[pca] Install in Single User Mode?

[Romeo Theriault]

Thank you very much for the explanation. These are the types of
clarification that I was looking for. Excellent.

Romeo

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 6:40 AM, Martin Paul <martin at par.univie.ac.at>
wrote:

> Romeo Theriault wrote:
>
>> First, Sun "strongly" recommends that the patch clusters be installed in
>> single-user mode. Is it recommended to install the patches with pca in
>> single-user mode? At least the ones that require a reboot to finish? Or is
>> it safe to install them in multi-user mode but with just all the
>> applications using the system turned off?
>>
>
> The recommendation/requirement to install in single user mode is a
> per-patch property; the README of each patch will tell you whether it is to
> be installed in single user mode or not. Quite often, patches which require
> a reboot also are recommended to be installed in single user mode, and vice
> versa.
>
> How hard this recommendation/requirement is debatable. On one hand it's Sun
> which says so, and they should know. On the other hand, people (including
> me) have been installing all patches in multi-user mode for years without
> problems.
>
> If the downtime is no problem it's easy - install everything in single user
> mode. If downtime is a problem, and you can't use Live Upgrade for patch
> installation, and you have good backups, you can install all patches on the
> possibly quietened system. A two stage approach might be to install all
> patches which do not require a reboot (pca's --noreboot option) in
> multi-user mode, reboot to single-user and install the rest.
>
>  Is using pca to install all of the recommended and security patches (pca
>> -i missingrs) equivalent to installing a patch cluster?
>>
>
> Not equivalent, only similar. Sun marks patches as Recommended (R) or
> Security (S) in the patchdiag.xref file used by Sun. pca's missingrs will
> install all patches that are either R or S. The Recommended patch cluster
> contains many of the R/S patches, but not all. In most cases, missingrs will
> install more patches than the cluster. Personally, I have two problems with
> the cluster: You download a lot of patches you don't need, and I've seen
> security patches missing from the cluster in the past which is a no-go for
> me.
>
>  Is installing the patches with pca any faster than installing the patches
>> with the patch cluster? The last patch cluster I installed took about 3
>> hours. ouch!
>>
>
> Both the install script in the cluster and pca use Sun's patchadd command
> to install patches, so the installation time will be the same. pca might be
> slightly faster as it won't try to install patches which are already
> installed or don't apply to a system. The cluster install script loses some
> time with that, but probably not much.
>
> The real problem here is that patchadd is slooooooow. This has been an
> often discussed issue in the past, but Sun didn't do anything about it. With
> the advent of a new packaging system "soon", don't expect anything to happen
> in that regard for existing Solaris versions.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Martin.
>
>
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