Thanks Don. I agree that the CPU has an excellent install script. The problem with using the CPU is when you are deploying to hundreds of servers, there is a significant amount of time involved in staging the large bundle of patches when you really are only applying a very small subset between CPU's. PCA allows us to only grab what is needed on an individual server vs having a script run through a long list of patches and see if they apply.<br>
<br>What I'll probably end up doing is keeping copies of the patchdiag.xref file from around the time that the CPU is released and then compare the patch list in the CPU against the patchdiag.xref until I find the one that matches. What would be even better is if the CPU contained a copy of patchdiag.xref that can be used by PCA users to replicate the CPU. <br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 8:53 AM, Don O'Malley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:don.omalley@oracle.com">don.omalley@oracle.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Hi Jeff,<br>
<br>
The Oracle Patch Strategy Best Practice is to download and install the
CPU (ideally to an Alternate Boot Environment). The CPU does have the
advantage of having an excellent install script (written by Ed Clark; a
Senior Engineer on my team) and is tested by my team prior to release;
two excellent reasons why we recommend that customers use it! <br>
It also supports application to an Alternate Boot Environment (ABE). (I
know PCA supports patch application to an ABE too...) <br>
<br>
PCA is a third-party tool, which Martin kindly maintains and makes
freely available, so is not the recommended way to apply the CPU. There
is no special copy of the patchdiag.xref from the recommended patch
cluster the CPU is cut from made available. (The day the CPU is
released is not accurate, as we need to cut the CPU a week before to
allow time to test.)<br>
<br>
I know that previously Chris Reece released a tool called <a href="http://www.jessies.org/%7Ecar/projects/mkpcadir/" target="_blank">Mkpcadir</a>,
which created a patchdiag.xref based on the directory structure of the
EIS (Enterprise Installation Standards) DVD.<br>
I do not know if someone else has created a similar tool that would do
something similar for patch clusters???<br>
<br>
Each Patch Cluster (eg. Recommended Patch Cluster, CPU Patch Cluster)
that Oracle produces does contain a patch_list file, which is a flat
file listing the patches the cluster delivers in the order in which
they should be applied.<br>
I'm not 100% sure of the correct syntax to use with PCA, but I think
you should be able to rename this file patchlist.txt and provide it as
an input to PCA.<br>
Perhaps Martin or someone else could confirm...<br>
<br>
HTH,<br><font color="#888888">
-Don</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
Jeff wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">Guess I didn't understand that was the purpose of
--minimal. So based on your answer, there is no way to follow the
Oracle Best Practices patch strategy of applying the CPU between update
releases using pca? Except maybe grabbing the patchdiag.xref on the
day the CPU is released and comparing the patch revisions between
patchdiag and the CPU?
<div> </div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 4:59 AM, Don
O'Malley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:don.omalley@oracle.com" target="_blank">don.omalley@oracle.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">Hi Jeff,<br>
<br>
The --minimal option never mapped to the contents of the CPU.<br>
<br>
The --minimal option is mapped to the Recommended Patch Cluster
contents, not the CPU. The CPU is effectively an archived version of
the Recommended Patch Cluster, so the 2 are closely related. <br>
That said, with changes that we made to merge the Recommended Patch
Cluster and former Sun Alert Cluster (see <span></span><a href="http://blogs.oracle.com/patch/entry/merging_the_solaris_recommended_and" target="_blank">Patch Corner - Merging the Solaris Recommended and Sun
Alert Patch Clusters</a> for the details), we now only add the lowest
revision of a patch required to address SunAlert issues (Security, Data
Loss and System Availability).<br>
This means that over time customers need to apply less patches to keep
up to date with critical fixes.<br>
<br>
This is the reason that some patches in patchdiag.xref that are
Recommended are now longer the latest revs of patches.<br>
<br>
The only exception to this rule is patches required for the patch
utilities on Solaris to function correctly; these patches (eg. 119254)
are always kept at the latest available revision.<br>
<br>
HTH,<br>
-Don
<div>
<div><br>
<br>
<br>
Jeff wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">I've been using the --minimal option for
pca since it came
out to standardize patching based on the most recent CPU. Today I
noticed that is looks like Oracle dropped support for in in
patchdiag.xref.<br>
<br>
I'm using the patchdiag.xref I downloaded on May 15th and trying to
apply the patches from the April/2011 CPU using pca. I find these
patch discrepancies between what is in the CPU and what is in
patchdiag.xref:<br>
<br>
<b>April CPU patchdiag</b> <br clear="all">
119254-80 119254-81<br>
122911-24 122911-25<br>
125215-03 125215-04<br>
141552-03 141552-04<br>
143559-07 143559-08<br>
144488-11 144488-14<br>
<br>
Previously, patdiag.xref would list both the version of the patch that
was in the CPU and the most recent version.<br>
<br>
Guess the question is to Martin or Don: Do you know if this is
intentional?<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Jeff<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div>-- <br>
<a href="http://www.oracle.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="cid:part1.06010609.05050705@oracle.com" name="graphics1" width="133" align="bottom" border="0" height="18"></a>
<br>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>Don O'Malley</b></font><br>
<font color="#666666" size="2" face="Verdana, sans-serif"> Manager,
Patch System Test<br>
Revenue Product Engineering | Solaris | Hardware <br>
East Point Business Park, Dublin 3, Ireland<br>
Phone: <a href="tel:%2B353%201%208199764" value="+35318199764" target="_blank">+353 1 8199764</a> <br>
Team Alias: <a href="mailto:rpe_patch_system_test_ww@oracle.com" target="_blank">rpe_patch_system_test_ww@oracle.com</a><br>
</font> </div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Jeff<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div>-- <br>
<a href="http://www.oracle.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="cid:part2.08000604.05000402@oracle.com" name="graphics1" width="133" align="bottom" border="0" height="18"></a> <br>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>Don O'Malley</b></font><br>
<font color="#666666" size="2" face="Verdana, sans-serif">
Manager,Patch System Test<br>
Revenue Product Engineering | Solaris | Hardware <br>
East Point Business Park, Dublin 3, Ireland<br>
Phone: <a href="tel:%2B353%201%208199764" value="+35318199764" target="_blank">+353 1 8199764</a> <br>
Team Alias: <a href="mailto:rpe_patch_system_test_ww@oracle.com" target="_blank">rpe_patch_system_test_ww@oracle.com</a><br>
</font> </div>
</div></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jeff<br>