Sun Microsystems 10 manual Patching with upgrade server, Patching with zoneadm attach -u

Version 3.1-enSolaris 10 Container Guide - 3.1 4. Best Practices Effective: 30/11/2009

4.4.3. Patching with upgrade server

[ug] A zone is transported from the production computer to a so-called upgrade server (zoneadm detach and zoneadm attach) that has the same version as the production server. On this upgrade server, the upgrade or the installation of patches is then carried out. Subsequently, the zone will have the new patch version. Variants:

∙The upgrade server can then serve as the new production computer.

∙A cluster (Sun cluster) can also be upgraded by installing the patches in the zones on an upgrade server, then installing the patches in a cluster node and then moving the zones there. Next, the first cluster node can be updated.

∙If the zones are supposed to continue running, only one copy of the zone is moved and the application is not started during the upgrade.

Thereby, the total run time of the upgrade, which depends on the number of patches and the number of zones, is not so important anymore. Production continues to run during the upgrade process.

4.4.4. Patching with zoneadm attach -u

[ug/dd] With Solaris 10 10/08, the command zoneadm attach -uis available with which a zone can be updated to the status of the new target system during zoneadm attach. But this does not provide a new upgrade option.

However, it is a precondition for zoneadm attach -uthat the patch history is quite identical and that the target system does not have a package containing an older version because it is not possible to downgrade a package. This also holds true for a package's old patch status. A zoneadm attach -uwill nor work between arbitrary systems. Systems should be administered accordingly for this purpose, such as for example in a cluster. Patches, installed by this method, can not be backed out.

zoneadm attach -uinstalls only patches of packages, that have the option SUNW_PKG_ALLZONES=true set. These are typically OS-Packages, but not that of applications. If zoneadm attach -uwill be used for patching, it is important to know that patches of applications will maybe not or not completely be installed. These patches has to be post-installed to stay in sync with the patch- and package-database.

With this knowledge and extensive evaluation zoneadm attach -ucould be a very powerful functionality for patching. Especially in time-critical situations is this method faster than parallel patching with patchadd.

To summarize zoneadm attach -uwill only work under certain preconditions and does not help to apply all patches. It is therefore not usable as a normal patch/upgrade process.

4.4.5. Moving zones between architectures (sun4u/sun4v)

[ug] zoneadm attach -uallows moving zones between the two current SPARC hardware architectures. The precondition for this is, however, that the same packages are installed and that the patch history is as identical as possible. It is advisable to prepare such a zone move by patching the systems always in parallel.

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