Installation guide

Table Of Contents
Figure 9–1. Manually Patching Managed Machines with VCM
To manually patch Linux and UNIXmachines, you can use a Red Hat Linux 6, 64-bit patching repository
machine with the Software Content Repository (SCR) Tool installed. You configure the communication
protocols on the patching repository machine, download and configure the Software ContentRepository
(SCR) Tool, and download the patches.
The patches must be accessible to the VCM managed machines by using a method such as an NFS mount
to the repository on theRed Hat Linux 6, 64-bit machine where the SCRTool is installed. See the Software
Content Repository Tool Guide on the VMware documentation Web site at
https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcm_pubs.html.
After you download patches from the vendor Web site, you can use VCM to assess your Linux and UNIX
machines. When you are ready to deploy the patches, you use the Deploy action and the machine group
mapping in VCM.
To verify whether VCM supports your Linux and UNIX managed machines for patch deployment, see the
VCM Installation Guide.
With VCM 5.7, you can automate your patching environment. To configure your environment for
automated patching with VCM 5.7, see "Configuring An Automated Patch Deployment Environment" on
page 156.
VCM uses several types of patching assessment templates to assess the patch state of managed machines.
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Windows patching assessment templates contain one or more bulletins that you use to determine
whether the patches that reference the bulletins must be installed on Windows managed machines.
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Linux and UNIX patching assessment templates contain one or more bulletins to filter the patching
assessment results.
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User-created assessment templates include one or more bulletins to assess the patch state of Linux,
UNIX, or Windows managed machines.
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An imported assessment template, which is a user-created patch deployment utility, associates
managed machines with patches for deployment.
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