Patch Management User Guide for HP-UX 11.x Systems (5900-3011, April 2013)

Contents
1 HP-UX patches and patch management.........................................................7
Patch management strategies.....................................................................................................7
How to get patches..............................................................................................................8
Where to start.....................................................................................................................8
2 Quick start guide for patching HP-UX systems.................................................9
Overview................................................................................................................................9
Before you begin......................................................................................................................9
Should you use standard HP-UX patch bundles?.......................................................................9
Should you use individual patches?........................................................................................9
Standard HP-UX patch bundles............................................................................................10
Acquiring and installing standard HP-UX patch bundles...............................................................10
Acquiring the bundles........................................................................................................10
Installing the bundles..........................................................................................................11
Advanced topic: using Dynamic Root Disk (DRD)....................................................................12
Acquiring and installing individual patches................................................................................13
Acquiring the patches.........................................................................................................13
Installing the patches..........................................................................................................15
Advanced topic: using Dynamic Root Disk (DRD)....................................................................16
3 HP-UX patch overview...............................................................................17
Patch-related concepts.............................................................................................................17
Patch identification.............................................................................................................17
HP-UX software structure.....................................................................................................17
Patch bundles....................................................................................................................18
Software depots and patch depots.......................................................................................19
Patch status.......................................................................................................................19
Patch state........................................................................................................................20
State................................................................................................................................20
Category tags...................................................................................................................21
Which patches are on a system?..............................................................................................22
Examples of the swlist command..........................................................................................22
Ancestors and supersession......................................................................................................26
Ancestors..........................................................................................................................26
Advanced topic: determining patch ancestors...................................................................26
Supersession.....................................................................................................................27
Advanced topic: displaying supersession information.........................................................28
Advanced topic: supersession and the patch_state attribute................................................28
Patch-related attributes.............................................................................................................30
Patch dependencies................................................................................................................32
Types of dependencies.......................................................................................................33
Corequisites and prerequisites.............................................................................................33
Advanced topic: determining corequisite and prerequisite filesets with the swlist command.....33
Enforced and unenforced (manual) dependencies..................................................................33
Impact of dependencies on acquiring patches.......................................................................34
Patch rollback and commitment................................................................................................34
Patch rollback....................................................................................................................34
Advanced topic: patch installation and rollback files..........................................................34
Patch commitment..............................................................................................................35
Advanced topic: patch cleanup utility...................................................................................35
HP-UX patch ratings................................................................................................................36
HP patch rating of 1 ..........................................................................................................36
Contents 3