Register a Solaris system for patch updates

You can bring a Solaris automatically up to date with the latest recommended or security (if you do not have a support contract) patches.

You can do this using

• a graphical tool: /usr/bin/updatemanager
• a command line tool: /usr/sbin/smpatch

updatemanager will guide you through a series of screens to register yourself and your system. Even if you use the graphical tool to register, you can use the command line interface later on to keep your system up to date.

Here’s the procedure to register without using the graphical updatemanager tool.

1. Register for a Sun Online account on the web. This is a common account for accessing SunSolve, Sun developer connection…
2. Prepare a registration file and fill in your user name, password, system and optionally other information like contract number and proxy. You can use /usr/lib/breg/data/RegistrationProfile.properties  as a template.
3. Register your system

 # sconadm –a –r <yourRegistrationFile>

Here’s a Sunsolve howto on this topic.