HP-UX Software Assistant Administration Guide (December 2011)

4 Creating and interpreting reports
Analysis
All reports are based on the selected analyzers. SWA is capable of performing a variety of
analyses.
To perform an analysis, Software Assistant requires an inventory file and a catalog file. During
analysis, those two files are compared to see what issues require attention. Issues in ignore files
are not included in the analysis. For more information, see “Put appropriate actions in the ignore
file” (page 13). By default, the resulting analysis file is written to $HOME/.swa/cache/
swa_analysis.xml.
To specify the analyses SWA should run, use the -a option of the swa report or the swa step
analyze command, or use the extended option analyzers.
Available analyzers follow, with a description of what SWA will look for:
• PCW – Installed, active patches with critical warnings. These patches might cause or expose
a critical problem. The newest recommendable patch in the supersession chain will be reported.
This is a default analyzer.
• QPK – Quality Pack (QPK) updates. The quality pack bundle includes stable patches for core
HP-UX and networking drivers. This is a default analyzer.
• SEC – Security bulletins that might apply. These are announcements from HP regarding potential
security issues and recommended actions to resolve them. This is a default analyzer.
• CRIT – Patches to install that fix critical problems. Problems are categorized as critical based
on the severity of the problem, not how likely the problem might occur. Critical problems
include system panics or hangs, process failures, data corruption, severe performance
degradation, and application-specific critical issues.
• PW – Installed, active patches with warnings. These patches might cause or expose adverse
behavior. This category includes patches with critical warnings. The newest recommendable
patch in the supersession chain will be reported.
• PATCH – Given a specific patch, SWA indicates whether that patch is required for your system
or not. HP recommends the CHAIN analyzer to report a patches' relevance to your system,
since it will report the most recent, stable patch in the chain.
• CHAIN – Given a specific patch, SWA indicates whether that patch is required for your system
or not. If the patch is required, SWA selects the HP recommended patch at or above the
specified patch.
If no analyzers are specified, the PCW, QPK, and SEC analyses are performed.
For detailed information on QPK patch bundles and types of patches, see the Patch Management
User Guide for HP-UX 11.x Systems, available at http://www.hp.com/go/patchmgmt-docs.
14 Creating and interpreting reports