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Introduction to the Software Content
Repository Tool
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Introduction to the Software Content
Repository Tool
The Software Content Repository (SCR) Tool is a standalone Java client software application that builds a
repository of Linux and UNIX patches and downloads operating system(OS) vendor patch content to the
repository.
The SCR Tool downloads patch content from vendor Web sites, which you use to patch Linux and UNIX
machines. These files include patch signature files (.pls), and OS vendor patch content files (.rpm, .gz,
.tar, .zip) used in the patching background processes. Deployment package files (.plp) are included
and used for patch deployment on Mac OS X. The .plp files contain the vendor patch, which is extracted
based on the properties file settings.
You run the SCR Tool on a Red Hat machine and use the VCM Patching functionality in VMware vCenter
Configuration Manager (VCM) to deploy patches to the VCM managed machines.
To ensure that all patch dependencies are met when VCM deploys the patches, the SCR Tool downloads
all of the necessary patches, except for patches that have been superseded. VCM Patching handles all the
dependencies when the patches are deployed. If the patch was available when the SCR Tool was installed
and configured, the patch downloads. If the patch was not available, or the SCR Tool was last run, the
patch will not be available. If the patch is still available from the OS vendor, it will be available for
download using the SCR Tool patch replication process.
The SCR Toolis not used to run patch assessments or deployments. The SCRTool also does not assess the
machine configuration or the downloaded patch content that is used for patch deployment.
The SCRTool downloads the patch signature files and OS-vendor patch content from the Content
Download Network (CDN), and downloads subscription-only content from the OS Vendor Content Web
sites. The patches must be accessible to the VCM managed machines through an NFS mount to the
repository on the machine that hosts the SCRTool. For a diagram of the components and workflow, see
"How to Download Patches with the SCRTool" on page 8.
VMware, Inc.
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