Solaris 10 10/09: How to Patch Non-Global Zones in Parallel

Set the number of non-global zones that will be patched in parallel in the patchadd configuration file /etc/patch/pdo.conf. When patching in the global zone has finished, the number of non-global zones set in num_proc= are patched together.

If running a release prior to Solaris 10 10/09, download patch 119254-66 or later revision (SPARC) or 119255-66 or later revision (x86).

You must be the global administrator in the global zone to perform this procedure.

1. Become superuser, or assume the Primary Administrator role.

   To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Using the Solaris Management Tools With RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. (Optional, for releases prior to Solaris 10 10/09 only) Download patch 119254-66 (SPARC) or 119255-66 (x86).

3. In the /etc/patch/pdo.conf file, set 6 non-global zones to be patched together in parallel on a system with 4 online CPUs.

   num_proc=6

   If there are more than six non-global zones on the system, the first six will be patched in parallel, then the remaining non-global zones will be patched as processes finish patching the first six non-global zones.