this case seems to have a lot of overlap with:
PSARC/2007/621 zone update on attach
6480464 RFE: zoneadm attach should patch/update the zone to the new
hosts level
has this case been discussed with with Jerry?
I see that the intended commitment level is "Uncommitted". so what is
the planned usage for this new flag? If it's only going to be used
internally by tools shipped from sun then it sounds like it might be ok
(althought you should still talk to jerry), but if we're expecting customers
to use these new options then i'm not sure it's the right approach. perhaps
if patching of a zone fails the zone should be automatically detached, and
then the patch re-application could be handled automatically by PSARC/2007/621
(which is a public and committed interface).
ed
On Fri, Dec 14, 2007 at 06:35:21AM -0800, Brian Utterback wrote:
>
> I am sponsoring this Fasttrack on behalf of Nagaraj Yedathore. The exposure
> is open. Patch binding is requested. The case times out on December 21.
>
> Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.64 07/13/07 SMI
> This information is Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems
> 1. Introduction
> 1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
> Re-syncing out-of-sync zones
> 1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
> Author: Nagaraj Yedathore
> 1.3 Date of This Document:
> 14 December, 2007
> 4. Technical Description
> Summary
> -------
>
> This proposed enhancement will allow the patching utility to add or
> remove global patches to or from non-global zones that have become out
> of step with the global zone following error conditions encountered
> during global patching operations.
>
> Problem
> -------
>
> The "pdo" binary, which provides the "patchadd" and "patchrm" user
> commands, handles the application and removal of global patches by first
> carrying out the operation on the global zone itself, and then each of
> the non-global zones in turn.
>
> However, when a failure occurs in any of the non-global zones, pdo
> tolerates it by reporting the error, but continues the operation in
> any further zones.
>
> This leads to two situations in which the patch level in a non-global
> zone can be out of step with the global zone:
>
> 1/ If a "patchadd" fails in one of the non-global zones, that zone
> will then be missing the patch which is present in the global zone,
> and will be behind the global patch level.
>
> 2/ If a "patchrm" fails in one of the non-global zones, that zone will
> then retain the patch which has been removed from the global zone,
> and will be ahead of the global patch level.
>
> The problem then is that when "patchadd" or "patchrm" are run again,
> "pdo" performs dependency checks on the requested patching operation
> before starting the operation in the non-global zones, but these
> checks only account for the global zone. Because of an implicit
> assumption that the patch levels in the non-global zones will always
> match those in the global zone, "pdo" then incorrectly assumes that
> the requested operation is unnecessary, and exits without taking any
> action.
>
> In the case of global patches, "pdo" cannot be run individually in
> non-global zones, so the only way for this to be corrected is to
> either reverse and repeat the patching operation, or to uninstall and
> then reinstall the non-global zone. Neither of these options is
> generally attractive, but the problem is particularly difficult when
> the patch in question is the Kernel update patch.
>
> Solution
> --------
>
> The "pdo" implementations of "patchadd" and "patchrm" support an
> undocumented feature which allows the patching of particular named
> zones via a "zonelist" argument. For example, the following command
> line would be used to add the patch "123456-78" to only zones "zone1"
> and "zone2":
>
> # patchadd -O "zonelist=zone1 zone2" 123456-78
>
> However, in the case of global patches, "pdo" detects that a patching
> operation is being attempted non-globally, and displays an error
> message before exiting without allowing the operation.
>
> The proposal is therefore to add a further option which can be
> specified alongside the "zonelist" in order to indicate that the
> dependency checks in the global zone should be ignored, because an
> attempt is being made to re-synchronize a non-global zone whose patch
> state must not be assumed to match that of the global zone. In this
> case, "pdo" will start the patching operation in the indicated
> non-global zones, where dependency checking is then done on a
> zone-specific basis before any further action is taken.
>
> The new proposed argument is "-O retry", and would be added to the
> existing code which parses the "zonelist" argument such that it could be
> specified either by itself, or with a "," separator as shown:
>
> # patchadd -O retry -O "zonelist=zone1 zone2" 123456-78
>
> . . . or . . .
>
> # patchadd -O "zonelist=zone1 zone2,retry" 123456-78
>
> In addition, since it may not always be known which zones are out of
> step with the global zone, it it propsed that the "retry" argument
> will automatically imply a "zonelist" consisting of all the non-global
> zones on the system if no other "zonelist" argument is explicitly
> specified. For example:
>
> # patchadd -O retry 123456-78
>
> This will exploit the fact that dependency checks are run in the
> non-global zones before the patching operations are carried out, so by
> requesting the operation in every zone only those which are found to
> be out of step will be updated.
>
> Finally, because of a peculiarity in the way that "pdo" handles
> information about the status of requested patch operations, the global
> zone must specifically be barred from the "zonelist" when the "retry"
> option is used, otherwise the effect of the "retry" option will be
> negated.
>
> To summarize, the "-O retry" option will:
>
> 1/ Apply to both "patchadd" and "patchrm" commands.
>
> 2/ Prevent dependency checking in the global zone, allowing the
> patching operations to be passed to the non-global zones where
> specific dependency checks are done anyway.
>
> 3/ Allow the patching operations to be run on any non-global zones
> specified via the "zonelist" argument, or all non-global zones on
> the system by default.
>
> 4/ Prevent the global zone from being included in a "zonelist" by
> displaying an error message and exiting.
>
>
> Interfaces
> ----------
>
> Interface Stability Description
> ========= ========= ===========
>
> option -O retry Uncommitted Allow "patchadd" and "patchrm"
> to carry out patching operations
> on global patches in separate
> non-global zones.
>
>
> References
> ----------
>
> RFE 6540979: "patchadd RFE to incrementally patch non global zones
> that are out of sync with the global zone."
>
>
> 6. Resources and Schedule
> 6.4. Steering Committee requested information
> 6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
> admininstall
> 6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
> 6.6. ARC Exposure: open
