Obtaining a KB Bundle With the harvester Script

By default, Enterprise Controller is in connected mode after installation and configuration. When you want to switch the Enterprise Controller to disconnected mode, you must provide the Knowledge Base (KB) bundle from Sun. The KB bundle contains metadata and patches from Sun.

Sun xVM Ops Center provides the harvester script to download the KB bundle from Sun. If the Enterprise Controller is not connected to the Internet, identify a compatible system such as a laptop, that is connected to the Internet to run the harvester script. The harvester script runs only on Solaris OS. You can then transfer the KB bundle from the Internet-facing system to the Enterprise Controller.

Obtaining a KB bundle in this scenario requires the following main steps:

1. Identifying a system that can connect to the Internet (the Internet-facing system)
2. Loading the prerequisite software onto the Internet-facing system
3. Transfering the harvester bundle to the Internet-facing system
4. Using the harvester script to download the KB bundle
5. Copying the bundle onto removable media, such as a CD/DVD or memory stick, and use the media to manually copy the KB bundle into a directory on a local file system of the Enterprise Controller

To Load Prerequisite Software

The harvester script requires that the Internet-facing system has wget version 1.10.0 or later installed. Perform the following steps to install the appropriate version of wget software.

1. To check what version of wget is installed on your system, run the wget command with the -V option. For example:

   # /usr/sfw/bin/wget -V
   GNU Wget 1.9.1
   
   Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.
   
   Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
   #
   

2. If an older version of wget is installed, download the version 1.10.0 or later from sunfreeware.com, and install it on the Internet-facing system. For example:

   # pkgadd -d wget-1.11.4-sol10-sparc-local
   
   The following packages are available:
   1 SMCwget wget
   (sparc) 1.11.4
   
   Select package(s) you wish to process (or 'all' to process
   all packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:
   
   Processing package instance <SMCwget> from </jf/wget-1.11.4-sol10-sparc-local>
   
   wget(sparc) 1.11.4
   Free Software Foundation
   Using </usr/local> as the package base directory.
   (output omitted)
   
   Installation of <SMCwget> was successful.
   #
   

3. wget version 1.11.4 depends on additional software:
   • openssl-0.9.8j
   • libiconv
   • libintl
   • /usr/local/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 and /usr/local/lib/libstdc++.so.6 - Installing libgcc-3.4.6 or gcc-3.4.6 installs these files.
     Download each of these objects from sunfreeware.com and install them on the Internet-facing system.
4. With the additional software installed, check that the wget command runs.
   The wget command installs into the /usr/local/bin directory. For example:

   # /usr/local/bin/wget -V
   GNU Wget 1.11.4
   
   Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
   <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
   This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
   
   Originally written by Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>.
   Currently maintained by Micah Cowan <micah@cowan.name>.
   #
   

To Transfer the harvester Bundle to the Internet-Facing System

The harvester bundle harvester_bundle.tar.gz is available on the Enterprise Controller in the /opt/sun/smsfacade/bin/ directory. This bundle contains the script harvester.sh and signing utilities for signature checking/generation of the downloaded blobs.
Perform the following steps to download the script:

1. Open a terminal window in the Enterprise Controller and go to the /opt/sun/smsfacade/bin/ directory.
2. Copy the harvester script onto removable media that you can use to install the script on the Internet-facing system.
3. Copy the harvester script from removable media into any directory on the Internet-facing system.
4. Unpack the bundle harvester_bundle.tar.gz.

To Use the harvester Script to Obtain the KB Bundle

1. On the Internet-facing system, create a temporary directory, for example, /var/tmp/xVM, to hold the password file that you will create in this procedure.

   # mkdir -p /var/tmp/xVM
   

2. Create an empty file named /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd, and set its permission mode to 400.

   # touch /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd
   # chmod 400 /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd
   

3. Edit the /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd file so that it contains the password of your Sun Online Account. The following echo command appends the password to the /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd file. (Replace password with the correct password.) For example:

   # echo _password_ > /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd
   

4. Change the permmission mode of the harvester script to 744. For example:

   # chmod 744 harvester
   # ls -l
   total 36
   -rwxr--r-- 1 root root 17546 Jan 27 04:56 harvester
   #
   

5. Run the harvester script, with at least the -u and -p options:
   • -u SOA – Specify the SOA that you have registered with the Sun Inventory online environment.
   • -p password-file – Specify the full pathname of the file that contains the SOA password.
   • -x proxy url – Specify the https URL to the proxy server.
   • -U proxy user – Specify the proxy username.
   • -P proxypassfile – Specify the full pathname of the file that contains only the proxy password.
   • -t dir – Specify the temporary directory for storing the downloaded contents. Ensure that this directory is empty before running the script.
   • -c – Use this option to clean up the temporary directory if already downloaded contents exist. By default, all the downloaded contents are stored and not cleared.
   • -d list – Specify the distributions for which you want to download all the Solaris patches. Specify a quoted, space separated list of the names of Solaris OS distributions for which you want to download patches. If the distribution is not specified, the patches for all Solaris distributions are downloaded. Without the -d option, the harvester script downloads only the metadata. Available distributions are:
     • SOLARIS_10_0_SPARC
     • SOLARIS_10_0_X86
     • SOLARIS_9_0_SPARC
     • SOLARIS_8_0_SPARC
       The disk space requirement on the Internet-facing system and the Enterprise Controller to run the harvester script with -d option is approximately 150 GB for a distribution.
       Note - Do not use the -d option while running the harvester script. It might take couple of days for the harvester script to finish running with the -d option. You can upload the patches in bulk from the EIS DVD.
   • -R revisions – Specify the number of revisions of a patch to download. By default, the revision number is 100.
   • -s distro – This option displays the baselines for a given distribution. You can enter only one distribution at a time. Valid distributions are:
     • SOLARIS_10_0_SPARC
     • SOLARIS_10_0_X86
     • SOLARIS_9_0_SPARC
     • SOLARIS_8_0_SPARC
   • -b ID – Specify the Solaris baseline ID to download.
     Note – When you use the -b option, it is mandatory to use the -d option. You can use it only for one distribution.

Examples of Running the harvester Script

Example 1

Running the harvester only with the Sun Online Account username and password.

# ./harvester -u username@sun.com -p /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd
Directory /export/home/public not found. This directory will be created.
Setting up local directory structure at: /export/home/public
Initialization: Downloading channels.xml
Tue Jan 27 05:08:01 MST 2009 Clearing cookies to initialize new session.
Distributions:
Identifying and Downloading the Notifications and Seeker scripts
Creating tarball...

Tarball successfully created at /discon/standalone-0127.tar.gz

Start time: Tue Jan 27 05:08:00 MST 2009
Completion time: Tue Jan 27 05:08:01 MST 2009

Tarball includes 0 distribution(s):


Tarball includes only distribution metadata (no patches.)

Please copy this file to a xVMOC server and
use the BUI to configure Update Disconnected Mode.

When you are finished you can delete the content in /export/home/public
#

The harvester script without the -d option generates a .tar.gz file that contains the KB metadata only (no patch content). In this example, the harvester script created the /discon/standalone-0127.tar.gz KB bundle.

Example 2

Running the harvester script to download Solaris 10 patches up to four revisions for SPARC distribution

./harvester.sh -u username@sun.com -p /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd -d "SOLARIS_10_0_SPARC SOLARIS_10_0_X86" -R 4

Example 3

Running the harvester script to display the available Solaris baselines for Solaris 10 SPARC distribution.

./harvester.sh -u username@sun.com -p /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd -s SOLARIS_10_0_SPARC

Example 4

Running the harvester script to download the security baseline DEC-2009 for Solaris 10 SPARC distribution.

./harvester.sh -u username@sun.com -p /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd -d "SOLARIS_10_0_SPARC" -b 40011729

Example 5

Running the harvester script using a proxy server instead of directly connecting to GUUS.

./harvester.sh -u username@sun.com -p /var/tmp/xVM/mypasswd -x http://www.sun.com -U proxyuser -P /var/tmp/proxypassword

Enhancements in the harvester Script

The following enhancements have been made to the harvester script in this release:

• The new harvester script does incremental downloads. The user can choose not to clear the previously downloaded data. This action makes subsequent runs of the harvester script faster.
• The new option -R is provided to define the number of revisions of a patch to be downloaded. This reduced the number of patches to be downloaded.
• The new option -b is provided to download only the patches in a baseline. The dependencies for the patches in the baselines are not downloaded. Ensure the you have uploaded the EIS DVD contents before proceeding to applying the downloaded baseline patches.
• Patch download progress counter is added which displays the number of patches to be downloaded. This counter is updated after every 10 patches are downloaded.

To Transfer the KB Bundle to the Enterprise Controller

1. Copy the KB bundle onto removable media that you can use to install the KB bundle on the Enterprise Controller.
2. Copy the KB bundle into a directory on a local file system of the Enterprise Controller.
3. Use the Loading and Refreshing a KB Bundle procedure to load the KB bundle into Sun xVM Ops Center on the Enterprise Controller.