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Upgrade-UX project

upgrade-ux logo

Upgrade-UX (or upgrade-ux) is an open source framework developed to assist in patching and/or updating Unix Operating Systems in a consistent and repeatable way. Especially in the industry it is forbidden just to run yum update (on Linux) to update your Linux system, therefore, upgrade-ux may proof to be a handy tool to guide you through the patching and/or update process as it follows a track you control (evidence gathering, pre/post executing of scripts, logging, and so on).

Upgrade-ux is completely written in Korn Shell which is widely available on all UNIX Operating Systems from Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, and others. The nice thing about upgrade-ux is that the each Operating System follows its own track (via a directory tree structure) so they do not influence each other.

Currently, HP-UX and Linux (for RHEL based Linux distributions) trees are fully populated. People who ever worked with Relax-and-Recover will immediately recognize the internals as it is an exact clone (however, reworked a bit to make it fully Korn Shell aware).

Upgrade-UX has a wide range of features:

  • Simple to use
  • Has a preview mode (to dry-run an upgrade without doing it) and an upgrade mode
  • Is customisable via local.conf configuration file
  • Is written in standard Korn Shell (which makes it highly portable)
  • Is UNIX Operating System independent as OS specific tasks reside in their own directory structures
  • Is easy extendable with your own scripts
  • The upgrade-ux command leaves a trace in its own log file
  • Running in preview or upgrade mode always creates evidence files
  • Has a man page
  • Has user documentation (you are reading it)
  • Can be used to install patch bundles of previous years with the YEAR variable
  • Does understand Serviceguard clusters
  • Can be programmed to bail out on settings you think are too serious to continue
  • Can trigger remote alarms, syslog, monitors,…
  • Can do a basis health check of your system - it is all up to you
  • Has excellent support by its author
  • IT3 Consultants can help you with your internal upgrade projects (need a PO)

The support and development of the Upgrade-UX project takes place on Github:

In case you have questions, ideas or feedback about this document, you can contact the development team at: gratien.dhaese at gmail.com.