Configuring Your Patch Management Environment by Using the Command-Line Interface (Task Map)
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Configuring Your Patch Management Environment by Using the Command-Line Interface (Task Map)

Use the smpatch command to perform the configuration tasks in this section. For the list of configuration parameters you can set, see Setting Patch Manager Configuration Parameters and the smpatch ( 1M ) man page.

Note

You can use the Sun Update Connection, System Edition software to manage patches and updates on your Solaris system. The Sun Update Connection software has the same functionality as the Sun Patch Manager 2.0 tools, with the addition of some new features and enhancements. For more information, see What's New in Software Management in the Solaris Operating System?.

By default, the patch management environment is configured to obtain patches directly from the Sun patch server. Therefore, you must customize your environment if your system does one or more of the following:

The following table identifies the tasks that you might perform when you configure the patch management environment for your system.

Task

Description

For Instructions

Specify the web proxy to use.

If your system is connected to the Internet through a web proxy, you must specify the web proxy that is used to access the Sun patch server.

By default, no web proxy is specified.

How to Specify Your Web Proxy (Command Line)

Specify the user and password needed to provide authentication for the web proxy.

If your web proxy requires authentication, you must specify the web proxy user that is needed for authentication.

By default, no web proxy user is specified.

How to Specify Your Web Proxy (Command Line)

Specify the user and password needed to obtain patches from the Sun patch server.

If you needed a user and password to obtain patches, you must specify the user name and password.

How to Specify a User Name and Password With Which to Obtain Patches (Command Line)

Specify the source of patches for your system.

Your system can obtain patches from one of the following sources:

  • Sun patch server

  • Local collection of patches

The default source of patches for your system is the Sun patch server.

How to Specify the Source of Patches (Command Line)

Note

The following procedures and examples show how to run the local mode smpatch command, which is run by default. To run the remote mode version, use any of the authentication options (except for L) or the remote options. See the smpatch ( 1M ) man page.

How to Specify Your Web Proxy (Command Line)

If your system connects to the Internet through a web proxy, you must provide information about the web proxy to Patch Manager.

  1. Obtain the host name and the port of the web proxy from your network administrator.

  2. 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 in System Administration Guide: Security Services .

  3. Specify the web proxy.

    # smpatch set patchpro.proxy.host=web-proxy-server \
patchpro.proxy.port=port

  4. (Optional) If the web proxy requires authentication, supply the user name and password.

    Obtain this information from your network administrator.

    1. Specify the user name to be used for authentication.

      # smpatch set patchpro.proxy.user=web-proxy-user

    2. Specify the proxy user's password by having smpatch prompt you for the password.

      # smpatch set patchpro.proxy.passwd
Web Proxy User Password: web-proxy-password

      Setting the password in this way ensures that the password you type does not appear as clear text in the following:

      • Standard output

      • Output of the ps command

      • Your shell history file

How to Specify a User Name and Password With Which to Obtain Patches (Command Line)

If you needed a user name and password to obtain patches from the Sun patch server, you must specify them for Patch Manager.

If you do not have an account on SunSolve, register for one at .

As of this Solaris release, a user name and password are not required to obtain patches from the Sun patch server.

  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 in System Administration Guide: Security Services .

  2. Specify your user name.

    # smpatch set patchpro.sun.user=user-name

  3. Specify the password for your user by having smpatch prompt you for the password.

    # smpatch set patchpro.sun.passwd
Sun User Password: password

    Setting the password in this way ensures that the password you type does not appear as clear text in the following:

    • Standard output

    • Output of the ps command

    • Your shell history file

How to Specify the Source of Patches (Command Line)

Your system can obtain patches from the following sources:

  • Sun patch server

  • Local patch collection

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

  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 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 22–2 for examples of using the file:/ URL format.

Example 22.2. 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

<title>What to Do Next</title>

After you specify a patch source, your client system is ready to manage patches. See Managing Patches by Using the Command-Line Interface (Task Map).

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