Patching Solaris system with zones off NFS server doesn't appear to work
Folks,
I was noticing that all the patches I tried to apply off our NFS patch server were returning an error code 1 when I tried to apply them to my system running zones.
Curiously, checking the global zone, the patches all showed as applied.
Looking at the patch logs I see:
-
Booting non-global zone zone1 for patching...
Adding patches...
Invalid patch directory or URL - /dev/.SUNW_patches_1710106320-1336185-00000851c5997ed1
Usage: patchadd [-d] [-u] [-n] [-B backout_dir] [-k keystore] [-P passwd]
[...]
-
After a little sleuthing around, it appears patchadd is adding the patch to the global zone, then issuing a:
mount -o lofs <nfs server patch> <zoneroot>/dev/.SUNW_patches_<UUID>
The mount works just fine, but when you try and access this directory from the local zone, you get an I/O error. I tried this from both an automount (where I first discovered it) and a hard mount with the same results.
I'm going to open a case with Sun to clarify exactly if this is a bug or a "feature," but I thought others might appreciate knowing about this.
It appears my (thankfully test!) system is in a state where all the patches are applied in the global zone but not to any of the local zones...
