Solaris

I have recently been assigned sys admin responsibilities for an 7-computer network running 3 Unix workstations (1 is SunFire V240 server; 2 are SunBlade 2000) and 4 PCs. Two Unix workstations are running Sun PCI III to allow a shell to host Windows 2000. I am having various problems w/ PC NetLink, various s/w packages, and the PCI III card, and suspect some may be due to not being current w/ patches for Solaris 8, PC NetLink, and Sun PCI III. Even if the problems are not due to Solaris currency, I still need to know how to find and interpret this information. I would like to determine the most recent Solaris, PC NetLink, and SUN PCI III patches on the server and two workstations, but am not sure how to read the output.

If I run the command "showrev -p", about 1,000 lines of output are returned containing numerous patch numbers and names, in no particular order. Is this the wrong command? If so, how can I obtain the patch information? If the command is correct, how can I interpret the output?

Thanks in advance.

Ken

Showrev -p works like you said, you get all the patches. I generally only use it by doing something like showrev -p | grep patchnumber to look up a specific patch.

Sun has patch management tools on their website. You will probably want to check those out, although some of their stuff requires that you have a Sun maintenance contract. Try sunsolve.sun.com and see what you find.

To find out the kernel patch level you can use uname -a. It will have in there 108528-27 or something like that. 108528 is the Solaris 8 kernel patch and 27 (or whatever you get) is the rev.

You may want to just download the latest Solaris 8 recommended patchset and install that to get all the recommended and critical patches up to date at once.

try to use SUN NetConnect. Do a search in google for the link and download. Not a terrific management software from SUN but it is good at patch management!

rhfrommn,

Thanks. I was able to determine the most recent patch using SunSolve and the grep commandas you suggested. Although, I can't just apply any patch bundle because security settings may get reset or part of the patch may not take due to existing security settings. The machines are locked down quite well using AFDI.

izy100,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have internet connectivity on any machines. I must go to a computer off my network to gain Internet access. I guess I will have to manually check for updates.

Ken