Patch policies in Systems Management enable the administrator to have greater control of the rollout of Windows updates to the network.
By configuring a number of options from the Administration console, the administrator can easily fine tune the delivery of patches to all Windows devices.
Steps to create a patch policy
- Open the PCSM Administration console.
- Select Policies from either the Account or Site levels and click New policy (Account or Site) …
- Select Patch management in the type of policy.
- Add the target.
- Configure the different options for the new policy:
- Patch Management Policy Options: Select a schedule for the patches to be deployed: daily, weekly or hourly and for how long (in hours).
- Power Options:
- Allow forced reboot(s), if required enables the forced reboot included in the update to run. This option is off by default.
- Shutdown after update completed
- Patches to install: define how patches will be installed:
- Install all patches
- Filter them by the following criteria:
For example, the network admin can set the policy to only install patches with a severity of Recommended or Higher and to ignore the rest. - Install individual patches. Here you can define the criticality of the individual patches.