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.
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 |