Question & Answer
Question
What are the best practices for installing Guardium GPU patches?
Answer
VIDEO: Dos and Don'ts of Guardium GPU patch installation
The above video contains an example of installing GPU including the best practice "dos and dont's" which are summarized here:
Do read the release notes
Release notes explain everything contained inside the patch and steps to consider for the install. Read them before planning the installation process. Also read the health check release notes so you understand what is checked.
Do purge as much as possible before installation
GPUs usually make changes to the Guardium internal database schema. The less data in the database, the faster the GPU install will go.
Do run latest health check
The health check p9997 can be found on fix central. Always check fix central for the most recent version of p9997 as new updates are being released. The health check confirms the system is ready for the GPU install. Installing the GPU without health check could lead to the failure of the GPU or, in worst case, corruption of the appliance.
Do install “top down”
Install patches first on the CM, then Aggregators, then Collectors.
Do install GPU as soon as possible after health check
The health check tests for conditions like disk usage. This can increase quickly so its important to install GPU as soon as possible after the health check.
Do allow time to install the patch
GPU patches can take a long time to install depending on the amount of data, in some cases many hours. Allow the patch time to complete before assuming it has stalled or failed.
Don’t worry if mysql goes down during patch install
Most GPUs restart the internal mysql database. Messages in the CLI saying mysql server has gone away are normal. After patch installation has moved onto the next steps and restarted mysql, start a new CLI session and the errors will be gone.
Don’t reboot the appliance part way through install
If the install appears to be stuck do not reboot the appliance. In many cases the installer is still performing some steps and reboot will interrupt this. If you reboot the appliance part way through install, the patch will need to be reinstalled. If the patch appears to be stuck, check the progress in the patch install must gather.
Do get patch install must gather if there are any problems
Support must_gather patch_install_issues contains the patch installation logs. The video shows an example of how to check the logs directly. If you open a case with Guardium support and the appliance is not down, you must attach this must gather.
Related Information
[{"Product":{"code":"SSMPHH","label":"IBM Security Guardium"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Component":"Guardium Appliances","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF010","label":"HP-UX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF027","label":"Solaris"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"},{"code":"PF035","label":"z\/OS"}],"Version":"10.0;10.0.1;10.1;10.1.2;10.1.3;10.1.4;9.1;9.5","Edition":"All Editions","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB24","label":"Security Software"}}]
Was this topic helpful?
Document Information
Modified date:
03 February 2021
UID
swg22012783