Software Distributor (SD-UX) Administration Guide HP-UX 11i v1, 11i v2, and 11i v3 (762797-001, March 2014)

option is specified from either the CLI (i.e., -x use_alternate_source=true) or via the
Options Editor window in the GUI. The default value is false.
# swinstall -s master \
-x use_alternate_source=true \
-t targ_list NewApp
The use_alternate_source=true option instructs each target to use its own configured
source for the installation. The source that is specified on the swinstall CLI is used only by
the controller for the validation of your software selections. The file targ_list contains the
list of targets.
When use_alternate_source is true, each target agent looks for the corresponding
swagent.alternate_source option in its own defaults file. The protocol sequence and
endpoint given by the option, swagent.rpc_binding_info, are used when the agent
attempts to contact the depot specified by swagent.alternate_source. An alternate
source is specified using the host:/path, /path, or host syntax.
• If there is a host:/depot_path specified in the target’s swagent.alternate_source
option, the agent gets the software from this source. If only a host is specified, the target
agent uses the same depot path used by the controller.
• If the target doesn’t have an alternate source, the agent uses the same depot path used
by the controller, but it will apply this path to its own file system. This lets you do staged
installations without any target configuration at all, by locating the intermediate depot
on each target system at the same file system location as the master depot (approach 2
above).
Because the swcopy and swinstall steps in a staged installation are separate, SD-UX cannot
enforce consistency between master and intermediate depots. You must ensure that the software
available from the intermediate depots is consistent with that on the master depot.
If master and intermediate depots are out-of-synch when you perform the swinstall step, you
may encounter errors if software that is on the master depot is not available from one or more
intermediate depots.
Recovery (Install Only)
NOTE: This section applies only to customer-created software with unpreinstall and unpostinstall
scripts. HP-supplied software does not include these scripts.
SD-UX supports automatic procedures to recover from failed installation if the
autorecover_product option is set to true, attempting to leave the system in the same state as
it was previously. Also, manual means are available (refer to “Multiple Versions ” (page 139)).
Rollback is limited to the system where the installation of the product failed, not all target systems
specified in an installation job.
Because autorecovery removes any files that were installed up to this point, it is antithetic with the
checkpointing and retry features previously described. Recovery saves copies of each file that it is
replacing, then removes those files at the successful completion of the product installation. If the
install fails, then the saved files are restored.
Once a product is successfully updated, it cannot be restored except by reinstalling it. Additionally,
if a later product fails, the earlier product cannot be recovered. In order to meet the requirement
that multiple products be recoverable, multiple versions must be installed.
The unpreinstall and unpostinstall scripts are needed to undo the steps that the preinstall and
postinstall scripts executed. The normal sequence of operations for each product is:
1. Execute the product preinstall script
2. For each fileset
138 Reliability and Performance