[pca] patch delta between two dates

[Rajiv Gunja]

Van,
I have a wrapper script and create patch bundles for servers in 1 location -
local PCA Patch Proxy. This method allows me to keep a copy of the list of
patches generated along with the Xref file with which it was generated on
the PCA Patch Proxy server. pca -l missing in html format or text format on
a web-server does work well when audit needs to performed.
Storing multiple files per server with date will work if you have less than
200 servers, I have about 3000 servers, so 1 html file with date in its
filename works better for me.

On the server, where the patch is being installed, I have a wrapper script,
which writes to /var/log/installpatches.log and each time a bundle is
installed, the older one is backed up and the new log is appended to this
file. This file also contains the date/time on which it was installed.

Please check my blog for the wrapper script, if you need more information,
please send me an email.
Thanks

-GGR

--
Rajiv G Gunja
Blog: http://ossrocks.blogspot.com


On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 13:37, Van Bommel, Paul <Paul.VanBommel at gdcanada.com
> wrote:

> I've been asked to provide a list of patches that have been applied to a
> system over a period of time. (about a year). These have been applied in
> 3-4 patching sessions.
>
> We use PCA and it works very well. We record details in a single
> directory on each system per patching session. Things like the download
> and install output in a log  file, the patchdiag.xref used on that date,
> any local pca.conf file, and the patch zip files. The zip files
> sometimes get cleaned out from the local system to save space.
>
> My log file has a lot of details, and I was able to generate a list of
> "Successfully" installed patches, but I don't trust this technique. Am I
> on the right track here. (egrep '^Installing|^Successful' log.txt)
>
> I'm starting to think I should have recorded the three files used by PCA
> uname.out, showrev.out, and pkginfo.out with all the other files I was
> storing. Then run PCA on the old input files with the last "baseline"
> patchdiag.xref
>
> Does anyone have a good technique to determine the delta of patches
> added in a period of time. (using PCA or other tools)
>
> What info do you record in a patch session to make your life easier when
> questions like this popup?
> The worst part is that I cannot go back in time to produce these file. I
> can only start recording now.
> I wish the base OS had some kind of version control. (not ZFS, something
> in the package/patch database)
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Paul Van Bommel
>
>
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