Software Distributor Administration Guide (March 2009)

These options and features can be categorized as follows:
• Group and source options: SD-UX eliminates the need to duplicate specification
of commonly used groups of targets and software. Also, using the source option
to specify a main depot reduces the number of dialog boxes.
• Large numbers of targets: Options that limit the number of simultaneous targets.
• Timeout options: Options that control how long the task attempts to retry low-level
communications for file transfers before giving up.
• Retry RPC and retry intervals: Options that control the intervals between retries
when the controller or targets attempt to re-establish lost connections.
• Retry command: Options that facilitate retrying operations that have failed. These
can be used in conjunction with the checkpointing features or can start the task
from the beginning.
• Database checkpointing: SD-UX commands perform automatic checkpointing at
the fileset level by recording database transactions in the SD-UX depot catalog
(IPD). In addition, checkpointing at the file level is supported through attributes
stored with the file.
• Compression: SD-UX supports compression functionality to reduce the amount
of data being transferred.
• Staging: SD-UX supports staging software to intermediate depots either on the
installation target or onto a source more accessible to the target, which has been
preconfigured to use the alternate source.
• Recovery: SD-UX supports automatic procedures to recover from failed
installations, leaving the system in the same state as previous. There are also
manual means through use of multiple versions.
• Multiple Versions: SD-UX supports installing multiple revisions of the same
software on a system at the same time, if the software supports it. Then, the old
version can be unconfigured, and the new version configured as the active version.
In case of any problems, the old version can be restored as the active version by
unconfiguring the new version and reconfiguring the old.
Each of these topics is discussed in the following sections.
8.2 Groups and Source Options
Group and source options can help increase performance of some commands.
Target and software selections can be saved as group files and re-used. This reduces
the need to re-specify commonly used selections, which reduces the time required to
perform swinstall, swcopy, or swremove commands. See “Add/Save Software
Group” (page 41), and “Software and Target Lists” (page 153) for more information.
Specifying source depots in advance can reduce the number of screens needed to run
or schedule a swcopy or swinstall command. If you set the source= default option
to your main source depot, SD-UX can immediately list the products available. This
eliminates the Source Selection dialog, except when changing the default.
172 Reliability and Performance