Solaris Patch Cluster Management
Submitted by TuxInvader on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 17:02
Sun release security updates for their Operating Systems through "Recommended and Security" patch clusters. Generally if Sun fix something that isn't critical or security related only customers with a maintenance agreement get access to it.
Sun provide a patch manager for Solaris 8 and 9, but it requires the developer system to be installed because of all of it's dependencies. On a hardened production system this can be a real PITA.
I have used this script (Updated to use sunsolve IDs since Sun stopped anonymous access) to keep up-to-date with the patches included in these security clusters.
Download the script ==> CheckForCluster.sh
There is a large comment at the top of the script explaining it's use. Basically you need to download the currentcluster and it's readme. Sort the readme in to a list of patches and save it as cluster-9-recommended-{date}. Then set the script to run from cron. Whenever new patches are added to the cluster it will download the updates for you. You shouldn't need to download a 100MB cluster ever again.
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