A question came up in class- “What is a Solaris Sparse SRU?”
Solaris SRU is an acronym used to describe an Oracle Support Repository Update. These SRU’s are downloaded from Oracle’s support site and used to update a local repository which in turn is used to update the Solaris operating system.
The Solaris 11.4 Sparse Support Repository Image is a partial repository that only contains the Oracle Solaris IPS packages that have been updated since the previous Support Repository Update (SRU). This image must be added to an existing Oracle Solaris 11.4 repository that contains the previous SRUs and the Oracle Solaris 11.4 release packages. Not doing so will most likely result in errors.
The purpose of the sparse image is to reduce the size of the download and save time. If you maintain a complete copy of the support repository and want to update in small steps, use this image. The sparse image only contains packages that have changed since the previous SRU. If you skip an SRU and try to install a newer SRU from a sparse image, errors will be displayed when updating the repository. If you do skip SRUs, use the files downloaded from the third column labeled “IPS Repository” which contain full SRU images.
In this video, I’ll explain Solaris sparse SRU’s, how to download and install them.
If you want more information on how to update Solaris 11, check out my tutorial. I have a 45 minute training video titled “Updating the Solaris 11 Operating System (SRUs)” explaining and demonstrating the entire process. I even provide hands on lab exercises for you to work on to help it sink in.
