Sun Patch Manager 2.0 Administration Guide for the Solaris 8 Operating System

Chapter4 Getting Started With Sun Patch Manager (Overview)

This chapter covers the following topics:

Patch Manager Installation Requirements

To use the Patch Manager tool, you must install at least the End User Solaris Software Group of Solaris 8 software. You must also obtain the Patch Manager software from the Sun Download Center at http://wwws.sun.com/software/download.

Note

As of September 2004, not all Sun patches are available through Sun Patch Manager. Such patches include those that do not conform to PatchPro standards, and those that have third-party contract restrictions.

Working Within Your Patch Management Environment

To determine which method is best for downloading and applying patches to your system, see Selecting the Best Method for Applying Patches.

To get started using Patch Manager, find the situation that best describes your patch management environment.

Your client system is directly connected to the Internet.

You are ready to manage patches by using the Patch Manager smpatch command-line interface. See Accessing the Sun Patch Manager Command-Line Interface.
Your client system is connected to the Internet by means of a web proxy.

You must first specify the host name and port of the web proxy. If required, also specify the user name and password associated with the web proxy. See How to Specify Your Web Proxy.

After you change your configuration, see Accessing the Sun Patch Manager Command-Line Interface.
You need a user name and a password to access patches from the Sun patch server.

If you need to obtain a user name and password, register at http://sunsolve.sun.com.

Then, specify the user name and password for each client system on which you run Patch Manager. See How to Specify a User Name and Password With Which to Obtain Patches.

After you change your configuration, see Accessing the Sun Patch Manager Command-Line Interface.
(Optional) If you want to have several client systems obtain patches from a local patch server on your intranet, you must first configure a system to act as your local patch server. Since a local patch server must run at least Solaris 9, see ``Configuring Your Local Patch Server by Using the Command-Line Interface'' in the Sun Patch Manager 2.0 Administration Guide for the Solaris 9 Operating System.

Note
The local patch server is an optional Sun Patch Manager 2.0 feature that you can obtain at no charge if you are a contract customer in the SunSpectrum program.

For information about becoming a contract customer or obtaining the local patch server distribution, go to http://sunsolve.sun.com and click Patch Portal.

Next, configure each client system to obtain patches from the local patch server by specifying the local patch server as the source of patches. See How to Specify the Source of Patches.

Finally, after you configure a local patch server and change the configuration of your client systems, see Accessing the Sun Patch Manager Command-Line Interface.