I just have a few questions about the general idea of this service.
How often do you expect software patches to become available? Does this process have to be run several times a day, once in the middle of the night, or once every 2 weeks?
It sounds like from the requirements that the users will have to take action to install any patches that become available. Is it undesirable to have your software automatically install said patches when they become available? I suppose it depends on how often a system would need updating, but I'd think it would be nice to just have your app do the installation when necessary.
Is there anyway you could get around having to write this code? Is it not feasible to have the Sun system send email to users when a new patch is available? Provided that they had an easy way to access the patch (via web/intranet) this would save you time.
Just some food for thought, and maybe you've already thought these ideas through. Let us know how it comes along.