Sun Patch Manager 2.0 Administration Guide for the Solaris 9 Operating System

Chapter 4 Getting Started With Sun Patch Manager (Overview)

Sun Patch Manager has two user interfaces: the smpatch command-line interface and the Patch Manager browser interface.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Patch Manager Installation Requirements

To use the Patch Manager tool, you must install at least the Developer Solaris Software Group of Solaris 9 software. You must also obtain the Patch Manager software from the Sun Download Center at http://wwws.sun.com/software/download.


Note –

As of June 2005, 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.

Comparison of Sun Patch Manager User Interfaces

The following table summarizes the Sun Patch Manager 2.0 features and tasks that are supported by the command-line interface (smpatch) and the browser interface.

While you can use the browser interface to perform the basic patch management tasks, you can use the smpatch command to perform those tasks and many others.


Note –

The browser interface that was originally released with the Sun Patch Manager 2.0 product for Solaris 9 systems has been withdrawn.

The Patch Manager product will be replaced by the new Sun Update Manager product.


Feature/Task 

Command-Line Interface 

Browser Interface 

Can perform patch management operations on a remote system? 

Yes, in remote mode smpatch only. Local mode smpatch can only be run on the local system.

No 

Supports RBAC? 

Yes 

Yes 

Can analyze a system for patches? 

Yes 

Yes 

Can perform scheduled patch analyses? 

Yes, use cron to run the smpatch analyze command.

Yes 

Can download individual patches? 

Yes 

No, individual patches are downloaded only when they are applied. 

Can resolve patch dependencies? 

Sometimes. If you run smpatch add, patch dependencies are not resolved. However, if you run smpatch update or smpatch analyze -i patch-id, patch dependencies are resolved.

Yes 

Can remove more than one patch at a time? 

No, smpatch remove can remove just one patch at a time.

Yes 

Can update a system with patches? 

Yes 

Yes 

Can be run while the system is in single-user mode? 

Yes, limited operations of local mode smpatch only.

No 

Can access patches from a local patch server? 

Yes 

Yes 

Can operate on patch lists? 

Yes 

No 

Can configure the patch management environment for your system? 

Yes 

Yes