Testing With Preflight Packages - Symantec WISE LINUX PACKAGE EDITOR 8.0 - REFERENCE V1.0 Reference

Testing With Preflight Packages

Linux Package Editor Reference
The preflight capability in Linux Package Editor helps you determine whether a package
will succeed or fail by testing it in your production environment before deployment.
Preflight packages can perform environmental checks without actually distributing the
package payload to the Linux computers.
A preflight package:
Runs the RPM in test mode (--test). This performs all the checks that RPM normally
performs during installation, but it does not install the package. It checks the Linux
computer's environment for what is needed to run the package (specific Red Hat
commands, Wget, and so on) and for what is needed to install the package software
(dependencies, conflicts, and so on).
Runs the preflight script, if included. You can write this script to perform additional
environment checks. Examples: Get additional system information, find files.
Writes a log file on the Linux computer and posts the log file to the URL that is
specified in Installation Expert > Installation Log page. The Linux computer must
have access to that URL. You can view this log in the Reports view.
Because preflight packages do not contain any files to be installed and are smaller than
normal packages, distributing preflight packages for testing purposes minimizes
bandwidth usage.
Requirements
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)—4.0 or later is required; 5.0 is
recommended.
To run a preflight test
1. (Optional.) Add a preflight script to the package.
a. In Script Editor, select Preflight from the Install Event drop-down list.
b. Create the script to perform the desired environmental checks.
See Using Script Editor
2. Build the preflight package.
a. Click Build.
b. On the Build Installation Package dialog box, mark the Build a Preflight
Package check box, complete the rest of the dialog box, and click OK.
The preflight RPM is built without files.
3. Use your normal deployment method to distribute the RPM and run it on one or
more destination computers.
4. When you finish testing, go to the Reports view and select Preflight Reports.
The page lists dated reports for each preflight test that has been run. Select the
report to view.
on page 42.
Managing Linux Packages
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