How to Specify the Source of Patches

Your system can obtain patches from the following sources:

• Sun patch server

• Local patch collection

• Local patch server on your intranet

By default, your system obtains patches from the Sun patch server.

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.

If you want your system to obtain patches from a local patch server, you must first configure one. Since a local patch server must be running at least Solaris 9, see ``Configuring Your Local Patch Server (Task Map)'' in the Sun Patch Manager 2.0 Administration Guide for the Solaris 9 Operating System.

Steps

1. Become an appropriately authorized user or assume a role that includes the Software Installation profile or the solaris.admin.patchmgr.* authorization.

   The System Administrator profile includes the appropriate profiles. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Specify the URL of the patch source.

   • For the Sun patch server, type:

     # smpatch unset patchpro.patch.source

   • For a collection of patches in a directory, use this URL format:

     # smpatch set patchpro.patch.source=file:/directory-name

     Note that directory-name can be a local file system or a remotely mounted file system.

     See Example 51 for examples of using the file:/ URL format.

   • (Optional) If you are using a Solaris 9 local patch server, use this URL format:

     # smpatch set patchpro.patch.source=http://server-name:3816/solaris/

Example 51 Specifying the Source of Patches

The following example shows how to configure a system to obtain patches from the /export/patches directory on the local system.

# smpatch set patchpro.patch.source=file:/export/patches

The following example shows how to configure a system to obtain patches from the /export/patches directory on the remote system called jupiter.

# smpatch set patchpro.patch.source=file:/net/jupiter/export/patches

The following example shows how to configure a system to obtain patches from a CD mounted from the first CD-ROM drive of the local system.

# smpatch set patchpro.patch.source=file:/cdrom/cdrom0

What to Do Next

After you specify a patch source, your client system is ready to manage patches. See Managing Patches (Task Map).