We do patches on our Solaris master servers on a semi-annual basis.  We 
also take advantage of the fact that both our test and production 
environments are clustered to minimize the chances that a bad patch will 
hose the environment.  We use a rolling upgrade method.  First, we apply 
patches to the standby node in the cluster and reboot.  If, after a 
week, we have no problems with the patches, we failover our NetBackup 
and ACSLS services to the newly patched server and allow it to run there 
for a week.  If there are problems, we move the services back to the 
unpatched node.  If we have no problems, only then will we put the 
patches on the other node in the cluster.  Although we've not yet had 
any problems with any patches, I feel pretty confident that we would not 
be put out of business if a Solaris patch happened to break something 
critical (unless it were something that didn't show up until after both 
nodes in the cluster had been patched).

Jeff Lightner wrote:

>Support organizations not coming up with obvious solutions is something
>I'm fairly used to.  In fact I've had occasions where I theorized as to
>the correct answer but was told by support that wasn't it only to later
>try it in desperation and find that it was indeed the fix.  
>
>Perhaps Katherine's experience with support organizations has been
>better than mine.  Is there one that doesn't always first suggest
>upgrading to their latest patch/release to fix whatever issue rather
>than doing basic troubleshooting?  
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>[mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of David Rock
>Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 11:19 AM
>To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
>Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Issues with NetBackup after applying Solaris
>patches
>
>* Greenberg, Katherine A <GreenbergKA AT aetna DOT com> [2006-04-06 10:21]:
>  
>
>>Don't think that is it, but who knows. I would hope that w/ Sun and
>>Veritas both heavily on the case someone would've come up with that by
>>now ;)
>>    
>>
>
>LOL!!! Stop it, you're killing me.
>
>  
>


-- 
Jack L. Forester, Jr.
UNIX Systems Administrator, Stf
Lockheed Martin Information Technology
(304) 625-3946