[wplug] SuSE SLES users: looking for update info

[Vanco, Don]

Is anyone on this list using SLES 8??  I am trying to figure out where the secret decoder ring for SuSE updates can be found.

SuSE appears to release updates as "based RPMs" and/or what they call a "patch" RPM.  Ferinstance - since it's inception, SLES 8 has released:
ethereal.rpm

ethereal-0.10.3-10.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.10.3-10.i586.patch.rpm

ethereal-0.9.6-152.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.9.6-152.i586.patch.rpm

ethereal-0.9.6-187.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.9.6-187.i586.patch.rpm

ethereal-0.9.6-202.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.9.6-202.i586.patch.rpm

ethereal-0.9.6-246.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.9.6-246.i586.patch.rpm

ethereal-0.9.6-260.i586.rpm
ethereal-0.9.6-260.i586.patch.rpm

..etc

....so if you use the "On line update tool" on a "freshly installed" system it automagically pulls a butt-load of files.  Somehow, the YaST (Yet another Sh!tty Tool) installer has the intelligence to sort this mess out and install only what is required (which, as far as I can tell, is "foo.rpm" and any "foo.patch.rpm"s if they exists).  The problem here is that it's not possibly to use the files to update other machines without major manual intervention - the minute that you point rpm (from another box) to this file repository it immediately (and as expected) pukes on the version conflicts present.

If you install SuSE SLES 8 with the original media (as opposed to the "Service Pack 3" ISOs available) EVERY system you update will pull 500+ MB of updates, 50-60% of them being fully redundant.

To make matters worse, SuSE has but one update mirror for SLES, and it's in Germany, and from what my experience has been over the last 2 weeks, is down at least 80% of the time.

Does SuSE do such a poor job of revision testing that they actually have to load _every_ update in turn??????


Does _anyone_ have experience with this garbage that can explain what they do to manage this process outside of the now 2 year old YaST pile of crap???  I need to find a (simple) way script updates across multiple platforms......



I rarely take time to publicly air my feelings on "Your Distro Sucks" - but I cannot for the life of me understand how ANYONE can run SuSE SLES.  It really, really blows if you're trying to manage things more than a box at a time.......  No concept of rapid deployment, no concept of en masse upgrade - 2 thumbs down.

FWIW - I bitched at SuSE for various Portal issues (the downtime sadly is not the only problem they have IMnsHO) - and the best they could tell me is that they're working on a US mirror - but it's not ready yet.....  And people are paying $2000.00 a copy for this garbage?  Sheesh....

Do I seem a bit upset?  Well, we had to spend $1400.00 to fly me to Miami last week (not to mention me losing 48 hours of my life) to update 4 servers because the flippin' SuSE portal took a crap for the entire previous weekend, and we were contractually obligated to provide the customer with upgraded boxes shipped from our facility.  When I was on site we were able to upgrade a single system - and the Portal again took a dump for the day.

F- SuSE - gimme RHEL any day of the week.  kickstart and RHN alone are worth the price of admission.  I plan to do my best to dissuade every customer from SuSE wherever possible.  What crap.

Don



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