Use > Server patching > Patch management for Unix > Patch installation > Preview a patch installation

Preview a patch installation

The installation preview process provides an up-to-date report about the patch state of servers. The installation preview is an optional step that lets you see what patches will be installed on managed servers and what type of server reboots are required. This preview process verifies whether the servers you selected for the patch installation already have that patch installed. In some cases, a server could already have the patch installed if a system administrator had manually installed it, which means that SA does not know about it.

The preview process also reports on dependency information, such as patches that require certain Unix products, and patches that obsolete other patches or are obsoleted by other patches. If a dependency is not met, SA will display an error message indicating this condition.

The installation preview does not report on the behavior of the server as though the patches have been applied.

To preview a patch installation:

  1. From the Install Patch window, click Next to advance to the Summary Review step.
  2. Verify the information displayed for the Servers, Server Groups, and Patches at the top of the window.
  3. (Optional) Click Preview to see the separate actions that will be performed when the patch is installed. To view the details of a previewed action, select a row in the table.
  4. Click Start Job to launch the installation job or click Cancel to close the Install Patch window without launching the installation.

If you selected Run Task Immediately in the Scheduling step, the job begins now. If you selected Run Task At, the job will be launched at the specified time and date.