Re: OS patching via cfengine

[Mark . Burgess]

Ryan,

depending on how the patches are packaged, it might be advisable
to just execute them as shellcommands. e.g. if (as in solaris) the
OS info gets updated by the install script, it will ensure that
relevant OS mechanisms know about the patches. THe shell scripts
provided in patches are often complex - for better or for worse.

You can still select the right patches for the right hosts
by using lists or classes.

Good luck!

M

On  6 Mar, Ryan Anderson wrote:
> I'm trying to roll out OS patches to Solaris & IRIX hosts, but can't
> think of a way via cfengine besides making a cfengine script that
> executes a self-made shell script via shellcommands. I would like to do
> as much as possible using cfengine built-ins. Here are the design
> considerations I can think of:
> 
> - Should be able to check against a listing of patches, then apply only
> the patches that are newer than the ones it already has
> - The listing of patches to apply should be generated dynamically based
> on whether a patch is in a central patch directory (so the cfengine
> script doesn't need to be constantly updated for each new patch)
> - Patches would reside in a central location that should be mounted
> manually; ie not all hosts are in a NIS domain with an automount
> location to pull from. I'd be open to using a 'copy' of all patches to
> every host if this is a better design way to go
> 
> Has anyone 'invented the wheel' on this one already and willing to
> share ideas or code?
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> RCA
> --
> Ryan C. Anderson
> Unix Administrator
> United Defense L.P.
> desk   763.572.6684
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> 
> 
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