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HP-UX System Management

Software Assistant (SWA)
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Take advantage of software analysis on HP-UX systems

HP-UX 11i Software Assistant (SWA):
  • Provides client-side patch and security analysis/acquisition
  • Analyses a system for patch warnings, critical defects, security bulletins, missing patch bundles, and user-specified patches and patch chains
  • Creates reports and consolidates information for up to 100 systems
Download SWA from HP Software Depot »

Are you getting this error, “Failed to access authorization service”?

If you are experiencing this error with SWA, it could be a certificate issue due to some recent changes. For further details and resolution information: Installing Intermediate Certificates for Software Assistant white paper (PDF 108 KB).

What’s new

HP-UX 11i SWA Revision C.02.90

  • Updates to support the migration of the HP ITRC to the HP Support Center (HPSC)
  • This release enables support for future methods of verifying patch and bundle download integrity

New in recent releases:

  • Support for catalog download from non HP-UX systems
  • Enhanced support for the download_cmd extended option
  • Support for authenticated proxies
  • When running SWA from the HP-UX command line, you will be prompted for your HP Support Center (HPSC) User ID and Password if they have not been specified
Note: HP recommends using revision C.02.90 of SWA because changes in the package structure of Java60JRE (Jre60) might result in installation issues for older revisions of SWA on PA-RISC systems.

Business benefits

HP-UX 11i Software Assistant (SWA) minimises the time required by administrators to analyse the software on HP-UX systems, and is the HP-recommended utility for maintaining currency with HP-published security bulletins and recommended patch levels for HP-UX 11i software.

SWA can be utilised from the command line and also supports integration with Systems Insight Manager (SIM) providing enhancements for multi-system patching and analysis.

Technology advantages

SWA can perform a number of checks, including published security issues, installed patches with warnings, and missing patches with critical fixes.

SWA reports identify issues, systems affected by each issue, HP's recommended action and the location of the solution associated with the issue if applicable.

Once an analysis has been performed, you can use SWA to download any recommended patches or patch bundles and create a depot ready for installation―automating a task that would typically have to be done manually by administrators. SWA reports can be scheduled periodically, so that any new issues can be spotted and addressed if necessary―potentially avoiding future unplanned downtime.

How it works

HP recommends downloading and using the latest version of SWA, available by using the "Download SWA from the HP Software Depot" link on this page. This ensures you have the most up-to-date features and defect fixes, as the SWA product is not patched.

The HP-UX SWA tool offers the following features and benefits:

  • Analyses a system (and some types of depots) for patch warnings, critical defects, security bulletins, missing Quality Pack patch bundle, and user-specified patches and patch chains
  • Uses an HP-supplied catalogue file to analyse systems and generate reports
  • Schedules recurring SWA reports and reviews prior analysis under HP SIM; these reports can also be downloaded to a local system
  • Optimises the automatic selection of patch dependencies by:
    • Assessing the quality of the dependency
    • Providing the best case scenario for the dependency
    • Minimising changes to the system
    • Assessing future patch dependency changes
  • Produces Action, Issue, and Detail reports as well as a consolidated HTML report to determine which issues are relevant to the software on the system or in the depot
  • Downloads patches and builds a Software Distributor (SD-UX) depot which will fix many of the issues in the reports
  • Enables user to review additional recommended actions in the reports, which need to be resolved manually to fix any remaining issues
  • Verifies patch integrity automatically (using MD5 cryptographic hash) before unpacking downloaded patches

At a Glance

  • Operating systems supported: HP-UX 11i v1 (11.11), HP-UX 11i v2 (11.23) September 2004 or later, HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31)
  • SIM versions supported: HPSIM 6.0 or later, HP-UX 11i CMS and Windows CMS
  • Hardware supported: All HP PA-RISC and Itanium®-based servers and workstations
  • Interface: Command Line Interface (CLI), Graphical User Interface (GUI) via integration with SIM

Learn more

Technical Information and white papers.

  • SWA Administration Guide
  • SWA FAQ
  • SWA Release Notes
  • SWA Reference
  • Patch Management User Guide
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