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

2 Quick start guide for patching HP-UX systems
This quick start guide is for system administrators who have immediate patching needs. It is a
limited solution to general patching issues. If you need in-depth information about patching, review
the rest of this document and the other patch-related resources in Section : “Related information”
(page 95).
NOTE: You will require root user privileges to complete these procedures.
Overview
This quick start guides you through basic patch management tasks and provides minimal detail:
• “Before you begin” (page 9)
Before you acquire and install the patch bundles or individual patches, you should consider
some patch-related questions. See “Should you use standard HP-UX patch bundles?” (page 9)
and “Should you use individual patches?” (page 9).
• “Acquiring and installing standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10)
When initially patching a system, it is important to establish a stable baseline of patches. This
section shows you how to acquire and install the standard HP-UX patch bundles. See Chapter 5
(page 54) for more information.
• “Acquiring and installing individual patches” (page 13)
In addition to the standard HP-UX patch bundles, you might need to install individual patches.
For example, you might want more recent patches found on the HP Support Center (HPSC)
website than those contained in a standard HP-UX patch bundle on media. You might also
want the latest security patches.
For additional information, visit the HPSC website at http://www.hp.com/go/hpsc.
Before you begin
The following sections contain questions that you should review before you begin the quick start
procedures.
Should you use standard HP-UX patch bundles?
Before you acquire and install standard HP-UX patch bundles, consider the following questions:
• Is this a new system?
• Do you want to establish a baseline of patches?
• Do you want to update the existing baseline of patches?
• Are you adding new hardware to the system?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you should continue with “Acquiring and installing
standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10).
HP recommends using the HP-UX Quality Pack Patch bundle for the proactive maintenance of all
HP-UX systems. For a description of the Quality Pack Patch bundle and all other standard HP-UX
patch bundles, see “Standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10) .
Should you use individual patches?
HP recommends using individual patches when performing reactive patching tasks. For example,
when a system is experiencing a problem, you should apply an individual patch or the smallest
set of patches to fix the problem, and not an entire patch bundle.
Overview 9