VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.0, vmwarevsphere

VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.0, vmwarevsphere

In addition to automatically managing patches, VMware vSphere Update Manager saves you the trouble of manually tracking and patching VMware vSphere hosts and virtual machines. VMware vSphere Update Manager scans the status of VMware vSphere and compares it with the benchmark set by the Administrator. Then, it applies updates and patches to enforce compliance to the specified patch standards. The patch compliance control panel allows administrators to understand the patch status of the entire virtual infrastructure environment. This feature greatly simplifies the patch management process and protects data centers from program errors and security vulnerabilities.

VMware vSphere Update Manager reduces the risks associated with virtual machine patching and provides options to take snapshots of virtual machines before patching applications, snapshots can be stored within a user-defined period. In this way, if the application of the patch has an unknown negative impact on the workload of the virtual machine, the virtual machine can be rolled back to a known state, this reduces the risks associated with virtual machine repair failures.

VMware vSphere Update Manager securely patches offline virtual machines without exposing them to the network, reducing the risk of security issues caused by non-compliant virtual machines in the production environment. Patches can only be applied to offline virtual machines in a virtual environment. Compared with the physical environment, this operation enforces higher level patch standards.

VMware vSphere Update Manager can also apply patches to remote sites in segments, reducing network usage and allowing you to apply patches as planned for remote sites.

VSphere Update Manager 5.0

Next, let's take a look at what is vSphere Update Manager. Update Manager enables Centralized Automatic patching and Version Management for VMware vSphere and supports VMware ESX/ESXi hosts, virtual machines, and virtual devices, this includes upgrading and patching ESX/ESXi hosts, installing and updating third-party software on hosts, upgrading virtual machine hardware, VMware Tools, and virtual devices. Update Manager must be connected to the VMware vCenter Server over the network. Each installation of Update Manager must be associated with a vCenterServer instance (registered ). The Update Manager module includes a plug-in running on the vSphere Client and a Server component. This component can be installed on the same computer on the vCenter Server system or on other computers. If the vCenter Server system is part of the already connected group in vCenter connection mode and you want to use Update Manager for each vCenter Server system, you must install and register an Update Manager instance for each vCenter Server system. You can only use an Update Manager instance for a vCenter Server. To Install Update Manager, you must have an Update Manager installed. In this case, you can use VMware vSphere Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) to Download and Update metadata and binary files.

The first step in the Update Manager process is to download a set of information (metadata) about patches, extensions, and virtual device upgrades ). One or more of these patches or extensions will aggregate to form a benchmark. You can add multiple baselines to a benchmark group. A benchmark group is a composite object composed of non-conflicting baselines. You can use a reference group to combine different types of baselines and then use them as a whole to scan and repair the List objects. If the benchmark group contains both the upgrade and repair processes or expansion benchmarks, the upgrade benchmark is executed first. You can scan virtual machines, Virtual Devices, ESXi/ESX hosts, or a collection of configuration objects to check whether they are associated with a baseline or baseline combination, and fix them later. You can start these processes manually or through scheduled tasks.

The Update Manager server can be configured to download patches, extensions, and virtual device updates from the Internet or from a shared repository. You can also manually import fixes and extensions from the ZIP file. Configuring the Update Manager download source is an optional step. If the deployment system is connected to the Internet, you can use the default settings and links to download updates, patches, and extensions to the Update Manager repository. You can also add a URL to download the virtual device upgrade or add third-party fixes and extensions. Third-party patches and extensions are only applicable to hosts running on ESXi5.0.

System and database Requirements

Before installing the Update Manager server, you must create a database instance because the Update Manager server and the Update Manager Download Serveice must use the database to store and organize server data. UpdateManager supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft SQL Server2008 R2 Express (64-bit ). The UpdateManager server must be installed on a 64-bit computer, but the Update Manager is still a 32-bit application and requires a 32-bit DSN.

The Update Manager database used can be the same as the vCenter Server database. You can also use different databases or use existing database clusters. To achieve the best results in a large environment, you should use a dedicated Update Manager Database, which is located on different computers than the vCenter Server System database. The Update Manager server requires administrator creden。 to connect to the database. If you have changed the database user name and password after installing the Update Manager server or UMDS, You can reconfigure the Update Manager and UMDS without re-installing them.