Hot Fix Concepts

Software fixes are distributed in the form of hot fix packages which can be downloaded and then decompressed. The hot fix package contains fixes for all configurations and products available at the time it is built.

Fixes are installed for the configurations and products detected in your installation. So unlike during a normal installation, you are not allowed to choose configurations or products during a hot fix installation.

Each hot fix supersedes the previous ones and may be installed on top of the released level or on top of a previous hot fix. No individual corrections are delivered in between two hot fixes.

Unlike a normal installation, you are not allowed to start a session directly at the end of the installation procedure. Hot fixes can be installed using a GUI or in batch mode.

Note: You must be administrator (Windows) to install a hot fix.

Installing a hot fix also involves committing or rolling back a hot fix.

After installing a hot fix, you may want to spend some time using the hot fix for validation purposes, before making it officially available to your end users.

"Committing" a hot fix means applying the hot fix to your installation, so that it becomes the official working level. This deletes the previous level, thereby saving disk space.

After spending some time using the hot fix for validation purposes, you may find that the hot fix is not suitable. If this is the case, you can "roll back" the hot fix: rolling back a hot fix uninstalls the hot fix, and restores the software level to the level prior to installing the hot fix.

You can commit or rollback hot fixes a GUI or in batch mode.

Note: You must be administrator (Windows) to commit or roll back hot fixes.

Keep the following rules in mind when committing and rolling back hot fixes:

• if you install a GA level, then "Hot Fix 1", and then intend to install "Hot Fix 2", you must commit "Hot Fix 1" before installing "Hot Fix 2"
• let's assume you install a GA level, then "Hot Fix 1", and commit the hot fix; if you then add configurations or products to your installation, you will be prompted at the end of the installation to reinstall "Hot Fix 1"; when you reinstall "Hot Fix 1", the hot fix is committed automatically.

You can also choose to commit a hot fix automatically during hot fix installation. The consequences of choosing to automatically commit a hot fix at installation are:

• the hot fix overwrites any previous level (GA or hot fix): if you have already decided to commit the new hot fix, and you do not want to keep the previous version, this allows you to save disk space
• once you have automatically committed the hot fix, you cannot roll back to the previous level (GA or hot fix) when you add products after automatically committing a hot fix, the new software is also automatically committed.

If running processes are detected in the installation directory when you choose the Rollback option, you will be prompted to kill running processes.