Software Distributor Administrator Guide (September 2010)

directly from physical media or by using swpackage to make a software package
containing the depot.
When a depot resides on a networked system, that system can act as a source for
software: other systems on the network can install software products from that server
instead of installing them each time from media.
Network depots offers these advantages over installing directly from media:
• Several users can pull software down to their systems (over the network) without
having to transport media to each user.
• Installation from a network server is faster than from media.
• You can combine different software products from multiple media or network
servers into a single depot.
4.1.1.1 Types of Depots
A depot usually exists as a directory location. This software is in a hierarchy of
subdirectories and filesets organized according to a specific media format. A host may
contain several depots. For example, a software distribution server on your network
might contain a depot of application software, a depot of patch software, and a depot
of OS software.There are two types of depots: directory and tape.
4.1.1.1.1 Directory Depot
• A directory depot consists of software stored under a special SD-UX-managed
directory on your file system, usually /var/spool/sw.
• A directory depot can be writable or read-only.
• When you use the SD-UX commands to refer to a directory depot, you need only
to refer to the depot’s top-most directory. In a CD-ROM depot, this directory would
be the CD-ROM mount point, such as /cdrom/mydepot.
4.1.1.1.2 Tape Depot
• Tape (serial) depots offer advantages when you must copy or install software over
slow or unreliable network connections, including the web. (First copy the depot
to a local host, then install from the local depot.)
• Software in a tape depot is formatted as a tar archive.
• Depots for actual cartridge, DAT and 9-track tape are referred to by the path to
the tape drive’s device file. For example: /dev/rmt/0m.
• You cannot modify or verify tape depots.
• You can create a tape depot only with the swpackage command. You cannot use
swcopy to copy software directly to a tape. See Chapter 10: “Creating Software
Packages ” (page 221) for more information on swpackage.
• Software in a tape depot must first be transferred to a directory depot before it can
be accessed by other hosts on the network.
• A tape depot can be accessed by only one command at a time.
114 Managing Software Depots