Updating OES Linux using Red Carpet

I found some of the guidance on getting the Red Carpet update system working on OES Linux a bit confusing and therefore I've put together these notes which bring together key information from several published documents.

1. Your server must have a working internet connection and sufficient space for the support pack patches (minimum 2GB, recommended 4GB on the partition holding /var/cache/rcd).
2. Only installed services are patched, please ensure everything you want updated is installed and configured.
3. These instructions do not cover updating from CDs or ISO images, nor do they apply to a scenario where you have previously used Red-Carpet to update your system.
4. You are either logged in as Root or have su'd to it.

If your installation satisfies the requirements set out above, proceed as follows:

Stop iPrint (if installed)

/etc/init.d/novell-ipsmd stop
/etc/init.d/novell-idsd stop

verify that it has stopped

ps auxwww | grep iprint | grep -v grep

if it doesn't stop, kill it as follows

killall ipsmd

if that doesn't kill it try

killall -9 ipsmd

There is a patch available to update Red Carpet which you should ensure is applied, amongst other things it allows you to use the Red Carpet GUI. It is applied via a script, which need only be run once on a server. However before apply the patch there are a number of steps required to prepare your server.

Add the OES update service

rug sl

If the service is added you should see something similar to

#| Service URI                                 | Name
-+---------------------------------------+---------------------
1| https://update.novell.com/data | Novell_Update_Server

If the service isn't listed add it now

rug sa https://update.novell.com/data

Activate the OES update service<

rug act -s service_list_number activation_code email_address

You can obtain the service_list_number from the # column via 'rug sl'.

For queries about obtaining an activation code, see the TID 1097537 "Patching Open Enterprise Server with rug/Red Carpet FAQ"

You should see the following messages

System successfully activated
Refreshing channel data
Refresh complete

Now Subscribe to the OES update channel

rug sub oes

If you get an error see TID 10098375 “OES Patch Channel Not Visible after Activating Open Enterprise Server”

List all the available OES patches to ensure you are seeing them

rug pl oes

If none appear do the following

rug refresh
rug pl oes

Download the Prepatch script (oessp2prepatch.sh) from the OES Support Pack 2 Consolidated Support Pack page

http://support.novell.com/tools/csp/csp_oessp2.html

Ideally download it from a linux box to avoid bad interpreter errors, failing that issue the following command to resolve the issue

dos2unix oessp2prepatch

Copy the oessp2prepatch.sh file to a local directory on your OES server and make it executable

chmod +x oessp2prepatch.sh

Execute the script

./oessp2prepatch

Once the download process is finished you get the message

............................................................
The Open Enterprise Server SP2 Pre-patch setup is complete.
............................................................
************************************************************
Now you can finish patching the server.
For instructions, see Patching an OES Linux Server at
http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes/install_linux/data
/bxlu3xc.html#bxlu3xc
************************************************************

You are now ready to download patches, however when it comes to selecting patches to download via red-carpet the first patch you should install is patchfile 11147 which contains updates to the Red Carpet Daemon.

rug pin patch-11147

Now restart the red-carpet daemon

rcrcd restart

You may get a message like

There is no newer version of 'patch-11147' in any subscribed channel

Check the patch is installed by doing a

rug pl oes

Look to see if there is an 'i' prefixed to the line with 'patch-11147' on it. If so then you already have that patch installed.

To avoid memory consumption problems with the Red Carpet client enter

rug set max-allowed-memory 40

rug pin --entire-channel oes

When complete you will see the message

Download complete
Transaction Finished

Useful TID’s

10100002 “Troubleshooting the OES SP2 Patch Process”

10097537"Patching Open Enterprise Server with rug/Red Carpet FAQ"

10098375 “OES Patch Channel Not Visible after Activating OES”

Patching a Server From the ZLM Channel Using the Red Carpet Command Line

Patching a Server From the ZLM Channel Using the Red Carpet GUI

OES Support Pack 2 Consolidated Support Pack page

Apply Security Patches without New Kernel Patches Being Applied