Use > Software management > Create and manage software policies > Set installation and update options for a RPM

Set installation and update options for a RPM

Once you have added a RPM to a software policy, you can specify if the RPM needs to be installed on the server or upgraded to the latest version during remediation. To install or upgrade the RPMs on a managed server, you must remediate the server with the software policy attached.

RPMs are installed or upgraded only during remediation. Attaching or detaching a software policy and defining the installation and update options does not—by itself—install, update or uninstall the RPM.

You can specify policy-specific installation and update options for RPMs within the policy.

To specify the installation option for a RPM package:

  1. From the navigation pane, select Library > By Type > Software Policies.
  2. From the content pane, select the policy containing a RPM package and open it. The policy window appears.
  3. From the Views pane, select Policy Items. The list of software resources contained in the policy appears in the content pane as shown below.

  4. Select a RPM package. For every RPM package, you can specify the following options:
    • Choose an Install Criteria option:
      • Select the Install RPM always option to install the selected RPM on the managed server.
      • Select the Install RPM only if an earlier version is installed option to update the RPM version on the managed server only if an existing version of that RPM is already installed on the server.
    • Choose an Auto-Update Policy option:
      • Select Version or Release to automatically update the RPM in the policy to a newer version or release of the RPM.
      • Select Release Only to automatically update the RPM in the policy only when a new release of the RPM is available. The important distinction in this option is between RPM releases versus RPM versions. When this option is selected, the policy will not be updated if the new RPM is just a new version of an existing release; it will be updated if the new RPM is a new release.

    Based on the selected option, the policy will get updated when a newer version or release of the RPM is placed in the same folder location as the one specified in the policy. For details about the Auto-Update option, see Automatically update RPMs in a software policy

  5. To save the changes, select Save from the File menu.

To specify the installation options for multiple RPM packages:

  1. From the navigation pane, select Library > By Type > Software Policies.
  2. From the content pane, select the policy containing a RPM package and open it. The policy window appears.
  3. From the Views pane, select Policy Items. The list of software resources contained in the policy appears in the content pane as shown below.


    • Select multiple RPM packages and then right-click to choose an install criteria option:
    • Use 'Mark RPMs as Install Always' to set the install criteria of the selected RPM packages as “Install RPM always”.
    • Use 'Mark RPMs as Update Only’ to set the install criteria of the selected RPM as “Install RPM only" if an earlier version is installed.
  4. To save the changes, select Save from the File menu.

Note
The RPM will become managed by the policy when the policy is remediated. If the RPM was already installed on the managed server, then it will be adopted by the policy during the remediation process.