Patching endpoints on Solaris 11 or later

BigFix allows you to deploy Oracle Support Repository Updates (SRUs) to endpoints either from an online repository or a local repository. It provides content to update your local repositories with the latest SRU from the Oracle Solaris release repository.

Before you begin

Ensure that you meet the following requirements before patching the endpoints:
  • BigFix Patch for Solaris uses Bourne shell scripts to install packages on the endpoints. Ensure that an sh-compatible shell is installed on the endpoints to successfully patch using Fixlets.
  • Subscribe to the Patches for Solaris 11 site.
  • Expand the overall cache size for the server and relays to avoid getting a Disk Limited error when downloading SRUs. SRUs can be large, about 2.7 GB per image file. If you do not expand the cache, the downloads will fail.
  • If you are using the repositories that are provided by Oracle or other publishers, your endpoints must be connected to the internet.
  • If you are using a pre-configured local repository, complete the following steps:
    • Install the BigFix client on the local repository.
    • Assign the local repository to the endpoints using the Solaris Image Packaging System Repository Management dashboard.
    • Register the Solaris Download plug-in. For more information about download plug-ins, see Download Plug-ins.
    • Run the available tasks to update the local repository to ensure that it contains the latest SRU. For example, Update Repository for Solaris 11.3 SRU 11.3.3.6.0 (x86). This task uses the Solaris download plug-in to download the required SRU from the Oracle Solaris release repository to the local repository, which is then used to patch the endpoints.

About this task

This section discusses how you can use Fixlets to patch a Solaris 11 operating system to a specific SRU with the assumption that a configured local repository is in place. For more information about creating repositories, see the Oracle documentation website at http://docs.oracle.com. For information about local repositories, see Local repositories.

The Fixlets in the Patches for Solaris 11 site use packages to patch SRUs either from the Oracle Solaris release repository or from a local repository, depending on your repository configuration. By default, the packages are downloaded from the Oracle Solaris release repository. You can set a local repository as the package repository for certain endpoints by using the Solaris Image Packaging System Repository Management dashboard.

An alternative method of patching Solaris 11 endpoints is to use the Install packages by using pkg task. This task enables you to deploy individual packages or all the packages for an SRU. For more information, see Installing packages on Solaris 11.

Procedure

  1. In the All Patch Management Content node of the navigation tree, click Fixlets and Tasks > By Site > Patches for Solaris 11.

    A list of Fixlets is displayed.

  2. Select a Fixlet to deploy a Support Repository Update from the list.
    For example, Solaris 11.3 Support Repository Update 11.3.3.6.0.
    Note: Ensure that the corresponding SRU is available in the configured repository. Otherwise, the Fixlet fails. In the example given on step 2, you must deploy the Update Repository for Solaris 11.3 SRU 11.3.3.6.0 (x86) Fixlet to update the repository with the necessary SRU content to update the endpoint.
  3. Review the text in the Description tab.
  4. Click the appropriate link in the Actions box to start the deployment.
  5. Click OK.