PUT creates a spool area on every selected node in the system prior to upgrade. The location is selected by the user, with PUT providing the recommended file system as the default. The spool area provides a location to put local copies of each package being upgraded on every node. The PUT spool area is always referenced by the /var/opt/teradata/TDput/spoolarea symbolic link. This link points to whichever file system was chosen as the spool location.
PUT typically recommends the /var/opt/teradata file system as the default because it usually has the most available free space. Since Linux upgrades tend to contain a large number of packages (and many packages are very large), you need considerable free space to allow for spooling. It is recommended that the user choose the default spooling location. The user is allowed to choose a different spool location if desired but this is not recommended.
If you are performing a VM&F upgrade and choose to use a directory as your spool area, you must choose a directory that exists on a file system that is copied to the Alternate Boot Environment, such as /root or /var. The file system must also exist on every node selected for the upgrade.
