Administration Guide

Updating files in a file collection

The SP file collections can be used to contain system control files that you will need or want to change. When you update files that are part of a file collection, you do not have to make the same update on each replication of the files. Instead, you make the update to the copy on the master server for that collection and run the supper update command on all systems you want updated. The supper program does the updates for you.

The supper update command is included in the crontabs file with the default set to run hourly. You can modify the crontabs file to run the supper update more or less frequently. Refer to Chapter 13, Maintaining the crontabs file for more information.

Step 1: Make the changes to the files

1. Be sure you are working with the master files.

   In a file collection there are many replications of the same file. It is possible for copies of a file to exist on the control workstation, on several boot-install servers, and on all the processor nodes.

   In the default system, the control workstation is the master server for all file collections. If you have not changed anything in this configuration, this is where you will always make updates.

   Note
   If you changed the default configuration, be aware of the hierarchy of servers in your system and be sure you are modifying the copy of the file that is on the master server for the collection.

   See Understanding how file collections are organized to review file collection hierarchy.

2. Change the files as appropriate.

Example

In our default configuration, the master files for all file collections are on the control workstation.

Log in to the control workstation as root and copy a new version of /.profile into the /share/power/system/3.2 directory.

Step 2: Run the supper scan command

To keep the scan file current, you must run the supper scan command on the master collection every time you make a change.

Example

Run the supper scan command on the control workstation. Enter:

   /var/sysman/supper scan power_system

Step 3: Run the supper update command

You need to run the supper update command in every location that the collection is installed and where you want the change to be effective. For example, if you change the files on a server that is the master for eight processor nodes and you want each node to have the changes, you need to run the update on all eight nodes.

You can accomplish this update in several ways:

1. You can wait for the scheduled update. The supper update command is included in the crontabs file to be run on a scheduled basis.
2. You can issue the commands immediately, logging in to each machine or remotely issuing the commands with rsh or rexec.

Example

1. Log in to each server requiring the update. The .profile file is in the node.root collection as a secondary collection available within the power_system collection. This means on the boot-install servers you update the power_system collection. Enter:

      /var/sysman/supper update power_system
   

2. Log in to each of the nodes requiring the update. On the nodes you update the node.root collection. Enter:

      /var/sysman/supper update node.root
   

3. Check the supper messages. supper returns the number of files updated, removed, and the number of errors produced as shown in this message which was returned after changing .profile and performing the update on a processor node.

   ======================================================================
   [r02n07][/]> supper update node.root
   Updating collection node.root from server mrcs-r1.
   File Changes:  1 updated, 0 removed, 0 errors.
   ======================================================================
   

   supper also writes summary messages to the following file:

   /var/adm/SPlogs/filec/sup.<month>.<day>.<year>.<hour >.<min>

   Detailed information is written to the following file:

   /var/adm/SPlogs/filec/sup.<month>.<day>.<year>.<hour>.<min>.r

   File collection log files older than 48 hours are removed at midnight by a crontab entry. To see all the messages in the log, you have to display or print the logs file. You can check the supper log for messages from the last install or update using a supper command. The following example shows a supper update, followed by a supper rlog command:

   [r05n01][/var/adm/SPlogs/filec]> supper update node.root
   Updating collection node.root from server r05cw.
   File Changes:  2 updated, 0 removed, 0 errors.
    
    
   [r05n01][/var/adm/SPlogs/filec]> supper rlog
   SUP 7.24 (4.3 BSD) for file /tmp/.sf13689 at May  6 12:01:57
   SUP Upgrade of node.root at Fri May  6 12:01:57 1994
   SUP Fileserver 7.12 (4.3 BSD) 26295 on r05cw.hpssl.kgn.ibm.com
   SUP Locked collection node.root for exclusive access
   SUP Requesting changes since Fri May  6 12:00:07 1994
   SUP Receiving file .kshrc
   SUP Receiving file .profile
   SUP Upgrade of node.root completed at Fri May  6 12:01:58 1994