an active Oracle support plan have access to the support package repository so that you can routinely update your Oracle Solaris 11 systems. Updates to the support repository are called Support Repository Updates (SRUs) and occur on a regular basis. See How to Configure the Oracle Solaris support Repository.

• SRUs – Updates from the Oracle Solaris 11 support repository are available as support repository updates (SRUs). SRUs take the place of maintenance updates or patch bundles that are available for Oracle Solaris 10 releases.

• Future Oracle Solaris 11 releases – Future Oracle Solaris 11 releases will be available in the support repository or a release repository that provides the currently available OS.

The following summary provides information about selecting the update method that work best for your environment.

• Desktop systems or laptops – In a desktop environment, you are notified of package updates by the desktop application, Update Manager.

• Development systems – You can use the pkg update operation to apply a specific fix or apply an SRU to these systems to assess the impact of your applications that are currently under development. A pkg update operation is applied to the running BE, and a backup BE is created for recovery purposes. A new BE is created when an SRU is applied. and you can fall back to the original BE, if necessary.

• Production systems – In a large enterprise environment, SRUs can be applied to a non-production system to assess the impact of the OS changes to the currently running production environment. If the non-production system remains stable after the SRU installation and assessment is complete, the SRU can be applied to a new BE on the production system, and you can fall back to the original BE, if necessary.

How to Configure the Oracle Solaris support Repository

Use the following steps to configure the support repository, if you want to update your Oracle Solaris 11 FCS release. If you want to upgrade your Oracle Solaris 11 Express or Early Adopter system from the support repository, see the Oracle Solaris 11 Release Notes.

1. Log into the following site.

   http://pkg-register.oracle.com/

2. Download the SSL key and certificate for the Oracle Solaris 11 release.

   Consider creating a directory inside /var/pkg to store the key and certificate.

   # mkdir -m 0755 -p /var/pkg/ssl
   # cp -i Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.key.pem /var/pkg/ssl
   # cp -i Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.certificate.pem /var/pkg/ssl

3. Copy the key and certificate from the directory that you downloaded the key and certificate into this directory.

   The key files are kept by reference, so if the files become inaccessible to the packaging system, you will encounter errors.

4. Set the publisher to the support repository.

   # pkg set-publisher \
               -k /var/pkg/ssl/Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.key.pem \
               -c /var/pkg/ssl/Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.certificate.pem \
               -O https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support solaris

5. Install the updated packages from the support repository, if desired.

   # pkg update

   As mentioned previously, this operation updates the packages on the system with the latest package versions either by creating a new BE or creating a backup BE.