How To Apply a Patch

last updated on Sept. 27, 2021

See this page for patching best practices.

About File Fabric Patches

Patches are small changes that are confined to one or a few pieces of the File Fabric's code. They are almost always issued for the purpose of resolving an issue that is affecting one or a small number of customers. The patches are only provided to the affected customers. Customers who are not affected by the issue that a patch resolves need not concern themselves with the patch.

SME seldom issues patches, preferring to combine sets of changes into service packs which we release frequently. On those occasions when we do see fit to issue a patch, the changes included in the patch are always included in a subsequent service pack. In most cases this will be the next service pack to be released after the patch was developed.

How Patches are Provided

If a patch is appropriate for your File Fabric then SME will provide you with a link to a compressed tar file <patch_name>.tgz containing the patch.

Patching Steps

Note that these steps should be completed for each appliance in a multi-node (HA) system.

  • Copy the patch file PATCH_FILE.tgz to the appliance using scp or any other tool
  • ssh into the appliance as smeconfiguser
  • su to root

su - root

  • cd to var/www/smestorage/patches

cd /var/www/smestorage/patches

  • move the copied patch file to /var/www/smestorage/patches

mv /home/smeconfiguser/PATCH_FILE.tgz .

  • change the owner of the file to smestorage

chown smestorage:smestorage PATCH_FILE.tgz

  • su to smestorage

su - smestorage

  • cd to patches

cd patches

  • Apply the patch

./patch -patch PATCH_FILE.tgz

If you encounter any issues during these steps, please contact Support.

To Roll Back a Patch

  • su to root

su - root

  • su to smestorage

su - smestorage

  • cd to patches

cd patches

  • Roll back the patch

./patch -rollback