Installation guide

What to do next
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After VCMtriggers a patch assessment, view the patch assessment results. See the VCM online help.
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(Optional) You can schedule an automatic patch deployment. When you schedule VCM to run an
automatic patch deployment later, and collected patch data or scheduled the patch data collection after
you created the automatic deployment but before the scheduled time to run the automatic deployment.
VCM begins the automatic patch deployment at the scheduled time. See "Configure VCM for
Automatic Scheduled Patch Assessment and Deployment" on page 176.
Configure VCM for Automatic Scheduled Patch Assessment and
Deployment
To ensure that Linux, UNIX, and Windows managed machines are updated with the latest patches on a
regular basis, you can schedule VCM to deploy patches to the managed machines. The automatic
scheduled patch assessment and deployment matches a machine group to a patch assessment template.
To configure the automatic scheduled patch assessment and deployment, you must generate a patch
assessment template. Optionally, you can add exceptions for the automatic patch deployment.
Prerequisites
Configure VCM. See "Configuring VCM to Work with the Patching Repository and Alternate Locations"
on page 162.
Procedure
1. Click Patching and select All UNIX/Linux Platforms > Automatic Deployment.
2. To add an automatic deployment mapping, click Add, type a name and description for the mapping,
and click Next.
3. Click the Linux, UNIX, or Windows machine group to use for the automatic scheduled patch
deployment.
4. Click the patching assessment template that you created, and click Next.
5. Select the Scheduled Automatic Deployment Run for the type of automatic deployment run option.
6. Select an automatic deployment reboot option.
7. Type a number for the threshold data age and click Next.
The threshold data age indicates the number of days allowed since the last patch assessment was run
on the managed machine, before VCM can run the automatic patch deployment on the managed
machine.
8. Define the schedule to run the automatic patch deployment, including how often the automatic
patching occurs, the time of day, and the start and end dates, and click Next.
9. Review the summary and click Finish to schedule the automatic patch deployment.
What to do next
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For Linux and UNIX patching, after a job triggers, view the job chain in the VCM Job Manager, and
finished job chain jobs in Job Manager History. See "How the Linux and UNIX Patching Job Chain
Works" on page 178.
vCenter Configuration Manager Administration Guide
176
VMware, Inc.