Updating the Software on Your Oracle Solaris 11 System

With IPS, you can update all of the packages on your system that have available updates, or you can update individual packages that are not constrained by the system. If a package is constrained, an appropriate message indicating why it has been constrained is provided. Package constraints generally represent a dependency or a versioning issue. For most package update operations, either a clone BE is created or a backup BE is created before applying the software updates to the clone BE so that you can boot back to the previous BE. Some pkg update operations, such as updating a non-global zone or updating a specific package, might not generate a clone BE or a backup BE.

The following options are available:

• Adding software packages after an installation – The Live Media contains a set of software that is appropriate for a desktop or laptop computer. The text installation media contains a smaller set of software that is more appropriate for a general-purpose server system. The text installer does not install the GNOME desktop. To add packages, including the Oracle Solaris Desktop (GNOME 2.30), after a text installation, see Adding Software After Text Installation in Installing Oracle Solaris 11.1 Systems.

• Updating all of the packages on your installed system – To update all of the packages on your system that have available updates, use the pkg update command, as follows:

  # pkg update

  Running this command updates packages that you might not otherwise consider updating, for example, kernel components and other low-level system packages.

  Depending on your package repository or publisher status, your system could be updated automatically from Solaris 11 to Solaris 11.1. If you want to update your system image, but you do not want to update to another release, see Updating an Image in Adding and Updating Oracle Solaris 11.1 Software Packages.

  See an example of using this command to update a BE in Managing Boot Environments.

  Display those packages on a system that require an update without actually installing the packages.

  # pkg update -nv --accept

• Adding or updating individual packages – To add individual software packages, use the pkg install command. Any dependent packages are also updated at the same time.

  Install an individual package as follows:

  # pkg install communication/im/pidgin

  Update an individual package as follows:

  # pkg update system/management/ocm

• Install package updates that deliver fixes – A pkg update operation might include bug fixes, so the operation is similar to applying a specific patch or patches in previous Oracle Solaris releases.

Installing Maintenance Updates on an Oracle Solaris 11 System

Oracle customers with an active Oracle support plan have access to the support package repository so that you can routinely update your Oracle Solaris 11 systems. Updates to the support repository are called Support Repository Updates (SRUs) and occur on a regular basis. See How to Configure the Oracle Solaris support Repository.

If you need to access an IPS repository on a system that has Oracle Solaris Zones installed by using https_proxy and http_proxy, see Proxy Configuration on a System That Has Installed Zones in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Oracle Solaris Zones, Oracle Solaris 10 Zones, and Resource Management.

• SRUs – Updates from the Oracle Solaris 11 support repository are available as support repository updates (SRUs). SRUs take the place of maintenance updates or patch bundles that are available for Oracle Solaris 10 releases.

• Future Oracle Solaris 11 releases – Future Oracle Solaris 11 releases are made available in the support repository or a release repository that provides the currently available OS.

The following summary provides information about selecting the update method that works best for your environment. For more information about the best way to update your system images, see Updating an Image in Adding and Updating Oracle Solaris 11.1 Software Packages.

• Desktop systems or laptop computers – In a desktop environment, you can identify what updates are available by using the following command:

  # pkg update -nw --accept

• Development systems – You can use the pkg update operation to apply a specific fix or apply an SRU to these systems to assess the impact of your applications that are currently under development. A new BE is created when an SRU is applied, and you can fall back to the original BE, if necessary.

• Production systems – In a large enterprise environment, SRUs can be applied to a non-production system to assess the impact of the OS changes to the currently running production environment. If the non-production system remains stable after the SRU installation and assessment is complete, the SRU can be applied to a new BE on the production system, and you can fall back to the original BE, if necessary.

How to Configure the Oracle Solaris support Repository

Use the following steps to configure the support repository, if you want to apply support updates.

1. Log into the following site.

   http://pkg-register.oracle.com/

2. Download the SSL key and certificate for the Oracle Solaris 11 release.

   Consider creating a directory inside /var/pkg to store the key and certificate.

   # mkdir -m 0755 -p /var/pkg/ssl
   # cp -i Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.key.pem /var/pkg/ssl
   # cp -i Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.certificate.pem /var/pkg/ssl

3. Copy the key and certificate from the directory that you downloaded the key and certificate into this directory.

   The key files are kept by reference, so if the files become inaccessible to the packaging system, you will encounter errors.

4. Set the publisher to the support repository.

   # pkg set-publisher \
               -k /var/pkg/ssl/Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.key.pem \
               -c /var/pkg/ssl/Oracle_Solaris_11_Support.certificate.pem \
               -O https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support solaris

5. Install the updated packages from the support repository, if desired.

   # pkg update

   As mentioned previously, this operation updates the packages on the system with the latest package versions either by creating a new BE or by creating a backup BE.