Article

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By Hans-Robert Vermeulen

• Introduction
• Design
  • Patch design
    • Testing patches
    • Installation Server
• Configuring ZENworks Linux Management
• Downloading patches from Novell
• Building the architecture inside ZENworks Linux Management
  • Groups and Folders
  • Server assignment
• The patching procedure
  • Copying and moving bundle assignments
  • Patching servers
• Appendix A
  • ZLMMirror related scripts
    • mirror-SLES10-SP1.sh
    • mirror-OES2.sh
    • The OES2 zlmmirror script
    • sles10_all.xml
    • sles10_recommended.xml
    • sles10_optional.xml
    • sles10_security.xml
  • All Patch copying and moving scripts
    • zlmSLESsettings.txt
    • zlmOES2settings.txt
    • zlmSLEScopyNewtoTest.sh
    • zlmSLESmoveTesttoPreProd.sh
    • zlmSLESmovePreProdtoProd.sh
    • zlmOES2copyNewtoTest.sh
    • zlmOES2moveTesttoPreProd.sh
    • zlmOES2movePreProdtoProd.sh

Introduction

There have been more documents related to advanced Patch management with ZENworks Linux Management, for example, this one in the wiki.

However, these articles are all based upon YUP, which works well, but YUP itself is not a supported solution and the yup and yup2zlm scripts are fairly complex and thus not easy to adapt for many people.

Note: One of the benefits of YUP though, is the generation of a yum tree - an rpm-md repository, which can be used as installation source for e.g. yum, zen-updater, rug or the zypper client. The same benefit can be achieved using zlmmiror in combination with:

• The create_repo_for_patch.sh command from the inst-source-utils package in SLE10 SP1
or
• using the external createrepo package to create the 'yum' xml metadata called: rpm-md. (Command: createrepo -q -c /dir) and hosting the directory tree with http (e.g. using an alias in apache).

This is, however, beyond the scope of this document.

In this AppNote I will describe how to patch both SLES 10 and OES2 servers using ZENworks Linux Management. We will be using a TEST – Pre-Production – Production structure for save deployment, using the default zlmmirror options introduced with the latest Support pack and hot patches.

I have also tried to keep the scripts simple and easy to adapt to your specific scenario.

Design

Patch design

Probably the most important task for the ZENworks Linux Management server in a data centre will be maintaining patches for the Linux servers. Given the amount of patches that come out, it is crucial that an automated procedure is in place. Obviously, patches will first need to be tested, but after that, the deployment should be handled automatically.

The following strategy will be used in this document.

Patches will be placed inside different categories or groups:

• All Patches
• Optional Patches
• Recommended Patches
• Security Patches

The optional, recommended and security categories will be used for test and pre-production. In the production environment, we will group them together as there is less requirement for differentiation.

Using zlmmirror, patches will be pulled in and placed inside a zlmmirror folder. Per OS we will have a catalog for optional, recommended and security, pointing to the actual patch bundles.

Using scripts we will copy new patches to the test groups.

After testing, a script can be used to move the tested patches to the pre-production environment.

Once patches have been successfully deployed in a pre-production environment, they can be copied to the production group.

Testing patches

As an example, the testing procedure can be as follows:

• All incoming (new) patches will be created as bundles and placed inside the appropriate groups. This is the responsibility of zlmmirror.
• A script is run to copy all new patches to the test groups.
• Administrator assigns the test groups to a Virtual Machine (VM) or dedicated test server and set the schedule to manually.
• Administrator runs the “rug up” command and monitors patch deployment within the VM and makes sure all software remains running.
• Administrator performs tests (reboot, eDirectory check, Apache check, etc.) to make sure the installed software functions. Note: This may not be sufficient, but it is a good starting point. You should define your own testing procedures.
• If required, a script is written to accommodate proper patch installation (for example to stop and start processes before and after a patch.)
• If a patch for a hardware driver is available, this patch needs to be verified against the appropriate physical hardware. This requires a physical machine.
• Patches that deploy correctly are assigned to the pre-production server groups by using a script to move them over. The deployment schedule can be set to random, between 22:00 and 23:00 every evening . Patches are also removed from the test groups.
• One or two days later, patches are assigned to all production server groups using a script that copies them. The deployment schedule will be set to random, between 22:00 and 23:00 every evening.

Note: Please note that by no means will this procedure ensure that patching will always be flawless. However, it makes the most efficient use of resources and manpower while still providing an adequate level of security for many deployments.

Installation Server

To distribute and install RPMs and patches to managed devices, you need to ensure that all packages the RPMs depend on, and all packages dependent on the RPM are also imported to the ZLM server. For example, to distribute updates to the SLES10 devices mirrored from https://nu.novell.com, you need to ensure that all the packages from the SLES10 media are imported to the ZLM server and assigned to a catalogue. You need to assign the catalogue containing the installation source to the managed devices.

In our environment we have created several installation sources and made available the following catalogs:

• /Bundles/Sources/sles-10-i586/ca-SLES10-SP1-Dist catalog
• /Bundles/Sources/sles-10-x86_64/ca-SLES10-SP1-Dist catalog
• /Bundles/Sources/oes-i386/ca-OES2-Dist catalog
• /Bundles/Sources/oes-x86_64/ca-OES2-Dist catalog

The catalogues can be created by importing all the rpm's from the different architecture directories in your repository using the command:

zlman bap /path/bundle-name os-target *.rpm

Configuring ZENworks Linux Management

Downloading patches from Novell

ZLMMirror

ZlMMirror is traditionally used to automatically pull the latest patches from an update server.

With the new --category switch, it is now possible to download only specific categories of patches, these categories are:

• Recommended
• Security
• Optional

Based on the category, you will be able to decide what patches to give priority in testing.

Since zlmmirror will be used on the ZENworks Linux Management server to pull in patches for all platforms (SLES10 SP1, OES2, different architectures), it is best to use the mirrored credentials set available from the Novell Customer Center. This allows us to get all patches for all operating systems at once.

To automate the file retrieval and storage processes, please edit the /etc/crontab file and put in a few scripts to get patches each morning. For example:

## Getting updates from nu.novell.com and placing them inside ZLM
00 8 * * * root /var/zlmdata/scripts/mirror-SLES10-SP1.sh
55 8 * * * root /var/zlmdata/scripts/mirror-OES2.sh

After the patches have been downloaded, the following structure is present in ZENworks Linux Management:

• A Bundles/zlmmirror/OES2 folder.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/OES2/OES2-Updates-Patches folder containing all downloaded patch bundles.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/OES2/OES2-Updates Catalog containing all OES2 bundles.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/OES2/OES2-Updates-bundle containing all OES2 packages.
• A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/SLES10-SP1-Updates-patches folder containing all downloaded patch bundles.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/SLES10-SP1-Updates-all Catalog containing all SLES10 SP1 patch bundles.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/SLES10-SP1-Updates-recommended Catalog containing all SLES10 SP1 patch bundles of the recommended category.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/SLES10-SP1-Updates-optional Catalog containing all SLES10 SP1 patch bundles of the optional category.
  • A Bundles/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/SLES10-SP1-Updates-security Catalog containing all SLES10 SP1 patch bundles of the security category.

These folders will not be modified. Several scripts have been created to copy the contents to a working structure.

The following zlmmirror confguration files are available in Appendix A:

• oes2.xml
• sles10_all.xml
• sles10_optional.xml
• sles10_recommended.xml
• sles10_security.xml

Building the architecture inside ZENworks Linux Management

Groups and Folders

At the base level of /Bundles, the following structure must be created for all test, pre-production and production systems:

• A Bundles/Patches/Servers/oes2 folder containing three Bundle Groups:
  • Test where all “new” released patches will be copied from the zlmmirror branch.
  • Pre-Prod where all tested patches will be moved to from the test Bundle Group.
  • Prod where all fully accepted patches will be moved to from the pre-prod Bundle Group.

Note: For this example, we did not differentiate between the different categories for OES patches. If you think this is required, it is easy to change according to the examples provided for SLES 10 SP1.

• A Bundles/Patches/Servers/sles10-sp1 folder containing eight Bundle Groups:
  • Test-optional where all “new” released optional patches will be copied from the zlmmirror branch.
  • Test-recommended where all “new” released recommended patches will be copied from the zlmmirror branch.
  • Test-security where all “new” released security patches will be copied from the zlmmirror branch.
  • Pre-Prod-optional where all tested optional patches will be copied from the corresponding test Bundle Group.
  • Pre-Prod-recommended where all tested recommended patches will be copied from the corresponding test Bundle Group.
  • Pre-Prod-security where all tested security patches will be copied from the corresponding test Bundle Group.
  • Prod where all fully accepted patches will be moved to from the pre-prod Bundle Groups.

Server assignment

According to this example, server assignment should be handled as follows:

• All SLES10 SP1 servers need to be assigned to the /Bundles/Sources/<arch>/ca-SLES10-SP1-Dist catalog. This catalog will contain the main distribution and will serve as a repository for all SLES10 SP1 servers and is used to resolve dependencies and install additional software.
• SLES10 SP1 Test servers need to be assigned to the test groups, pre-production groups and production group.
• SLES10 SP1 Pre-production servers need to be assigned to the pre-production groups and the production group.
• All SLES10 SP1 production servers need to be assigned to the production group only.
• All SLES10 SP1 servers to the SLES10-SP1-Updates catalog to be able to always resolve dependencies for the patches themselves.
• All OES2 servers need to be assigned to the /Bundles/Sources/oes2/oes2-/ca-oes2-dist catalog. This catalog will contain the main distribution and will serve as a repository for all OES2 servers and is used to resolve dependencies and install additional software.
• OES2 Test servers need to be assigned to the test group, pre-production group and production group.
• OES2 Pre-production servers need to be assigned to the pre-production group and the production group.
• All OES2 production servers need to be assigned to the production group.
• All OES2 servers need to be assigned to the OES2-Updates catalog to be able to always resolve dependencies for the patches themselves.

And, since any OES2 server is also a SLES10 SP1 server:

• All OES2 production servers need to be assigned to the SLES10 SP1 production group.
• All OES2 servers need to be assigned to the SLES10-SP1-Updates catalog to be able to always resolve dependencies.
• All OES2 servers need to be assigned to the /Bundles/Sources/sles-10-/ca-SLES10-SP1-Dist catalog. This catalog will contain the main distribution and will serve as a repository for all SLES10 SP1 servers and is used to resolve dependencies and install additional software.
• All OES2 servers need to be assigned to the SLES10-SP1-Updates catalog to be able to always resolve dependencies for the patches themselves.

The patching procedure

Copying and moving bundle assignments

Several scripts have been created inside the /var/zlmdata/scripts folder to make the task of moving bundles and running zlmmirror easier. The scripts are available in Appendix A.

The following scripts are available for either SLES10 or OES2:

• Two scripts to initiate the zlmmirror process
  • mirror-OES2.sh
  • mirror-SLES10-SP1.sh

These scripts can be safely run by Cron once or twice a day to pull in new patches.

• Several scripts to move or copy bundles from new to test to preproduction to production.
  • zlmOES2copyNewtoTest.sh
  • zlmOES2movePreProdtoProd.sh
  • zlmOES2moveTesttoPreProd.sh
  • zlmSLEScopyNewtoTest.sh
  • zlmSLESmovePreProdtoProd.sh
  • zlmSLESmoveTesttoPreProd.sh

These scripts should be run manually after each accompanying stage of the testing and patching process has been completed.

Note: Please note that the zlmSLESmoveTesttoPreProd.sh accepts the different categories as a parameter to move only those specific patch bundles to the Pre-Production group.

• Two files containing all settings for the scripts mentioned above.
  • zlmOES2settings
  • zlmSLESsettings

The two settings files also hold the Administrator name and password for ZENworks Linux Management. If you do not want to place them in the settings file, you can add them in a separate file, and remove the -U and -P parameters in all scripts.

To create the separate file, create a .zlmanrc file (notice the leading period!) in your home directory:

• vi .zlmanrc    #Add zlman user credentials in your home directory
• The .zlmanrc file should contain the -U and -P variables like: -U Administrator -P novell

Patching servers

As an example, the patching procedure for OES2 servers is described below. The process is similar for SLES10 SP1 servers.

After the zlmmirror process completes, the zlmOES2copyNewtoTest.sh script needs to be run to copy all new patches (it searches for patches not yet available in the production environment) to the test folder.

After all patches have been tested and verified, the zlmOES2moveTesttoPreProd.sh script needs to be run to move all patches in the Test folder to the Pre-Production folder.

Two days later, after the patches have been deployed to a few production servers, the zlmOES2movePreProdtoProd.sh needs to be run to move all patches to their final production folder.

Note: Please note that every OES2 server is also a SLES10 SP1 server and thus needs those patches as well.

Appendix A

All scripts used in this document can be found below.

ZLMMirror related scripts

mirror-SLES10-SP1.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script retrieves all SLES10-SP1 patches based on category.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 

LIST=(recommended security optional)
for Category in ${LIST[*]} ; do
	zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c sles10_$Category.xml --category=$Category
done
# Still pull in all patches
zlmmirror m -p -c sles10_all.xml

# Essentially these commands are executed:
#zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c sles10_recommended.xml --category=recommended
#zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c sles10_optional.xml --category=optional
#zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c sles10_security.xml --category=security
#zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c sles10_all.xml

mirror-OES2.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script retrieves all OES2 patches.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 
zlmmirror m -p --force-nevra -c oes2.xml

The OES2 zlmmirror script

<ZLMMirrorConf>
    <Session>
        <RemoteServer>
                <Base>https://nu.novell.com/repo</Base>
                <Proxy>http://10.0.0.1:8080</Proxy>
                <Type>nu</Type>
                <User>xxxxxx</User>
                <Password>yyyyyyyyyy</Password>
	</RemoteServer>
        <LocalServer>
            <Type>zlm</Type>
            <User>administrator</User>
            <Password>novell</Password>
        </LocalServer>
        <Catalog>
            <Name>OES2-Updates</Name>
	    <LocalName></LocalName>
            <Folder>zlmmirror/OES2</Folder>
            <Target></Target>
            <ExcludeTarget></ExcludeTarget>
            <Bundle></Bundle>
            <ExcludeBundle></ExcludeBundle>
            <Package></Package>
            <ExcludePackage></ExcludePackage>
	</Catalog>
    </Session>
</ZLMMirrorConf>

sles10_all.xml

<ZLMMirrorConf>
   <Session>
      <RemoteServer>
         <Base>https://nu.novell.com/repo</Base>
	 <Proxy>http://10.0.0.1:8080</Proxy>
         <Type>nu</Type>
         <User>xxxxxxxxx</User>
         <Password>yyyyyyyyyyyy</Password>
      </RemoteServer>
      <LocalServer>
	 <Type>zlm</Type>
         <User>administrator</User>
         <Password>novell</Password>
      </LocalServer>
      <Catalog>
         <Name>SLES10-SP1-Updates</Name>
         <LocalName>SLES10-SP1-Updates-all</LocalName>
         <Folder>zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/</Folder>
         <Target>sles-10-i586</Target>
         <Target>sles-10-x86_64</Target>
         <ExcludeTarget></ExcludeTarget>
         <Bundle></Bundle>
         <ExcludeBundle></ExcludeBundle>
         <Package></Package>
         <ExcludePackage></ExcludePackage>
      </Catalog>
   </Session>
</ZLMMirrorConf>

sles10_recommended.xml

<ZLMMirrorConf>
   <Session>
      <RemoteServer>
         <Base>https://nu.novell.com/repo</Base>
	 <Proxy>http://10.0.0.1:8080</Proxy>
         <Type>nu</Type>
         <User>xxxxxxxx</User>
         <Password>yyyyyyyyyy</Password>
      </RemoteServer>
      <LocalServer>
	 <Type>zlm</Type>
         <User>administrator</User>
         <Password>novell</Password>
      </LocalServer>
      <Catalog>
         <Name>SLES10-SP1-Updates</Name>
         <LocalName>SLES10-SP1-Updates-recommended</LocalName>
         <Folder>zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/</Folder>
         <Target>sles-10-i586</Target>
         <Target>sles-10-x86_64</Target>
         <ExcludeTarget></ExcludeTarget>
         <Bundle></Bundle>
         <ExcludeBundle></ExcludeBundle>
         <Package></Package>
         <ExcludePackage></ExcludePackage>
      </Catalog>
   </Session>
</ZLMMirrorConf>

sles10_optional.xml

<ZLMMirrorConf>
   <Session>
      <RemoteServer>
         <Base>https://nu.novell.com/repo</Base>
	 <Proxy>http://10.0.0.1:8080</Proxy>
         <Type>nu</Type>
         <User>xxxxxxxx</User>
         <Password>yyyyyyyyyy</Password>
      </RemoteServer>
      <LocalServer>
	 <Type>zlm</Type>
         <User>administrator</User>
         <Password>novell</Password>
      </LocalServer>
      <Catalog>
         <Name>SLES10-SP1-Updates</Name>
         <LocalName>SLES10-SP1-Updates-optional</LocalName>
         <Folder>zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/</Folder>
         <Target>sles-10-i586</Target>
         <Target>sles-10-x86_64</Target>
         <ExcludeTarget></ExcludeTarget>
         <Bundle></Bundle>
         <ExcludeBundle></ExcludeBundle>
         <Package></Package>
         <ExcludePackage></ExcludePackage>
      </Catalog>
   </Session>
</ZLMMirrorConf>

sles10_security.xml

<ZLMMirrorConf>
   <Session>
      <RemoteServer>
         <Base>https://nu.novell.com/repo</Base>
	 <Proxy>http://10.0.0.1:8080</Proxy>
         <Type>nu</Type>
         <User>xxxxxxxx</User>
         <Password>yyyyyyyyyy</Password>
      </RemoteServer>
      <LocalServer>
	 <Type>zlm</Type>
         <User>administrator</User>
         <Password>novell</Password>
      </LocalServer>
      <Catalog>
         <Name>SLES10-SP1-Updates</Name>
         <LocalName>SLES10-SP1-Updates-security</LocalName>
         <Folder>zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates/</Folder>
         <Target>sles-10-i586</Target>
         <Target>sles-10-x86_64</Target>
         <ExcludeTarget></ExcludeTarget>
         <Bundle></Bundle>
         <ExcludeBundle></ExcludeBundle>
         <Package></Package>
         <ExcludePackage></ExcludePackage>
      </Catalog>
   </Session>
</ZLMMirrorConf>

All Patch copying and moving scripts

zlmSLESsettings.txt

# General Settings
ZLMpass=novell
ZLMuser=administrator

# SLESLIST holds all valid catagories
SLESLIST=(recommended security optional)

# Prefixes for production, pre-production and test
ProdPref=Prod
PreProdPref=Pre-Prod
TestPref=Test

# SLESCatName = name of the catalogs without the SLESLIST extention.
SLESCatName=SLES10-SP1-Updates

# SLESSource = the folder that contains all catalogs created by zlmirror
SLESSource=/zlmmirror/SLES10-SP1-Updates

# SLESfold is the folder that contains all Bundle groups for the SLES10 test environment
SLESTest=Patches/Servers/sles10-sp1

# SLESProduction is the folder that contains all Bundle groups for the SLES10 Pre production environment
SLESProduction=Patches/Servers/sles10-sp1

# SLESPreProduction is the folder that contains all Bundle groups for the SLES10 production environment
SLESPreProduction=Patches/Servers/sles10-sp1

# SLESSourceLog is a temporary file listing the contents of the  SLES10-SP1-Updates-patches folder
SLESSourceLog=/tmp/zlm-mirror-sles10-patches

# SLESProductionLog is een temporary file listing the contents of the production bundle group.
SLESProductionLog=/tmp/zlm-prod-sles10-patches

zlmOES2settings.txt

# Algemene Instellingen
ZLMpass=novell
ZLMuser=administrator

# OES2Source = The folder where all OES2 patches retrieved by zlmmirror are at
OES2Source=/zlmmirror/OES2/OES2-Updates-patches

# OES2Test is the Bundle group where all to be tested patches for OES2 should be added
OES2Test=Patches/Servers/oes2/Test

# OES2Production is the Bundle Group where all OES2 production patches should be
OES2Production=Patches/Servers/oes2/prod

# OES2Production is the Bundle Group where all OES2 pre-production patches should be
OES2PreProduction=Patches/Servers/oes2/Pre-Prod

# OES2SourceLog is a temporary file listing the contents of the  OES2-Updates-patches folder
OES2SourceLog=/tmp/zlm-all-oes2-patches

# OES2ProductionLog is a temporary file listing the contents of the OES2 Productie Bundle Group
OES2ProductionLog=/tmp/zlm-prod-oes2-patches

zlmSLEScopyNewtoTest.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script will compare the production and zlmmirror patches and copy all “new” patches to the test group.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 


# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmSLESsettings

# Clean up
if [ -e $SLESProductionLog ] ; then
	rm  $SLESProductionLog
fi
if [ -e $SLESSourceLog ] ; then
	rm $SLESSourceLog
fi

# Read bundle and folder and write to temp files for zlmmirror and production 
for Category in ${SLESLIST[*]} ; do
	zlman clb -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESSource/$SLESCatName-$Category |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' |sort >$SLESSourceLog

	zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESProduction |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort >$SLESProductionLog

	# Should not happen. This only occurs if patches exist in the
	# production group that are not present in the “all” bundle.
	if [ -n "`comm -1 -3 $SLESSourceLog $SLESProductionLog`" ] ; then
		echo "WARNING-ZLM: the following patches should probably not be in the production group: "$SLESProduction": "
		echo ""
		echo " `comm -1 -3 $SLESSourceLog $SLESProductionLog` "
	fi

	# Defines list of "newest" patches
	for NEW in `comm -3 -2 $SLESSourceLog $SLESProductionLog` ; do
		zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESTest/$TestPref-$Category $SLESSource/$SLESCatName-patches/"$NEW"
	done

	# Clean up after ourselves
	rm $SLESProductionLog
	rm $SLESSourceLog
done

zlmSLESmoveTesttoPreProd.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script moves all patches from the Test groups to the pre-production groups.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 

# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmSLESsettings


# Accept category as input value
if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
# No command line entered

	# Defines list of "newest" patches
	for Category in ${SLESLIST[*]} ; do
		for PATCHES in `zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESTest/$TestPref-$Category |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort` ; do
			# copy patches to pre-production group
			zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESPreProduction/$PreProdPref-$Category $PATCHES
			# remove patches from test group
			zlman bgr -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESTest/$TestPref-$Category $PATCHES
		done

	done
else
	# Defines list of "newest" patches
	for PATCHES in `zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESTest/$TestPref-$1 |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort` ; do
			# copy patches to pre-production group
			zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESPreProduction/$PreProdPref-$1 $PATCHES
			# remove patches from test group
			zlman bgr -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESTest/$TestPref-$1 $PATCHES
	done
fi

zlmSLESmovePreProdtoProd.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script moves all SLES10-SP1 patches from the various pre-prod groups to the production group
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 

# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmSLESsettings

for Category in ${SLESLIST[*]} ; do
	# Defines list of current "pre-prod" patches
	for PATCHES in `zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESPreProduction/$PreProdPref-$Category |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort` ; do
		# copy patches to production group
		zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESProduction $PATCHES
		# remove patches from pre-production group
		zlman bgr -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $SLESPreProduction/$PreProdPref-$Category $PATCHES
	done

done

zlmOES2copyNewtoTest.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script will compare all production patches to all zlmmirror patches and copies the “new” patches to the test group.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 

# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmOES2settings

# Clean up
if [ -e $OES2ProductionLog ] ; then
	rm  $OES2ProductionLog
fi
if [ -e $OES2SourceLog ] ; then
	rm $OES2SourceLog
fi

# Read bundle and folder and write to temp files
zlman bl -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Source |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' |sort >$OES2SourceLog

zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Production |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort >$OES2ProductionLog

# Should not happen.
if [ -n "`comm -1 -3 $OES2SourceLog $OES2ProductionLog`" ] ; then
	echo "WARNING-ZLM: The following patches should not be in the  production bundle group "$OES2Production": "
	echo ""
	echo " `comm -1 -3 $OES2SourceLog $OES2ProductionLog` "
fi

# Defines list of "newest" patches
for NEW in `comm -3 -2 $OES2SourceLog $OES2ProductionLog` ; do
	zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Test $OES2Source/"$NEW"
done

# Clean up after ourselves
rm $OES2ProductionLog
rm $OES2SourceLog

zlmOES2moveTesttoPreProd.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script will move all patches in the test group to the pre-production group.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 


# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmsettings

# Read bundle group and copy all patches to pre-production groups
# Defines list of "newest" patches
for PATCHES in `zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Test |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort` ; do
# copy patches to pre-production group
	zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2PreProduction $PATCHES
# remove patches from test group
	zlman bgr -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Test $PATCHES
done

zlmOES2movePreProdtoProd.sh

#! /bin/bash

#******** Purpose **********
# This script will move all patches in the pre-production group to the production group.
 
# ********* History *********
# 21-11-2007 – V1.0 – Novell Consulting 

# Source in all settings
. /var/zlmdata/scripts/zlmsettings


# Read bundle group and copy all patches to pre-production groups

# Defines list of current "pre-prod" patches
for PATCHES in `zlman bgm -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2PreProduction |grep 'Software Bundle'|cut --fields=1 --delimiter=' ' | sort` ; do
# copy patches to production group
	zlman bga -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2Production $PATCHES
# remove patches from pre-production group
	zlman bgr -U $ZLMuser -P $ZLMpass -V $OES2PreProduction $PATCHES
done

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.