[pca] no patches for several weeks

[French, David]

I know the problem was solved but I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to warn that /var/sadm should be backed up just before any patching or pkgadd/pkgrm commands.  I had a single system out of 4 identical systems running Sol10 with 3 container/zones.  Three of the systems patched with no issues, but one of them wouldn't boot after installing 137137-09 (was at 137111-08 and trying to get to 139555-08).  If removed, it worked fine.  It was definitely this patch.  Sun had me try an LU using the just released U7 and that wouldn't boot either.

Anyway, after a lot of effort I found the pkginfo file under /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWckr was missing.  I was able to get it back and continue.  The next problem, was I discovered a lot of pieces were missing from under /var/sadm/pkg for back outs, so I had issues with zones.  With all of the problems, I had detached the zones and spent my time getting the global zone updated and able to boot.  When it was successful, it was then discovered that the zones couldn't be re-attached because back out data was missing.  It was more corruption in the /var/sadm/pkg directory in the zones.  

The conversation with Sun was eye opening on how often it seems that directory is corrupted when patching Sol10.  To be safe, back it up before any pkgadd/pkgrm or patchadd/patchrm commands are run.  It could save you the three days I wasted...

	--Dave



> -----Original Message-----
> From: pca-bounces at lists.univie.ac.at [mailto:pca-
> bounces at lists.univie.ac.at] On Behalf Of McGranahan, Jamen
> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 6:29 AM
> To: PCA (Patch Check Advanced) Discussion
> Subject: Re: [pca] no patches for several weeks
> 
> After doing a loopback mount, I'm getting lots of data with pkginfo -x
> & showrev -p. I'm now downloading patches using PCA (pca -d) and it's
> working as it should. Thanks for the tip! Shew!
> 
> Jamen McGranahan
> Systems Services Librarian
> Vanderbilt University
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pca-bounces at lists.univie.ac.at [mailto:pca-
> bounces at lists.univie.ac.at] On Behalf Of Martin Paul
> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 8:09 AM
> To: PCA (Patch Check Advanced) Discussion
> Subject: Re: [pca] no patches for several weeks
> 
> [Jamen contacted me directly, I'm sending the reply to the list]
> 
> McGranahan, Jamen wrote:
>  > Well, I think I found them. Someone moved the files from
>  > /var/sadm/pkg to /apps/sadm/pkg.
> 
> That was my first suspicion ..
> 
>  > Can I force pkginfo to look in this directory? You stated that a
>  > softlink would not work, so other than moving the files back to
>  > /var/sadm/pkg, do I have any other options?
> 
> A soft link doesn't work because either pkgadd or patchadd seem to
> replace it with a "real" directory when they run, for whatever reason.
> You have two options:
> 
> Move the contents of /apps/sadm/pkg/ back to /var/sadm/pkg/.
> 
> Use a "loopback mount" to mount /apps/sadm/pkg/ under /var/sadm/pkg/.
> This is the supported way to move directories under /var/sadm/ to some
> other location. A command like:
> 
>    mount -F lofs /apps/sadm/pkg /var/sadm/pkg
> 
> should work. Attention - the loopback mount will be missing again when
> rebooting the machine, so you have to add it to /etc/vfstab as well. A
> line like this should do it:
> 
>    /apps/sadm/pkg - /var/sadm/pkg lofs - yes -
> 
> When the loopback mount is in place, check whether "pkginfo -x" and
> "showrev -p" give reasonable results again.
> 
> hth,
> 
> Martin.
>