jbjr:

Thanks, that SUMA looks very promising and easy. I ran the recommended
connectivity test:

suma -x -a Action=Preview -a RqType=Latest

but it failed with:

0500-013 Failed to retrieve list from fix server

I guess my server cannot access the internet - can ftp from external
sites though - must be an http issue?? ...

jbjr wrote:
> MJB wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm looking for some help/advice on patching AIX. We are in the
> > process of moving from Sun/Solaris to IBM/AIX. We have a few p5
> > servers running 5.3 and I want to make sure the OS stays up to date.
> > On Solaris you could just download the latest recommended patch cluster
> > from Sunsolve, unzip it and install it.
> >
> > How does it work with AIX? I've been to:
> >
> > http://www-912.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fcgui.jsp
> >
> > I plug in my system info and then have to select from:
> >
> > Technology Level
> > Service Pack
> > Maintenance Level
> > etc, etc
> >
> > I have no idea which one I need to download/install. Does AIX have a
> > 'recommended cluster' equivalent? If so am I looking in the right
> > place?
> >
> > Dare I inquire about the equivalent to Sun's OBP/firmware?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> Look into SUMA. I don't know how many machines you have to maintain or
> how you do your provisioning or what not. But we use SUMA on our 520s
> and it's great. Every night it downloads the latest patches. We have
> a set schedule. We install new patches in the applied state, test
> them, and just run them as applied until testing is complete and it is
> time to apply a new round of patches. Then we commit all and apply the
> new ones. That's an important step.
>
> So give smitty suma a look and see if it helps you out. You will have
> to do a little work to configure it, but nothing terribly
> sophisticated. The only information you should need with respect to
> maintenance levels etc. is your output from oslevel -r.