Local-Mode Command-Line Interface

On Solaris 8 systems, you can only run smpatch in local mode.

Starting with Solaris 9, the smpatch command is available in two modes: local mode and remote mode. Local mode can only be run on the local system. This mode can be run while the system is in single-user or multiuser mode. Remote mode can be used to perform tasks on remote systems. Both local mode and remote mode can be used by users or roles that have the appropriate authorizations.

By default, smpatch runs in local mode. In local mode, the Solaris WBEM services are not used, and none of the authentication options or options that refer to remote systems are available. The smpatch command in local mode runs faster than in remote mode.

If you specify any of the remote or authentication options (except for -L), remote mode is used.

Single-User Mode Operations in Local Mode

You can use the smpatch add command in local mode to apply updates while the system is in single-user mode. Apply updates in this way when the updates are associated with the singleuser update property, or when you want to apply any updates to a quiet system.

Use only the smpatch add, smpatch order, and smpatch remove commands to manage updates when your system is running in single-user mode.

You can configure your update management environment while the system is running in single-user mode by using the smpatch get, smpatch set, and smpatch unset commands.

Do not use the smpatch analyze, smpatch download, and smpatch update commands while the system is running in single-user mode. These commands depend on network services that are not available while the system is in single-user mode.

Some updates cannot be automatically applied to your system if they do not meet the policy for applying updates. These updates might need to be applied manually in single-user mode.

Updates that require an immediate reboot or reconfiguration reboot after applying them are not applied immediately. Instead, these updates are automatically applied during a scheduled system shutdown.

The smpatch Live Upgrade Support Feature

This new feature enables users to install all updates in multi-user mode, instead of deferring the updates that require a system-restart to single-user mode.

To activate live upgrade support, you can use the -b boot-env option with the smpatch add, smpatch remove, or smpatch update commands, where -b is the boot environment and the value boot-env is the name of the specific boot environment. The command syntax is as follows:.

smpatch -add -b boot-env

The current boot environment is copied to the specified boot environment. The chosen updates are applied to the specified boot environment. The specified environment will be activated so that on reboot, the system will run the newly updated boot environment instead of the current one.

After you run the smpatch command with the selected option, a message appears on the command-line prompting you to restart the system at a convenient time.

If you run the smpatch command once again specifying the same boot environment, the changes made by any earlier command are lost. The system applies the most recent set of changes. This issue does not apply when you use the smpatch -update command, because this command installs the complete set of updates once again.