Automated Patching Solution

The process of patching servers is a hugely complex and time-consuming process for IT departments. Many companies patch everything manually and even for those who have patch tooling, this typically only covers Windows or Linux not both, so they still have manual tasks to do. Also monthly patch deployments are often an unreliable process, which leaves companies with huge security and compliance issues.

Therefore, companies are increasingly looking for Tooling and Automation to improve supportability and compliance, along with the self-service facilities whilst maintaining security controls. To meet this need, Kelverion have built the Automated Patching Solution.

The solution leverages the Microsoft Azure Update Management service to provided a SaaS patching platform for both Windows and Linux machines, which is then wrapped with a SelfService Portal and automation. This minimises the administrative overhead and allows patching tasks to be delegated to other users; ensuring there is no compromise to an organisation’s security or integrity of configuration. All the data that drives the requests in the automation portal is discovered and maintained by the Azure Automation runbooks, so the automation portal is always in sync with the Patching tooling. The Runbooks have been written using the Runbook Studio authoring application and leverage the integration and smart discovery capabilities provided by the Integration Module for SQL Server. These Integration Modules are available in the PowerShell Gallery.

The solution provides the following key functions:
• SaaS Patching tool which can deploy patches to Servers with Windows and Linux Operating Systems
• Automated Administration to:
• Deploy clients
• Create patch schedules
• Deploy updates
• Self-Service Interface for Server owners to define which patch schedule their Server should be included in
• Alerts on Patch deployment failures
• Patching compliance reports

Supported Operating System Vendors Include:
• Microsoft Windows Server
• CentOS
• Red Hat Enterprise
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• Ubuntu

Full version support can be found at:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/update-management/operating-system-requirements