Software Distributor (SD-UX)

Multiple Target Management Capabilities Enabled

As part of the Servicecontrol Manager integration, capabilities previously only available through the OpenView Software Distributor version of SD-UX have been enabled. These include the ability to distribute software to multiple remote targets (individually or together), as well as job management capabilities for scheduling jobs and viewing (local or remote) agent logfiles.

POSIX Enhancements and Exceptions

Software Distributor has been enhanced to meet the IEEE Std 1387.2-1995 standard (also referred to as POSIX 7.2) This affects the behavior of the command line interface and the number of options. (See /usr/lib/sw/sys.defaults for a complete list of supported options, their descriptions, and default values.)

Exceptions to the POSIX 7.2 standard are as follows:

Change in swlist Hides Superseded Patches by Default

In 11.0, swlist shows all installed patches including superseded ones. However, the 11i default behavior is not to show superseded patches. This can be overcome, returning to 11.0 standard behavior, by setting -x show_superseded_patches=true on the swlist command line or in the defaults files.

64-bit Capability Determined from System, Not /etc/.supported_bits

In 11.0, SD-UX reads the /etc/.supported_bits file to map model strings to either 32-, 32/64-, or 64-bit capability. From time to time, synchronization breakdowns between the model command and the contents of /etc/.supported_bits have created trouble on 64-bit systems.

To prevent synchronization breakdowns, SD-UX in 11i has changed to get the necessary information directly from the system, rather than using a look-up table.

CD Searched For Only When Requested

With the release of 11.0, SD-UX introduced the automatic discovery and mounting of a CD However, SD-UX always looked for the CD even if that was not what was wanted. This made the start-up of the GUI slower than necessary.

While the functionality is still available in the GUI, SD-UX now only performs this action when you push a new button in the Source Dialog called “Find Local CD.”

GUI Streamlined

For 11i, the SD-UX GUI requires fewer confirmations. It has been streamlined to reduce the number of verification and informational popups.

Products Rather than Bundles Shown After Auto-Selection

In 11.0, GUI software selection using “Match What Target Has” or “Automatically select patches for software installed on target” could be confusing because the products in the bundles were not automatically marked for selection in the GUI.

The new 11i behavior provides a product-level view that shows which software has been matched. After inspecting the results of the automatic selection, you can then continue with the installation or change the view back to a bundle level.

See “SD-UX Changes to Patch Installation ” for details.

Software Groups Added to GUI

The -f option to swinstall, swremove, swcopy and swlist, which has allowed users to specify collections of software through a file, has been incorporated into the GUI. New actions have been added to allow SD-UX GUI users to save selected software in a “Software Group” (which creates a group) and to select that “Software Group” in subsequent sessions.

Layout Version No Longer Converted Automatically

In 11.0 SD-UX, commands automatically converted Installed Product Database (IPD) and depot catalogs to layout version 1.0 or the layout version specified via the -x layout_version=... option on the command line.

In 11i, no SD-UX command will automatically convert the layout version of an existing target, IPD, or depot catalog, even if the -x layout_version=... option is specified on the command line. To change the layout version of the IPD or depot, an explicit swmodify command is needed to make the conversion.

To convert a 0.8 depot or root to layout version 1.0, use the following:

swmodify -a layout_version=1.0 @ <depot_or_root>

To convert a 1.0 depot or root back to layout version 0.8 use the following:

swmodify -a layout_version=0.8 @ <depot_or_root>

As a result of this, the -x layout_version option should no longer be needed except when creating a depot that is to be in layout version 0.8 format. Then the -x layout_version=0.8 option is needed for the swpackage and/or swcopy commands used to initially create the depot. (By default, SD-UX commands that create depots will create them in layout version 1.0 format.)

Messages Improved or Eliminated

To eliminate unnecessary messages—and to make remaining messages more useful in diagnosing the problem or condition being recorded—many error, warning, and information messages have been removed from or have changed in the SD-UX log files.

Output of swlist Changed

The output of swlist has changed in the following ways:

swpackage Produces Note Vs. Warning

The command swpackage no longer produces a warning when an unknown attribute name is encountered. Instead, it now produces a note stating that the attribute is being packaged as a “vendor defined attribute.”

Newest Bundle Selected by Default

Previously, when you specified an unqualified bundle name for selection and the bundle name was ambiguous due to multiple revisions, SD-UX printed out an “ambiguous bundle” error message. Now, SD-UX selects the newest version of the bundle by default.

This change in behavior makes bundle selection consistent with what SD-UX does for products and filesets when multiple versions of these are available in the source.

control_utils File Improved

New functionality has been added and defect repair has been done to the /usr/lbin/sw/control_utils file. Documentation on the control_utils functions can be found at http://software.hp.com/SD_AT_HP/information_library.html. The control_utils library is a collection of shell functions which can help packagers produce better software packages.

New Environment Variable, SW_COMPATIBLE, Created

A new environment variable, SW_COMPATIBLE, has been created for use during the execution of a verify script that is called by the swverify command. If the software being considered is compatible with the system it is installed on, the variable will be set to TRUE. If it is incompatible, it will be set to FALSE. This new variable will help control-script writers determine if installed software is incompatible and should be removed from a system.

SD-UX Changes to Patch Installation

The SD-UX patch installation paradigm has changed for HP-UX 11i. To install patches on HP-UX 10.x systems, HP recommended that you use the match_target (Match What Target Has) option to match patches to the target. However, 10.x SD-UX could not identify specific software as patches.

With HP-UX 11i, SD-UX can recognize patches based on their “internal attributes.” This provides more control over patch management than in previous releases.

patch_match_target

The match_target option still functions, but no longer matches patches to targets. With 11i, setting the patch_match_target option to TRUE automatically selects the latest patches that correspond to software on the target. The default setting is patch_match_target=false.

	NOTE: Since the patch_match_target and match_target options cannot both be set to TRUE in the same swinstall command, you should use the match_target option to update from HP-UX 10.x, but use patch_match_target to install new patches on systems already running HP-UX 11i. (This option selects patches that apply to software already installed on an 11i system.

The 11i autoselect_patches option (TRUE by default) automatically selects patches to match software selected for installation. It lets you install patches at the same time you install base software. In addition to the base software selected by the match_target option, the autoselect_patches option provides the means for selecting appropriate patches during the update process.

Category Tag Information

With 11i, SD-UX category tags are used to identify types of patches. These category tags can be used to select various patches for installation. The category tags include the following:

general_release critical hardware_enablement defect_repair corruption enhancement memory_leak panic halts_system

By specifying the category (c) tag in the SD-UX version specification, you can select all patches that contain that specific category tag. For example, using the SD-UX command line interface, you can select all patches in the depot that correspond to currently installed software (and that contain the category tag “critical”) by entering the following:

swinstall -x autoreboot=true -x patch_match_target=true \
-x patch_filter=”*.*,c=critical” -s depot_name

By using the pipe (|) function, you can combine category tags. For example, to install patches that are either critical OR hardware_enablement, enter the following:

swinstall -x autoreboot=true -x patch_match_target=true \
-x patch_filter=”*.*,c=critical|hardware_enablement” \
-s depot_name

To preview the patches that are selected for a particular swinstall session, the -p (preview) option can be used. The -p option will cause SD-UX to analyze the installation, then exit (that is, the actual installation will not be performed). Look in the /var/adm/sw/swinstall.log file to determine which patches were selected.

To use category tags with the SD-UX Graphical User Interface, do the following:

1. Under the Options menu, select Manage Patch Selection.

2. Then select the box labeled “Automatically select patches for software installed on the target.”

3. In the “Filter...” text field, add the desired filters to the *.* .   (For example, to select only the critical patches, the Filter... field would appear as *.*,c=critical. Likewise, to install all the patches that are critical OR hardware_enablement, the Filter...field should appear as *.*,c=critical|hardware_enablement.)

4. Select OK.

Clicking the Filter... button will display a list of the predefined category tags already formatted for use in the Filter... field. Selecting the desired category tag from this list and then selecting OK will add that, and only that, category tag to the Filter... field. (Also shown under the Filter... field is the list of all category tags found in the source depot.)

The list of patches that were selected for install can then be viewed by double-clicking on the bundle in the main SD-UX window. You can then deselect any patches that you may not want to install. (Be careful not to break any documented patch dependencies.) Continue with the install (analysis) as with any other patch installation.

For more complete information on 11i Interactive Patch Management, refer to the manual Software Distributor Administration Guide, part no. B2355-90699.

Documentation

The Software Distributor Administration Guide has been extensively updated for accuracy and completeness (including many new examples) for HP-UX 11i and is available on the HP-UX Instant Information CD and on the http://docs.hp.com web site. Another excellent source of information on SD-UX is the SD-UX web site:

http://software.hp.com/SD_AT_HP/