User`s guide

VCM Patching for UNIX/Linux
VCM Patching for UNIX/Linux provides several features that help you deploy patches to remediate
UNIX/Linux machines:
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Bulletins: The Bulletins section contains a list of vendor bulletins available to VCM Patching.
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Assessment Templates: An Assessment Template contains one or more bulletins that dynamically
show which machines require the patches described by each bulletin. You can create templates easily in
the Bulletin section by selecting bulletins or product names.
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Imported TemplatesAn imported template is a user-defined template associates machines with patches
for deployment of those patches to the selected machines. Imported templates are available for
Windows and UNIX/Linux machines.
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Assessment Results: The Assessment Results node displays the results of your assessment for all
bulletins or for specific bulletins.
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VCM Patching Administration: Use VCM Patching Administration to configure patch deployment,
proxy server settings, and the conditions under which you want to receive an e-mail alert. You can
select the machines that VCM Patching will manage, add and update your VCM Patching license, and
view the status of jobs that are currently running, scheduled, and completed.
Minimum System Requirements
VCM Patching must be installed on the same machine as the VCM application software, because it
depends on the VCM database. VCM data must have been collected, otherwise the VCM Patching does
not have the necessary information. Although you should collect all data types, as a minimum, you must
have a current collection of Hotfixes, File System, Registry and Services data.
About UNIXPatch Assessment and Deployment
UNIX Patch Assessment and Deployment is a VCM Patching feature. When UNIX Patch Assessment is
licensed, you can assess UNIX/Linux machines to determine their patch status.
Verify that your UNIX and Linux machines and operating systems are supported for patch deployment.
See the VCM Hardware and Software Requirements Guide.
VCM Patching for UNIX/Linux machine patching involves the following process.
Before using VCM Patching to install the patches UNIX/Linux machines, you must always collect
assessment data from those machines.
NOTE Assessments of UNIX and Linux-based machines operate differently from Windows assessments.
UNIX and Linux assessments require new data to be collected, while Windows assessments are performed
against previously collected data.
vCenter Configuration Manager Installation and Getting Started Guide
162 VMware, Inc.