Quick Start: Patch Management

 

On the Patches page of the Business Hub, you can view and manage all the software patches for your devices. Patch Management allows you to keep all your devices up to date with the latest feature and security patches for over 150 software vendors. This not only gives endpoint users all the latest features of their software, but also addresses the newest security threats. The Business Hub makes it easier to identify and deploy patches from a central dashboard.

To see which features Patch Management offers, how the Patches page is structured and what information it provides, and what the various Patch statuses mean, go to Patch Management Overview.

Before attempting to set up Patch Management, make sure all Patch Management System Requirements are met.

Setting Up Scans

Your devices must be scanned for missing patches before you will be able to approve any deployments. The Patch Scan checks all devices tied to the particular policy for missing software application updates (patches). After a scan is completed, the results for missing patches are displayed on the Patches page and under the Patch Results tab in Device Details.

To learn how to scan for patches via policies or manually, see Scanning Devices for Missing Patches.

Setting Up Deployments

Once your devices have been scanned for missing patches, any supported patches that have not yet been installed will be displayed on the Patches page of your console. You can then deploy these patches manually (ad hoc) or set up automatic patch deployment.

By default, all patches found missing during a patch scan will be included in the deployment. If needed, you can omit certain patches from being deployed to devices by either ignoring them manually or adding them to patch exclusions (see and for more information).

Note that some patches can take hours to deploy, particularly if a patch is large and/or if you host a large number of devices in your network.

For information on executing patch installations and available deployment options, refer to the Deploying Missing Patches article.

It may sometimes be necessary to apply patches through different methods depending on your network needs and the device(s). See Automatic vs. Ad Hoc Patching for a more detailed explanation.

Restart Options

You can control when your endpoint devices restart to apply patches. You can set up manual or automatic restarts and configure additional settings, such as restart day and time.

For instructions on setting up automatic restarts via policies, see Configuring Automatic Restarts.

To manually restart one or more devices, see Shutting Down and Restarting Devices instead.

Cache Clearance Options

When you are configuring your policy settings for Patch Management, you can choose special options listed in Configuring Cache Clearance for clearing local patch files. This useful additional setting will help free up space on your users' end devices.

 

 

For more information on Patch Management, please refer to the Patch Management in Avast Business Hub section of our Knowledge Base.