User`s guide

VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux Machines
VCM Patching for UNIX and Linux provides several features to deploy patches to remediate UNIX and
Linux machines.
n
Bulletins: Lists of vendor bulletins available to VCM Patching.
n
Assessment Templates: Contains one or more bulletins that dynamically display the machines that
require the patches described by each bulletin. You can select bulletins or product names to create
templates.
n
Imported Templates: A user-defined template that associates machines with patches for deployment of
those patches to selected machines. Imported templates are available for UNIX and Linux machines.
n
Assessment Results: Displays the results of your assessment for all bulletins or for specific bulletins.
n
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.
Minimum System Requirements
VCM Patching must be installed on the same machine as VCM because it requires the VCM database.
VCM data must be collected for VCM Patching to have the required information. You should collect all
data types, but as a minimum you must collect Hotfixes, File System, Registry and Services data.
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 process illustrated in the following steps and diagram.
1. You check for patch bulletin updates from the download site.
New PLS files are downloaded to the VCM Collector.
2. You 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. You use VCM to explore the assessment results and determine the patches to deploy.
4. You acquire and store the patches using FTP, HTTP, or any other method.
5. You use the VCM Deploy wizard to install the UNIX patches on the managed machines.
vCenter Configuration Manager Installation and Getting Started Guide
182 VMware, Inc.