User`s guide

Getting Started with VCM Patching
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Getting Started with VCM Patching
VCM Patching for Windows and UNIX/Linux Machines
VCM Patching is the VCM patch assessment, deployment, and verification capability, which ensures
continuous enterprise security through proactive compliance of the IT infrastructure. VCM Patching
ensures that your machines have the latest security patches and other software downloads. You can
evaluate each licensed machine in your network for the current Microsoft Security Bulletins or supported
UNIX and Linux Vendor Bulletins and deploy the recommended patches to each machine.
Before you patch Windows 2008 servers and Windows 7 machines, make sure the Windows Update
service is running (set to something other than Disabled) or the patch deployment will fail.
IMPORTANT For VCM Patching to correctly assess Windows systems, you must have a current collection
of File System, Hotfixes, 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 Hotfixes data to determine which patches are already installed on which 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 provides several features that help you deploy patches to remediate
Windows machines.
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Bulletins: Lists Microsoft bulletins available to VCM Patching. You can view these bulletins by bulletin
and by affected product.
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Assessment Templates: Contains one or more bulletins. When you run an assessment, the machines
that require the patches described by each bulletin appear. You can select bulletins or product names to
create templates.
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Imported Templates: A user-defined template that associates machines with patches for the
deployment of those patches to selected machines. Imported templates are available for Windows
machines.
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VCM Patching Administration: Configures E-mail notifications, proxy server and logon information,
machine group mapping for custom patching, and administration tasks for Windows and UNIX
machines. You can select the machines for VCM Patching to manage, add and update your VCM
Patching license, and view the status of jobs that are running, scheduled, and completed.
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