Installation guide

Table Of Contents
Patching Managed Machines
10
Patching Managed Machines
VCM Patching is the VCM patch assessment, deployment, and verification capability, which ensures
continuous security throughout your environment by proactive compliance of your IT infrastructure.
VCM Patching ensures that your machines have the latest security patches and other software installed.
You can evaluate each machine in your environment to ensure that the machines have the latest Microsoft
security bulletins or supported UNIX and Linux vendor patches installed, and deploy the recommended
patches to each machine.
VCM 5.5 and later do not include the Patch Administrator role. If you previously assigned the Patch
Administrator role to a user, either reassign a different role to the user or let the user know that the role
no longer exists.
Before you patch Windows 2008 servers and Windows 7 machines, verify that the Windows Update
service is running. This service must not be disabled or the patch deployment will fail.
IMPORTANT For VCM Patching to assess Windows systems correctly, you must have a current collection
of File System, Hot Fix, Registry, and Services data. VCM Patching uses the File System, Registry, and
Services data to determine which applications that might require patches are installed and running, and
uses the Hot Fix data to determine which patches are installed on the machines. VCM Patching for UNIX
and Linux machines collects the data when you perform an assessment.
VCM Patching for Windows Machines
VCM Patching for Windows machines helps you deploy patches to bring Windows machines into
compliance.
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Bulletins: Lists Microsoft bulletins available to VCM Patching. View these bulletins either by bulletin or
by affected product.
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Assessment Templates: Contains one or more patch bulletins. When you run an assessment, Windows
machines that require the patches appear. You can select bulletins or product names to create
templates.
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Imported Templates: Associates Windows machines with patches for the deployment of those patches
to selected machines. Use these user-defined templates with Windows machines.
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VCM Patching Administration: Configures email notifications, proxy server and logon information,
machine group mapping for custom patching, and administration tasks for Windows, UNIX, and Linux
machines.
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