LSF Version 7.3 - Administering Platform LSF

Administering Platform LSF 219
Cluster Version Management and Patching on UNIX and Linux
The patch backup directory is configurable during installation. See the
PATCH_BACKUP_DIR parameter in
install.config.
Maintenance Over time, the backups accumulate. You may choose to manually delete old
backups, starting with the oldest. Remember that rollback is performed one patch
at a time, so your cluster’s rollback functionality stops at the point where a backup
file is unavailable.
If the backup directory runs out of space, your installations and rollbacks will fail.
You can change your backup directory by setting PATCH_BACKUP_DIR in
patch.conf, but you must copy the contents of the old directory to the new
directory manually (or there can be no rollback).
Update release
backup control
You can disable backups when installing update releases. In this case, your update
is installed without backing up the cluster first, so you cannot remove the update
using the rollback functionality.
You might choose this feature to save disk space, to speed up the install process, or
if you have your own methods of backing up the cluster.
Backup is always done before installing fixes, so you can always roll back if a fix does
not behave as expected.w
Multiple daemon files
To make changes without affecting running daemons, the patch installer must
move some files to another directory instead of overwriting.
For each file, a new directory is created in parallel with the file. The directory is
called
daemons_old.
Running jobs may require the old files even after you restart the updated cluster.
Version management concepts
Multiple distributions
Like installation, patching the cluster sometimes requires you to download
packages for each binary type or product component.
For example, to install an update, you may need to download multiple patches, such
as distributions for LSF and distributions for the Platform Management Console.
Depending on the problem, a fix or fix pack may involve changes affecting just one
binary type, or multiple distributions to patch multiple binary types.
Order of installation
If you have to install multiple patches, start with the most recent update, which
includes all previous fixes. Install on all UNIX hosts to bring the whole cluster up
to date. Then install fixes or fix packs as needed.