up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I am trying to determine patch levels and how long some Solaris machines have been without patching in order to support triaging which systems to patch first. How can I determine the last time a Solaris machine was patched?

link|improve this question
84% accept rate
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Well, don't know any good direct ways, but these might help. 'showrev -p' will tell you all the installed patches. And I guess the dates in /var/sadm/pkg would be from the last time the packages were modified (or patched).

link|improve this answer
This seems to be the closest to what I'm looking for -- it at least showed when the last time a patch was applied, which was half of what I needed to know. – romandas Aug 27 '09 at 13:55
I think /var/sadm/pkg/ only gets entries if the patch is installed without -d (i.e. if previous content is saved for backout). That would be the normal case, but '/var/sadm/patch/' ought to always get entries created for each patch added post-installation (certain patches are incorporated into a release but show up as installed with 'showrev -p') – jrg Sep 1 '09 at 0:39
feedback
up vote 3 down vote

I dunno about determinng the last time a solaris box was patched, but you can work out the patch level with showrev -p

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

I'll agree with the above showrev -p comments and add that uname -a to get the kernel version is also useful to give a general picture.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You should check first /etc/release that shows which version of Solaris was originally installed, then check with 'uname -a' which kernel patch are you currently using (it's the number XXXXXX-XX that shows up) then start comparing the kernel patches with the other machines, the kernel patch is a critical component so a newer kernel patch usually means a more up to date system in almost every aspect.

And then if you're not a faint of heart you can use the (unofficial) PCA tool to update your systems automatically just by providing a valid SunSolve account.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.