update manager not showing recently available patches, unlike patch manager
Ive noticed that updatemanager hasnt presented any new patches for a few weeks.
I thought it was just a lull in the patch creation process.
However, I recently ran a recommended patch set through a machine and noticed that it installed a bunch of patches that updatemanager wasnt presenting, including a new rev of the kernel patch (118822-20).
So I figured Sun was just delaying in adding these patches to the list of patches that update manager knows about, for quality assurance reasons. And they would show up in due course.
But the final piece of the puzzle is that I just jumpstarted a new machine and updated it with smpatch. This machine picked up all the new patches, including the new kernel patch. But the other machines still werent picking them up.
One difference I could see between a newly jumpstarted machine and the rest was the new machine hadnt had the update manager patch installed yet, it was still running patch manager.
Although it picked up update manager as one of the patches of course.
So on a test machine I manually backed out all the update manager patches. And lo and behold, smpatch suddenly started showing about 40 patches it hadnt shown before.
Anyone else seeing this?
Any comment from Sun?
# 2
I am also seeing the the same thing.
The last listing of patches that I pulled from the update connection only showed patches up to and including 19 Oct.
The only Update Connection patch listed was 121086-01.
Any possibility there might be a connection with the other problem already noted?
# 3
Good to hear its not just me.
Well, backing out 121086-01 doesnt seem to fix the problem.
It happened shortly after the 2 patches got "stuck", as has been mentioned in another thread.
The stuck patches are 120844-01 and 120824-02.
Maybe them being there is blocking the flow :-).
On the subject of those stuck patches, I noticed that after I uninstalled update manager to get back to patch manager, they were no longer showing up in the list of patches to install.
So apparently patch manager was capable of working out that they are for an inappropriate architecture, but update manager has lost that ability.
This highlights the fact that there are different update manager bugs related to them.
1, it is picking up patches of an inappropriate arch to install.
2, if a patch does fail to install, it keeps trying to install it.
And thats in addition to the bug of not showing any new patches since the 19th.
Is it my imagination, or does update manager have more than its fair share of problems.
I am personally aware of 5 separate unresolved bugs it has.
And thats not counting missing features such as being able to patch machines with zones.
# 4
Robert,
We believe this is part of a dependency issue with the patches. Engineering is looking at it - details in an upcoming post.
Zones is actively being worked on. I am waiting for a timely from engineering on the release.
The 121086-01 patchrm issue has been escalated and the support team is looking into it.
Can you email me at kayo.granillo@sun.com the other issues that you see open.
Thanks,
Kayo
