2 Quick start guide for patching HP-UX systems

This quick start guide is for system administrators who have immediate patching needs. It is a limited solution to general patching issues. If you need in-depth information about patching, review the rest of this document and the other patch-related resources in Section : “Related information” (page 91).

NOTE: You will require root user privileges to complete these procedures.

Overview

This quick start guides you through basic patch management tasks and provides minimal detail:

•“Before you begin” (page 9)

Before you acquire and install the patch bundles or individual patches, you should consider some patch-related questions. See “Should you use standard HP-UX patch bundles?” (page 9) and “Should you use individual patches?” (page 9).

•“Acquiring and installing standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10)

When initially patching a system, it is important to establish a stable baseline of patches. This section shows you how to acquire and install the standard HP-UX patch bundles. See Chapter 5 (page 52) for more information.

•“Acquiring and installing individual patches” (page 13)

In addition to the standard HP-UX patch bundles, you might need to install individual patches. For example, you might want more recent patches found on the HP IT Resource Center (ITRC) website than those contained in a standard HP-UX patch bundle on media. You might also want the latest security patches.

For additional information, visit the ITRC website at http://itrc.hp.com.

Before you begin

The following sections contain questions that you should review before you begin the quick start procedures.

Should you use standard HP-UX patch bundles?

Before you acquire and install standard HP-UX patch bundles, consider the following questions:

•Is this a new system?

•Do you want to establish a baseline of patches?

•Do you want to update the existing baseline of patches?

•Are you adding new hardware to the system?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you should continue with “Acquiring and installing standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10).

HP recommends using the HP-UX Quality Pack Patch bundle for the proactive maintenance of all HP-UX systems. For a description of the Quality Pack Patch bundle and all other standard HP-UX patch bundles, see “Standard HP-UX patch bundles” (page 10) .

Should you use individual patches?

HP recommends using individual patches when performing reactive patching tasks. For example, when a system is experiencing a problem, you should apply an individual patch or the smallest set of patches to fix the problem, and not an entire patch bundle.

Please refer to “Acquiring and installing individual patches” (page 13) for more information.

Overview 9