Patching Best Practices for the Solaris 10 OS (With Sam the Sysadmin)

December 2009

Introduction

This Solaris 10 Patching Best Practices Course Reference Guide is a supplement to the web-based training course WS-2700-S10: Solaris 10 Patching Best Practices. The guide presents the key concepts of the course but it does not contain all the content presented in the course itself. The guide is intended to be used as a reference and refresher after having completed the online course.

For more details, see the list of contents below.

Download the document as PDF (3.9 MB).

Contents

• Module 1: Overview of Solaris 10 Patching
  • Topic 1: Solaris 10 Patching Philosophy
  • Topic 2: The Solaris 10 Patching Best Practices
  • Topic 3: What's Next for Solaris 10 Patching?
  • Topic 4: Solaris 10 Patching Resources
• Module 2: Introduction to Solaris Live Upgrade
  • Topic 1: The Advantages of Using Solaris Live Upgrade
  • Topic 2: Steps of the Solaris Live Upgrade Process
• Module 3: Planning for Solaris Live Upgrade
  • Topic 1: Planning System Preparation and Alternate Boot Environment Creation
  • Topic 2: Planning Upgrading/Updating, Activating, and Maintaining
• Module 4: Installing Solaris Live Upgrade
  • Topic 1: Install the Solaris Live Upgrade Packages
  • Topic 2: Install Required Patches Needed by Solaris Live Upgrade
• Module 5: Using Solaris Live Upgrade to Create an Alternate Boot Environment
  • Topic 1: Guidelines for Creating an Alternate UFS Boot Environment
  • Topic 2: Create an Alternate UFS Root Boot Environment
  • Topic 3: Create an Alternate Boot Environment for a ZFS Root Pool
• Module 6: Upgrading with Solaris Live Upgrade
  • Topic 1: Upgrade an Alternate Boot Environment
  • Topic 2: Activate an Alternate Boot Environment
• Module 7: Applying Packages and Patches to an Alternate Boot Environment
  • Topic 1: Apply Packages and Patches to an Alternate Boot Environment
  • Topic 2: Activate an Alternate Boot Environment
• Module 8: Maintaining Solaris Live Upgrade Boot Environments
  • Topic 1: Four Keys of an Effective Maintenance Strategy
  • Topic 2: Creating a Maintenance Plan
  • Topic 3: Performing Solaris Live Upgrade Maintenance Tasks
• Module 9: Introduction to Deferred Activation Patching
  • Topic 1: What is Deferred Activation Patching?
  • Topic 2: How Deferred Activation Patching Works
  • Topic 3: Difference Between Deferred Activation Patching and Solaris Live Upgrade
• Module 10: Introduction to the Kernel Patch
  • Topic 1: Overview of the Kernel Patch
  • Topic 2: Overview of Kernel Patch Installation
  • Topic 3: Patch Rejuvenation and the Kernel Patch

For More Information

Here are additional resources.

Patching resources:

• Patching Center on BigAdmin
• Gerry Haskins' Patch Corner blog
• Oracle Solaris 10 Upgrade Resources: Patching on BigAdmin
• BigAdmin Patches and Releases wiki page

Oracle Solaris resources:

• BigAdmin web applications and device lists:
  • Hardware Compatibility Lists for Solaris OS
  • Hardware Certification Test Suite
  • Solaris 10 Applications Library
  • Sun Device Detection Tool
  • Installation Check Tool
  • Device and Third-party Solaris Device Driver Reference Lists
• BigAdmin Oracle Solaris technology resource centers:
  • Solaris Information Center
  • Solaris Patching Center
  • Solaris 10 Upgrade Resources for System Administrators
  • Solaris Containers (Zones)
  • Logical Domains (LDoms)
  • DTrace
  • ZFS
  • Predictive Self-Healing
  • Solaris 8 Vintage Support
• BigAdmin Oracle Solaris resource collections (which include community submissions):
  • Solaris resource collection
  • Solaris 10 resource collection
  • Solaris 9 resource collection
  • Solaris 8 resource collection
  • Solaris on x86 resource collection
• Discussions, such as the Solaris OS forums
• BigAdmin Operating System wiki page

General links:

• Sun download site
• Oracle University web site
• Discussions, such as Sun forums and the BigAdmin Discussions collection
• Sun product documentation at http://docs.sun.com and the Sun Documentation Center
• Sun wikis, such as the BluePrints wiki and the BigAdmin wiki
• Support:
  • Sun resources:
    • Register your gear
    • Sun Services
    • SunSolve Online
  • Community system administration experts