| I think this subject will be as hot as one about religion or politics.
It has been debated endlessly, even when we had no common patch
process. and you will still get widely different answers.
I used to be in the camp to only install specifc patches as necessary.
Recently Ive moved to install them all. At least that saves me all the
hassle of making a decision based on too little, and likely incorrect
data. Also stops one quick level of finger pointing when you call in a
problem. "there is a patch for that version you havent installed. That
must be the problem"
|
| We here in the MCS UNIX Support Group have made similar experiences:
everybody handles things a bit differently!
I've dug out a TIMA Blitz from Sep. 96 that says to install all available
patches everytime (only that it wasn't feasible that time).
Now with the 'dupatch' it is and we should start thinking about how we can
possibly manage to distribute the latest 'dupatch' kit onto all internal and
external systems.
Should the customers have an ECO CDDS Contract: are all the
'dupatch' kits on the ECO CDDS QT-3CSAA-C8?
Should the customers be able to download them via DSNlink/AES
(AES is for MCS contract customers only)?
Should we have them on www.service.digital.com free to download?
(WEB users expect everything free ...)
Should they be FISed onto any System delivered with Digital UNIX
INCLUDING a media that is delivered together with the Digital UNIX
distribution media in case the customer reinstalls?
Any other means to get them out of the door? It can't be that we poor
MCS Engineers have to distribute them to the whole Digital UNIX
community on Tape on a per-customer basis!!
Any ideas?
Regards,
Arnold
------------------------------- TIMA BLITZ -------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 06:18:01 +0200
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
From: guru::donovan (John Donovan USG)
To: TIMA::TIMA_MGR, [email protected]
Cc: dv780::holliday_DA, malcolm@dec:.zko.guru, mse1::safford,
[email protected], rhett::keilty, [email protected]
Subject: Blitz: Recommendation Concerning Digital UNIX Patch Application
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], malcolm, [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], rob, uberti
+---------------------------+TM
| | | | | | | |
| d | i | g | i | t | a | l | TIME DEPENDENT BLITZ
| | | | | | | |
+---------------------------+
BLITZ TITLE:
DATE: 10-Sep-1996
AUTHOR: John Donovan
DTN: 381-1344 ENET: guru::donovan
CROSS REFERENCE #'s:
DEPARTMENT: Digital UNIX Problem Management (PRISM/TIME/CLD#'s)
INTENDED AUDIENCE: All PRIORITY LEVEL: 1
(U.S./EUROPE/GIA) (1=TIME CRITICAL,
2=NON-TIME CRITICAL)
=====================================================================
Subject: Recommendation Concerning Digital UNIX Patch Application
Digital UNIX Support Engineering strongly recommends that Digital UNIX systems
be kept absolutely up-to-date with respect to released patches. Customers
should ensure that they apply ALL released patches for the subsets installed
version on the version running. Failure to do so can result in system panics,
system hangs, and other unpredicted and undesirable system behavior. As new
applicable patches are released, they should be applied in a timely manner, to
avoid the possibility of encountering a problem for which a solution already
exists.
****************************************************************
|
| Sharon Reynolds, Manager of the UNIX Patch Delivery Group, gave me the
following URL that answers most of my questions:
http://www.zk3.dec.com/dupatchwww
Regards,
Arnold
|
|
Prior to dupatch, one could install certain patches, rebuild the
kernel and at user convenience move the new kernel to root and reload,
remotely.
Given, some patches do require single user mode, but not all. Are there
plans to assist in patch installations remotely?
If not, for large unix sites, single user mode could be rather time
consuming and costly in man hours.
-Tony
|