HP-UX Software Assistant Reference (November, 2010)

swa(1M)
NAME
swa -- Access HP-UX Software Assistant major modes
SYNOPSIS
swa [[-x] -?]
swa report [-a analyzer] [-r stdout_report_type] [-s inventory_source]
[-q [q[q]]] [-v[v]] [[-option] -?] [-x option=[value|-?]] [-X option_file]
swa get [-p] -t target_depot
[-q [q[q]]] [-v[v]] [[-option] -?] [-x option=[value|-?]] [-X option_file]
swa step {inventory|catalog|analyze |report|download |depot} [step_options]
[-q [q[q]]] [-v[v]] [[-option] -?] [-x option=[value|-?]] [-X option_file]
swa clean {swcache|usercache |all} [-p]
[-q [q[q]]] [-v[v]] [[-option] -?] [-x option=[value|-?]] [-X option_file]
DESCRIPTION
HP-UX Software Assistant (SWA) is a tool that consolidates and simplifies patch management and
security bulletin management on HP-UX systems. SWA is the HP-recommended utility to use to
maintain currency with HP-published security bulletins for HP-UX software.
SWA can perform a number of checks including applicable security bulletins and installed patches
with critical warnings. Once an analysis has been performed, you can use SWA to download any
recommended patches or patch bundles and create a depot ready for installation.
The SWA tool is contained in one bundle, SwAssistant, which includes Security Patch Check.
You must install the SwAssistant bundle to get full functionality. The contents of the SwAssistant
bundle have dependencies on Java (TM), Perl (for SPC), and Judy Libraries.
Advanced users can control the individual steps performed by swa report and swa get with
the swa step command.
As you use SWA to report on systems and download software, objects will be cached on your
disk for later use. To recapture disk space, use swa clean.
SWA runs as a client-side patch and security analysis tool. An HP-supplied catalog file with known
problems and fixes is downloaded from the ITRC and compared to the software installed on the
system. Depots used for full-system installation, such as the installation depot on an OE DVD, may
also be analyzed. Systems are analyzed for patch warnings, critical defects, security bulletins,
missing Quality Pack (QPK) patch bundles, and user-specified patches and supersession chains.SWA
optimizes the automatic selection of patch dependencies by assessing the quality of the dependency,
providing the best case scenario for the dependency, minimizing changes to the system, and
assessing future patch dependency changes.
SWA is able to generate a variety of reports based on its analysis. Action, Issue, and Detail reports
are available. A consolidated HTML report with links to the technical knowledge base is always
created. The SWA reports provide information for downloading software from HP and for actions
that need to be taken manually.
Based on the analysis, SWA obtains patches from HP and creates a Software Distributor (SD)
depot of software for installation.
SWA automatically uses MD5 cryptographic hash to verify patch integrity before unpacking
downloaded patches.
To recapture disk space used by objects that SWA cached, see swa-clean(1M).
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