How do _you_ handle applying patches to lots of machines?

2007-12-25 11:28:00

Well, I got a good number of replies on this one. I'll try and hit the

highlights. There are two basic solutions -- most people seem to just

relay on rsh/rdist scripts and hosts.equiv.. others use a program called

dmake which is available from ftp.scri.fsu.edu, dmake appears to be an

"enhanced" rdist.

The essential thing was to put the patches on n exported NFS volume. Saves

loads of time. This time around I have to do patches so piecemeal that I

will likely just go to the individual machines. Professors can be hard to

schedule. :)

billt@dat.com (Bill Townsley) is an ECKERD graduate!

and commented that doing an rsh target_machine pkgadd.. with an NFS volume

would work.

wbmoore@fedex.com (Walter Moore) said:

>Walter here :)

>

> put the recommended patches in a directory that I export to all the

>client machines (I call it /opt/patches/2.4_Recommended). Then I add

>in the other patches I want each of my clients to have to that directory.

>when I append the id's of the extra patches to the end of the file

>patch_order. Then in a script I rsh to each client and run install_cluster

>in the directory in question.

>

>

>#!/bin/sh

>for i in `nisgrep addr='161.135.5[12]*' hosts.org_dir | cut -f2 -d ' ' |

grep -v router` ; do

> echo $i

> rsh $i "cd /opt/patches/2.4_Recommended; ./install_cluster"

>done

{what ARE the chances of there being two Walter Moores on this list?}

rloftin@engsys.mc.xerox.com (Ron Loftin) suggests:

>My approach is to maintain a directory of patches that is available via

NFS

>and automounter with patches, and have a script running in cron nightly

that

>scans the directory for new patches, sends e-mail to users of the

machine(s)

>that need patches, and creates "at" jobs to install the patches. This is

a

>bit time-consuming, but allows users to log off and save their work,

rather

>than go through reboots with applications left up.

tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com (Tim Evans) suggested dmake, which acts as a

distributed make. Looks pretty neat.

My apologies to anyone I missed.. I'm still reading suggestions...

This is a partial list of those who sent me replies. Thank you one and

all!

+--

From: tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com (Tim Evans)

From: popp@luey.redars.ca.boeing.com (Jeff Popp

From: billt@dat.com (Bill Townsley)

From: Laura Taylor <ltaylor@voom.bbn.com>

From: "Randall S. Winchester" <rsw@Glue.umd.edu>

From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk@itw.com>

From: "Henry Katz" <hkatz@lehman.com>

From: Mark Fogelson <fogelson@sentientnet.com>

From: Shaun Welch <swelch@home.net>

From: Peter Gray <pdg@uow.edu.au>

From: seanm@sybase.com (Sean McInerney)

From: jackg@calfp.com (Jack Goldsmith)

From: rloftin@engsys.mc.xerox.com (Ron Loftin)

From: wbmoore@fedex.com (Walter Moore)

From: David.Stewart@ee.ed.ac.uk

+-------------------------------------------------------------------

        Walter R. Moore - Assistant System Administrator

        moorewr@eckerd.edu

        http://www.eckerd.edu/~moorewr

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