HP-UX Software Assistant Frequently Asked Questions (5900-3004, March 2013)

1 General
Q1: What is SWA?
Software Assistant (SWA) is a command line tool for analyzing an HP-UX system’s patch state as
well as identifying applicable security bulletins. It is available from http://www.hp.com/go/swa.
Q2: What versions of HP-UX are supported by SWA?
SWA can run on HP-UX 11i v1 (11.11) and later releases. Remote analysis of HP-UX systems adds
support for HP-UX 11.00 in addition to any HP-UX 11i release.
Q3: Does SWA support Linux and Windows?
At this time SWA can only be used from HP-UX systems to analyze HP-UX systems. Future support
for integrating SWA with HP SIM running on these OS platforms is being considered. There are
no plans to analyze Linux or Windows content.
Q4: Is SWA integrated with HP SIM?
With version C.02.00, SWA integrated with HP SIM. This functionality is being enhanced with
each release so those interested in using SWA within HP SIM are encouraged to download the
most recent version from http://www.hp.com/go/swa.
Q5: What happened to Security Patch Check (SPC)?
SPC was officially replaced by SWA on November 1st, 2008. The security_patch_check(1M)
command is still delivered within the SwAssistant bundle but is implemented using the swa(1M)
command. Catalog updates for older versions of SPC will become unavailable at an unspecified
future date.
Q6: Where can I get help with SWA?
The swa-report(1M) and swa-get(1M) man pages and HP–UX Software Assistant Administration
Guide (http://www.hp.com/go/swa-docs are excellent starting points. For additional help,
questions can be posed to Hewlett Packard staff, as well as other users, in the IT Resource Center
forums http://itrc.hp.com.
4 General