Installation guide

Table Of Contents
VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux Machines
VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux machines helps you deploy patches to bring UNIX and Linux
machines into compliance.
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Bulletins: Lists vendor bulletins available to VCM Patching.
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Assessment Templates: Contains one or more patch bulletins. When you run an assessment, UNIX and
Linux machines that require the patches appear. You can select bulletins or product names to create
templates.
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Imported Templates: Associates UNIX and Linux machines with patches for the deployment of those
patches to selected machines. Use these user-defined templates with UNIX and Linux machines.
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Assessment Results: Displays the results of your patch assessment for all bulletins or for specific
bulletins.
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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.
UNIXand Linux Patch Assessment and Deployment
VCM Patching includes UNIX and Linux patch assessment and deployment, which you use to determine
the patch status of UNIX and Linux machines.
NOTE Assessments of UNIX and Linux machines operate differently from Windows assessments. UNIX
and Linux assessments require you to collect new data. Windows assessments are performed against
previously collected data.
Before you use VCM Patching to install patches on UNIX and Linux machines, you must collect patch
assessment data from those machines.
VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux involves the following steps.
1. Check for patch bulletin updates from the download site.
New PLS files are downloaded to the VCM Collector.
2. Use VCM to collect and assess machine data from managed machines.
During the collection, the PLS files are sent to the managed UNIX/Linux machines.
3. Use VCM to explore the assessment results and determine the patches to deploy.
4. Acquire and store the patches using FTP, HTTP, or any other method.
5. Use the VCM Deploy wizard to install the UNIX patches on the managed machines.
VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux is illustrated in the following diagram.
vCenter Configuration Manager Administration Guide
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