Solaris Patching vs OS Upgrade

Hello,

I have a doubt regarding patching and OS upgrade. What is the difference when i install a Recomended Patch Cluster using installcluster script on a solaris10 update 6 server vs Upgrading Solaris 10 update 6 to update 10 ?

I have applied update10 Recomended Patch Cluster on a Solaris 10u6 server and the /etc/release file is still showing solaris 10u6 but has one added line at the bottom Solaris 10 (update 10) patch set has been applied to the system.

Can someone plz clear my doubts regarding this ?

Thanks in advance

The major difference as I understand it :

Going from u6 to say u10, you have 3 choices:
a) rebuild with u10, I.e fresh install
b) liveupgrade
c) patch to alternate root, which is kind of what LU does.

The patch cluster install you did is simple, you just install on top of your existing u6. Its mostly a collection of security patches and bug fixes.