Patch Management User Guide for HP-UX 11.x Systems

10. Verify that the installation was successful:
• Enter the command: swlist -l product
Ensure that the installed patches are shown in the output.
• Execute the swverify command on each of the new patches:
swverify patch_id
— This command might not always complete in a short period of time.
— If the verification is successful, the last few lines of output contain the line "*
Verification succeeded."
— If the verification was not successful, view the /var/adm/sw/swagent.log
filefor additional information related to the swverify command failure. If this is
not sufficient to resolve the problem, consult more advanced resources in Section :
“Related information” (page 91).
• View the swagent log file, located at /var/adm/sw/swagent.log. This log includes
information related to the installation.
— Find the section pertaining to the installation just performed (located near the end
of the file if you check it immediately after the install). Review this section, and
ensure that there were no errors ("ERROR").
— If you find errors, consult more advanced resources in Section : “Related
information” (page 91) to resolve the problem.
Advanced topic: using Dynamic Root Disk (DRD)
By using Dynamic Root Disk (DRD) you can minimize the downtime required to apply patches,
do most of your proactive maintenance during normal business hours, and have a fast, reliable
backup mechanism if your system does not function as expected after the application of the
patches. With DRD, you create a copy (or clone) of the root disk that you can apply patches to
while your system is still up and running. Once all the patches are loaded on the clone, you can
then reboot the system, using the clone as your active root volume. If for any reason you decide
the patched root volume does not perform as you desire, you can quickly reboot the original
system image. Note that if you are only applying a few patches, the time it takes to create a clone
using DRD (similar to the time required by Ignite-UX to create a recovery image) might not be
a valuable investment of your time. For more information, please see Chapter 9 (page 86).
16 Quick start guide for patching HP-UX systems