Job Preparation

While you are preparing the settings for a job, either an Inventory-based job or the objects of a Complex job, you can access features to make the procedures more efficient; or in the case of Solaris PKG preference settings, to make the jobs succeed at all.

Procedures in this section include:

• To Set PKG Preferences

• To Align Component Settings for Multiple Distributions

• To Find Components

• To Use Regular Expressions

Settings for PKG Jobs

This procedure is essential for any job that installs, uninstalls, upgrades, or downgrades Solaris PKGs or patches.

Solaris admin File

The PKG preferences in the Solaris admin file describe how Solaris PKGs are deployed on Solaris machines. When you install the Sun Update Connection – Enterprise Agent on a Solaris machine, the path name of the Solaris admin file is /opt/local/uce/agent/config_files/admin.

You can change these parameters in the Preferences -> Host -> PKGs window, to change the parameters individually for a specific host; or you can point Sun Update Connection – Enterprise to your own customized Solaris admin file.

Configure Agents on Idle

This procedure explains the steps for changing the Sun Update Connection – Enterprise preferences of Solaris agents in your environment. You cannot do the steps if the agent is busy with an Sun Update Connection – Enterprise job. Make sure the agents are idle before continuing.

To Set PKG Preferences

In this procedure you will access and edit Preferences as needed. This procedure must be done before you deploy PKGs on hosts.

1. From the Tools menu, choose Preferences.

   The Preferences window opens.

   

2. In the Preferences window, select the Host radio button.

   The Host Selection window opens.

3. Select one of the hosts to receive the job and then click OK.

   The Host Selection window closes and you are returned to the Preferences window. Wait while the Preferences values of the selected agent are uploaded to the console and displayed in the Preferences window.

4. In the Category list, click PKGs.

   The PKGs preferences are displayed.

5. Make appropriate changes and then click Submit.

   The Preferences Confirmation window opens.

   The listed Target will be Host. The bottom panel lists the PKG parameters that you changed, with their new values.

6. Check Restart Agent on target hosts.

7. Click Submit.

   Wait for the agent to restart and come back online and then select the same host again in the Host Selection window.

8. Click Select target hosts.

   The Select Hosts window opens.

9. Add the hosts to receive PKG deployment to the Selected Hosts list and then click OK.

   The preferences that you changed in the original host are copied to the selected hosts.

   • Mail address – Notification emails will be sent to these addresses when PKGs are installed.

   • Package install basedir – Base directory where relocatable packages are to be installed.

   • Instance – If the PKG to install already exists on this machine, this parameter determines what Sun Update Connection – Enterprise will do and has the following options:

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG

     • Overwrite – Install the PKG again

     • Unique – Install the PKG as a unique instance

   • Partial – If a partial install of a PKG is already on this machine, you can do the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for partially installed PKGs

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG if it is already partially installed

   • RunLevel – If the system status is not correct for installing or uninstalling a PKG, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check run level

     • Quit – Do not install or uninstall if run level requirement is not met

   • Install Depend – If other PKGs depend on the one being installed, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for dependencies

     • Quit – Do not install a PKG if its dependencies are not met

   • Remove depend – If other PKGs depend on the one that you want to uninstall, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for dependencies

     • Quit – Do not uninstall a PKG that is needed by others

   • Check space – If the disk space of this managed host does not meet the requirements of the PKG to install, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check disk space requirements (install will fail if the machine runs out of space)

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG if the listed space requirements are not met

   • Setuid flags – The setuid and setgid flags are used in Solaris programming for security. If a PKG should enable these flags after installation, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for setuid/setgid executables

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG if it will turn on these flags

     • Nochange – Install the PKG, but override the flags

   • Check conflicts – If the installation of a PKG will overwrite a file provided by a previous PKG and create a conflict between files, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for conflicts and force install

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG if file conflicts are detected

     • Nochange – Install the PKG, but do not install conflicting files

   • Action scripts – If an install of a PKG provides an action script that contains possible security impacts, you can choose one of the following:

     • Nocheck – Do not check for security impact of action scripts

     • Quit – Do not install the PKG if its action scripts could negatively impact security

   • Custom admin file full path name – Path name of a customized Solaris admin file; if none, leave default.

Multiple Distribution Host Lists

Sun Update Connection – Enterprise has the ability to simultaneously manage machines of different operating systems and architectures. You can create a single job and send it to any or all of your hosts. A single agent will ignore the components that are irrelevant to its distribution.

You can create Inventory-based jobs, profiles, and policies that contain components of several distributions, by selecting a new distribution in the drop-down list. However, Sun Update Connection – Enterprise offers a feature to make multiple distribution management easier.

For example, if you have a group of web servers, some of which are Red Hat 9.0 and others are Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 Advanced Server, you can create one profile for web servers.

While you create the profile, you can apply settings to components of either of the distributions. Then, rather than searching for the same components in the other distribution, you can use the multiple distribution feature. It will automatically align the selected components with similar components on the other distribution. You can either accept the automatic alignment or intervene with checks and changes of your own.

To Align Component Settings for Multiple Distributions

In this procedure, you will make the component settings of a profile, policy, or inventory job applicable to hosts of multiple distributions. This will enable you to simultaneously manage hosts of different distributions in a consistent manner. This feature is available from the Profile Editor, the Policy Editor, and the Inventory panel of the main window.

1. In the Components list, select the component and the setting or action that you want.

   The component and the action appear in the Actions list.

2. Do one of the following:

   • From the tool bar (main window or Profile Editor), click the Multi Distributions button.

   • Right-click in the Actions list and choose Multi Distributions.

   • From the bottom of the Policy Editor, click the Multi Distro button.

   • From the Actions menu of the main window, choose Multi Distributions.

     The Multiple Distribution window opens.

     

   The list of distributions is color-coded to show which have the selected components and which do not.

3. Expand the distributions that have the components (shown in green or yellow).

   • Check those components that you want to be aligned.

   • Leave unchecked the components that you do not want to be aligned.

4. Click OK to close the window.

   You are returned to the Profile Editor, Policy Editor, or Inventory window. The aligned component settings are added to the Actions list.

5. To add more components from the distributions that did not have similar components (shown in red in the Multi Distribution window), select a new distribution in the drop-down list.

   The components list changes to show components from that distribution. Select the ones you want and add them to the Actions list. You can add as many component settings, from multiple distributions, as you choose.

Component Search

At any time that you are focused on a Components list, the Find feature is available. It operates on the list of components that is currently active, according to the distribution that you selected. As each list contains thousands of components, the Find feature is indispensable.

To Find Components

Sun Update Connection – Enterprise jobs are based on the component level. You decide what the requirements are for each type of machine, or for each individual machine, by selecting components and setting actions on them. In this procedure you will search the active components list for a component name or partial string.

1. Make sure that the active components list is of a relevant distribution.

   If it is not, change the selected distribution in the drop-down list on the tool bar.

2. Do one of the following:

   • From the tool bar (main window or Profile Editor), click the Find button.

   • Right-click in the Actions list and choose Find.

   • From the Components menu, choose Find.

     The Find Components window opens.

     

3. In the text field, type a component name or partial string.

4. Select the options that you want.

   Option	Checked	Unchecked
   Match upper/lower case	Case-sensitive	Case-insensitive
   Include versions	Results include package versions, categories, and package groups	Results include categories and package groups
   Filter for empty names	Results include non-certified objects that have no software components associated with them	Results include categories and package groups
   Limit search to selected component	Search within selected category or package group	Search throughout the entire list
   List results in new window	Display results in Search Result window	First result highlighted in Components list

5. Click Find.

   The Find window closes.

   If the list results in the new window are checked, the Search Result window opens and shows all matching components.

   • Double-click a result item to highlight it in the Components list.

   • Click Close in the Search Result window to apply a setting on the component.

   • To find the next matching component, press F3.

   If the list results in the new window are unchecked, the first matching component is highlighted in the Components list.

   • To find the next matching component, press F3.

   • To find the previous match, press Shift + F3.

To Use Regular Expressions

The Find feature supports regular expressions and pattern matching wildcards.

Sun Update Connection – Enterprise assumes that all search strings might be partial strings. You do not need a wildcard for “any characters”. For example, if you search for gimp, the results include gimp, gimp-print, and xsane-gimp.

If you want to restrict the default behavior, to search only for packages that begin with gimp, use: ^gimp. The carrot (outside of brackets) indicates that the string must be the beginning of the pattern.

• [char] – Find any of the characters in the brackets.

  To find packages dealing with markup languages, either xml or html, search for [xht]ml.

• [^char] – Find any of the characters not in the brackets.

  If you want to find http packages, but do not want the list of httpd, search for http[^d]

• [char-char] – Find a range of characters.

  A regular expression of c[a-u]p results in a list that includes cups, cdparanoia-libs, cipe, and libcap.