Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The new baseline group you just created is now included in the list of baseline groups, and
you can attach it to ESX/ESXi hosts or clusters to identify which of them are not compliant with
the baseline.
You'll see more about host upgrade baselines in the section “Upgrading Hosts with vSphere
Update Manager.”
Having examined the different areas present within VUM, let's now take a look at actually
using VUM to patch hosts and VMs.
Routine Updates
VUM uses the term
remediation
to refer to the process of applying patches and upgrades to
a vSphere object. As described in the previous section, VUM uses baselines to create lists of
patches based on certain criteria. By attaching a baseline to a host or VM and performing a
scan, VUM can determine whether that object is compliant or noncompliant with the baseline.
Compliance with the baseline means that the host or VM has all the patches included in the
baseline currently installed and is up-to-date; noncompliance means that one or more patches
are missing and the target is not up-to-date.
After noncompliance with one or more baselines or baseline groups has been determined,
the vSphere administrator can remediate—or
patch
—the hosts or VMs. Optionally, the adminis-
trator can stage patches to ESX/ESXi hosts before remediation.
The i rst step in this process is actually creating the baselines that you will attach to your
ESX/ESXi hosts or VMs. How to create a host patch baseline was covered earlier, so you have
already seen this process. The next step is attaching a baseline to—or detaching a baseline
from—ESX/ESXi hosts or VMs. Let's take a closer look at how to attach and detach baselines.
Attaching and Detaching Baselines or Baseline Groups
Before you patch a host or guest, you must determine whether an ESX/ESXi host or VM is com-
pliant or noncompliant with one or more baselines or baseline groups. Dei ning a baseline or
baseline group alone is not enough. To determine compliance, you must i rst attach the baseline
or baseline group to a host or VM. After it is attached, the baseline or baseline group becomes
the “measuring stick” that VUM uses to determine compliance. Attaching and detaching base-
lines is performed in one of vCenter's inventory views. To attach or detach a baseline or baseline
groups for ESX/ESXi hosts, you need to be in the Hosts And Clusters view; for VMs, you need
to be in the VMs And Templates view. In both cases, you'll use the Update Manager tab to attach
or detach baselines or baseline groups.
In both views, baselines and baseline groups can be attached to a variety of objects. In the
Hosts And Clusters view, baselines and baseline groups can be attached to datacenters, clusters,
or individual ESX/ESXi hosts. In the VMs And Templates view, baselines and baseline groups
can be attached to datacenters, folders, or specii c VMs. Because of the hierarchical nature of
the vCenter Server inventory, a baseline attached at a higher level will automatically apply to
eligible child objects as well. You may also i nd yourself applying different baselines or baseline
groups at different levels of the hierarchy; for example, there may be a specii c baseline that
applies to all hosts in the environment but another baseline that applies only to a specii c subset
of hosts.
Let's look at attaching a baseline to a specii c ESX/ESXi host. The process is much the same, if
not identical, for attaching a baseline to a datacenter, cluster, folder, or VM.
