Vmware update manager windows updates

The activity path provides step-by-step guidance to help you level up in your Workspace ONE knowledge. You will find everything from beginner to advanced curated assets in the form of articles, videos, and labs. The content in this path helps you establish a basic understanding of Windows 10 management in the following categories:. Content overhaul of entire tutorial, including control, restriction, readiness, approval, and delivery of updating and patching processes, migration methodology, and Day-2 operations:.

What happens if I approve an update, but the device has not scanned and seen it from Microsoft yet? For more information, refer to description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates and Mobile device management MDM for device updates. This message will close in seconds.

You are about to be redirected to the central VMware login page. Audience This operational tutorial is intended for IT professionals and Workspace ONE administrators of existing production environments. On the next update scan by the device, or manual scan by the user, the device will fetch the authorized updates. If Delivery Optimization is configured, devices will leverage Peer-to-Peer delivery when downloading updates.

Windows Update for Business Windows 10 leverages a system called Windows Update for Business, also known as WUfB, that is responsible for scans, downloads, and installations of device updates. Feature Updates Microsoft releases new significant updates roughly every six months, known as Semi-Annual or Feature Updates. Quality Updates Microsoft releases smaller, minor updates more frequently called Quality Updates. Deployment rings are used to determine which devices receive updates and when these updates are received.

With auto-approved patches, updates can only be deferred for a maximum of days for Feature and 30 days for Quality to allow for testing. After this period, updates not configured to require approval will auto-install. Still, not all updates will adhere to the approval process; in some cases, Microsoft will circumvent the approval process for specific update types to remediate a vulnerability.

Controlling and Restricting Updates Introduction Several methods are available to control how and when to apply updates to a device or set of devices. Deferral: Setting a deferral period of up to 30 days postpones updates from being applied to a device for that duration. This functionality provides a window for IT teams to test and validate all updates before deploying to production machines. After the 35 days have expired, updates continue to process as normal. The pause process allows short pauses to deployments to help resolve issues encountered during patch or update deployment.

Target Release Version: Through a custom policy, a device can now stay on a specific Feature Update while receiving all Quality Updates. This offers flexibility beyond the normal deferral process.

Require Update Approval: With required update approval enabled, updates are not allowed on a device until they are approved in the console by an administrator. There are some considerations with this process to keep in mind. The next sections cover these considerations in more detail.

The deferral process is the preferred method since it removes some of the manual effort required to process approvals and prevents necessary approvals from being accidentally missed. A typical example: Update to Windows Update framework. Partial Medium Cumulative Updates A cumulative set of all hotfixes, security, critical, and updates fixes targeting a specific part of the product, such as security or services. Full Definition Frequent updates add to the product definition database and are often used to detect attributes like malicious code, phishing sites, and junk mail.

Full Driver Software controls for Input and Output of a device. Full Feature Pack New functionality distributed outside of a product release, typically before the next full release. NET Framework updates. Partial Low Feature Update Twice-yearly windows feature update.

Full Security Widely released fix addressing product-specific, security-related vulnerabilities. Partial Low Tool A utility of feature that helps complete a task or set of tasks. Partial Medium-Low Update A widely released fix for a specific problem addressing non-critical, non-security-related bug. Partial Low Update Rollup A cumulative set of all hotfixes, security, critical, and updates fixes targeting a specific part of the product, such as security or services.

Replaced by Cumulative Updates. Partial Low. Example Standard Deployment Timeline for February Updates are provided by WSUS. Patch Tuesday updates manually administered to the Client Validation team the day of release. Pilot devices are added to one or more smart groups. In no-go instances, patches are held back unapproved until the issue is remediated. Patches are then made available to all users in a phase-based approach depending on environment size and diversity.

Patches are forced to be installed by the last Friday of the month. Zero-day and similar patches follow the same process but are accelerated and are dealt with separately. Modern Deployment The modern deployment approach uses multiple deployment rings with a production deployment ring set to Require Approval for all patches.

Updates provided directly from Microsoft to devices in feedback rings, saving time collating, and publishing updates. Ring 0 — shown above as R 0 is the testing and validation ring. Devices are updated automatically as soon as updates are available—deferral value of 0. In a GO scenario, patches are approved for production one ring at a time. In a NO-GO scenario, updates can be paused, allowing time to remediate. Once remediation is complete, updates can be un-paused for each ring one at a time.

Zero-day patches follow the same process but are dealt with as a separate patch. WSUS provides updates. The update is applied to test devices and promoted to production once validation is complete.

Insider updates are not tested; testing begins when the update GAs. Modern Deployment The following modern deployment approach is recommended by VMware to provide a more modernized update procedure and to take advantage of the update functionality provided by Microsoft and Workspace ONE UEM.

Updates are provided directly by Windows Update. Optionally subscribe to Insider Updates release level for earlier testing feedback. Feature updates applied to test ring devices immediately, allowing testing to begin as soon as possible; Deferral value of 0. Auto-Approved Updates are deactivated in production for Feature updates. Timeline shown below is an estimated timeline of when these items are approved for the various rings. Use the TargetReleaseVersion CSP to ensure that devices do not move past the approved release version and can continue to receive quality updates for that release even after newer feature updates would have prevented further updates from being discovered.

Example deployment timeline for release GA November 12, Windows Insider Updates Overview If additional testing is needed, Windows Insider Updates could have advantages in highlighting any potential software incompatibilities sooner, providing additional time to remediate. Windows Update Approval Process Overview For updates controlled using the Approval process, approvals can be set at either the device level per-device or for all devices within a Smart Group. Device Level Approval Updates can be approved or unapproved at a device level per-device from within the console by selecting that device.

Click the Updates tab. Select an available update to approve. Click the Approve button, which appears above the listed updates.

Click Add Role. Provide a Name , Description , and add the above permissions. Click Save to create the new admin role. You can then assign this role to any of your admins. Windows Feature Update Readiness Detection Readiness Detection Before Feature Updates are applied to devices, each device must be evaluated to ensure it does not have versions of software installed that are not supported by the new version of the OS.

In addition to this list, free disk space must be at a minimum of 20GB. Readiness Remediation In most instances, devices should pass the software prerequisites for the OS update since the newer versions of the applications will have Auto deployment method configured. Direct Assignment via Workspace ONE Intelligence Automation If a device already has the newer version of the application assigned to it, a Workspace ONE Intelligence automation can be used to push the application directly to the device:.

Assignment via Tags and Smart Groups In instances where the application has not been assigned to the device, it can either be assigned and the direct deployment method used as described above or the device can be tagged and a Smart Group configured to build membership based on the tagged devices:.

Windows Update for Business Feature Update Approval Device Reporting of Updates Windows Feature Updates are released twice per year; however, a new cumulative version of the update is released every month. Approvals using the Workspace ONE Approving All Devices without any Exclusions You can follow the standard approval process, where updates are assigned to a Smart Group representing a distribution ring.

Smart Group Based Workspace ONE Intelligence automation can be used to tag devices that are eligible for updates based on multiple Sensor data points to determine if the device is eligible for the upgrade.

Tag and Smart Group configuration details should look like the following:. Automation configuration details should look like the following:. Automation Based Once confidence is gained in the update process, a more hands-off approach can be leveraged for approving Feature Updates.

Windows Update Delivery Optimization Delivery Optimization Options Delivery optimization can be configured as part of the Windows Update profile and has the following configuration options. Devices with the same public IP, as determined by the Delivery Optimization cloud service, will attempt to connect to peers using their private subnet IP. Note: By default, peering will occur across NATs. If you wish to limit peering, leverage the Group ID option.

Devices will not reach out to the Delivery Optimization cloud service. Devices peer with other devices that have the same Group ID assigned. This is provided at a best effort and should not be relied on for authentication of identity.

Windows OS Patching Profile Configuration Profile Configuration The following table documents an example of the Windows OS updates profile configuration settings used for the example deployment used throughout this document. Device Restart Flow and Prompts Introduction There are specific configuration items that determine the end-user experience when a device restart is required.

The system reboots on or after the specified deadline, and the reboot is prioritized over any configured Active Hours. Default: 15 minutes Supported Values: 15, 30, 60, , minutes Auto-Restart Required Notification Specifies how auto-restart notifications are dismissed. The auto-restart transitions to engaged restart pending user schedule , then auto executed within the specified period. Default: 4 hours Supported values: 2, 4, 8, 12, or 24 hours Schedule Imminent Auto-Restart Warning Minutes Specifies the amount of time before showing the auto-restart imminent warning notifications.

Default: 15 minutes Supported values: 15, 30, 60 minutes. End-User Prompts Understanding how the end-users are notified and impacted allows for informed decisions to be made regarding how to configure the Update Installation Behavior section of the Windows Update profile.

Windows Updates Day-2 Operations Monthly Quality Updates If monthly Quality Updates are configured to require Admin Approval, they will need to be approved after they have been successfully tested following standard testing practices. Click the Assign button to assign the update to appropriate Smart Groups. Smart Group selection will depend on the number of devices to be targeted and will be a phased approach building up the number of targeted devices by adding more Ring Smart Groups over time until all 16 Ring groups have been added.

Select your assignment groups. Click Add. Devices will download and install the update at the next Windows Update scan. Add all the patches that will be deployed that month to the widget as follows: Installation Status Widget for Patches. Annual Feature Updates If Feature Updates are configured to require Admin Approval, then they will need to be approved after they have been successfully tested following standard testing practice.

It is sufficient to download the latest one ESXi as they are cumulative updates. From the same menu we can set the Host in Maintenance Mode or use the command line as shown later on. Next is to use the vSphere Client Web Client available from 6. From here we can invoke the esxcli command to query about the Maintenance status as shown below. Next is to enter the Host in Maintenance mode as shown below. Before entering this mode it would be best to either evacuate the VMs to other available Hosts or shut them down.

During this phase in fact VMs cannot be created, Powered off or even VM configuration changes would not be possible. The process would not take very long and if we scroll up at the beginning of the list of packages updated we can also see the status execution and if a reboot is required. If there are no issues with this update then we can proceed with a reboot as per command line shown in this screenshot.

After rebooting and looking at the version number we can verify the installed release along with the build number. Updating an ESXi Host through vib files is really a quick and straight forward process. Extra care should be taken before installing Community vibs.

Of course this method might be more suitable for stand-alone Hosts rather than environments consisting of an high number of Hosts members of several clusters. As you can see on the screenshot, ESXi 6.

You should have all required packages before you can upgrade ESXi. Notice, that you should download the ESXi 6. Click Browse and select the ESXi 6. Click Import to import the image to a repository. Once your ESXi 6. A baseline is like a preset that can be applied to multiple entities, such as ESXi hosts, at once.

Baselines are divided to host baselines, VM virtual machine baselines, VA virtual appliance baselines. VM baselines and VA baselines cannot be created manually, as they are predefined.

You can also create baseline groups. In the current example, a baseline includes one ESXi image for upgrade. However, you can select multiple patches updates , upgrades or extensions to add to a baseline. Then you can use one baseline to install multiple patches on ESXi hosts simultaneously. Enter a name and description for a new baseline. In the current example, the name is ESXiupgrade. Hit Next to continue. Select an ESXi release image. The ESXi 6. Hit Next. The baseline has now been created, and you can see the created baseline in the Baselines tab of VMware Update Manager.

Select your custom upgrade baseline ESXiupgrade in this case and click Attach. Once Update Manager is finished checking each host in the cluster, the results are displayed in the center information card. Here we can see that all four of these hosts are not compliant with the baseline and will need to be remediated. Before we do that, let's run the cluster pre-check to ensure that remediation will be successful. Click "Pre-Check Remediation". The pre-check process will check to see if DRS is enabled so that running VMs can be migrated with zero-downtime across the cluster.

The pre-check also displays the status of HA admission control and enhanced vMotion compatibility. Click "Done". After running the pre-check, verify that the cluster is ready for upgrade.

Click "Remediate" to begin. In the new Update Manager interface, the remediation wizard from previous releases is gone. Instead, we have a chance to review the actions that will be taken in a very efficient way.

During the cluster remediation process, hosts are put into maintenance mode after the running VMs are migrated to other cluster nodes. This process is repeated, typically one host at a time, until the entire cluster is upgraded. Click the Refresh link to see the final status. When Update Manager is finished upgrading the cluster, the status information cards will show that the cluster is now compliant.

This concludes the new Update Manager interface demo. VMware vSphere Update Manager is capable of performing major version upgrades, applying patches and updates to supported versions of ESXi host, or installing drivers or other third-party components. In this example, we will walk through the procedure to apply a patch to a cluster of hosts running VMware ESXi 6.

For improved security, some environments do not allow Internet access from datacenter management components. In this demonstration, Update Manager does not have Internet access, so we will manually import the specific patches deemed necessary.

These patches, sometimes called offline bundles or depots, can be downloaded by logging into My VMware; they are distributed in zip format. Click Import to begin. Click Import to complete the process. Once the ESXi patch has finished importing, the individual bulletins can be seen in the repository tab. Everything looks good, click the Baselines tab to continue. Update Manager is able to perform major version upgrades, apply patches, or install extensions on managed ESXi hosts. Each of these tasks are enabled via baselines In our patching scenario, we need to create a new baseline to act as a container for the patches we just imported.

Click New. To create a new baseline, we need to supply a name and an optional description. In this environment, there are tight controls for compliance reasons - we will specify the exact patches to install instead of dynamically matching patterns through the automatic feature - uncheck that option and click next.

For this baseline, we will select the two patch bulletins that are part of the bundle we just uploaded. Since this environment does not have Internet access, only the patches that we import to the repository appear in this list.

In a lessrestrictive datacenter, this list would include all possible patch releases and could be filtered as needed by clicking the column headings. Click Next. Now that the baseline is attached to the cluster, Update Manager will check each host to see if action is required in order for that host to be considered compliant. Click Check Compliance. Once the compliance check is finished, Update Manager will indicate the status of each host in the cluster.

In this case, all of the hosts are out of compliance and need to have the patch installed, as expected. Before we begin, we will first check the cluster for any potential blocking issues by using the. The pre-check dialog box will show the status of individual items, such as confirming DRS is enabled. Everything is ready for remediation, so click Done.

Update Manager 6.