Azure Patching and Management in the Cloud Simplified

Azure patching is a complex process, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Azure provides a simple and automated way to manage patches for your cloud resources, ensuring your infrastructure stays up-to-date and secure.

With Azure's automated patching, you can schedule patches to run at a time that suits you, minimizing downtime and disruption to your business. This feature is available for both Windows and Linux virtual machines.

Patching can be done on a per-machine basis, or you can apply patches to a group of machines with similar configurations. This flexibility makes it easy to manage your patching needs, whether you have a small or large-scale infrastructure.

Automated patching can be configured to run at a specific time or on a recurring schedule, giving you control over when patches are applied.

You can orchestrate patching for your virtual machine by selecting Patch Orchestration as Azure Managed-Safe Deployment on the Azure Update Manager home page.

Azure Update Manager provides flexibility in installing updates immediately or scheduling updates within a defined maintenance window. These settings allow you to orchestrate patching for your virtual machine.

To deploy patches to Windows systems, you can choose from various deployment options, including scheduling updates and targeting specific systems or groups.

Scheduling updates allows you to define specific timeframes when updates will be applied to target systems, minimizing disruption to business operations.

Targeting specific systems or groups enables you to prioritize critical systems or test updates on a smaller subset of devices before deploying them to the entire organization.

Azure Update Management provides built-in reporting capabilities, allowing you to track compliance and update status across your Windows environment.

These reports help identify any failed or pending updates, enabling prompt remediation actions.

Automation is a significant advantage of Azure Update Management, streamlining patch management processes and reducing manual effort.

By leveraging automation capabilities, you can create recurring schedules for patch deployments to ensure that updates are consistently applied to target systems.

Automatic updates eliminate the need for manual intervention, ensuring that systems are protected against known vulnerabilities without delay.

Azure Update Management provides visibility into patch compliance, generating compliance reports and dashboards to assess the patch status of your Windows environment.

Compliance monitoring helps organizations meet regulatory requirements and maintain a robust security posture.

The patch orchestration settings in Azure Update Manager define whether the guest OS or Azure is responsible for managing update schedules.

The "Patch Mode" setting can be set to "AutomaticByPlatform" (i.e. Azure-orchestrated), "AutomaticByOS" (Windows only), "Manual" (Windows only), or "ImageDefault" (Linux only).

The "BypassPlatformSafetyChecksOnUserSchedule" setting determines whether user-scheduled patching or "AutoPatch" applies, and can be either "True" or "False".

You can schedule recurring updates on a single VM by following the steps outlined in the Azure Update Manager documentation.

To create a schedule for a single VM, you can select your subscription, select Schedule updates, and then create a new maintenance configuration.

You can also schedule updates from the Overview or Machines pane on the Update Manager page, or from the selected VM.

By automating updates, you can ensure that update evaluations occur regularly and updates are applied to machines on a schedule.

The settings for automating updates are less obvious, but can be found in the Azure Update Manager documentation.

Here are some key patching options in Azure Update Manager:

By using these patching options, you can ensure that your virtual machines are up-to-date and secure, and that you are meeting regulatory requirements.

You can create a schedule for a daily, weekly or hourly cadence as per your requirement, specify the machines that must be updated as part of the schedule, and the updates that you must install. The schedule will then automatically install the updates as per the specifications.

Azure Update Manager uses maintenance control schedule instead of creating its own schedules. Maintenance control enables customers to manage platform updates.

For a seamless scheduled patching experience, it's recommended that you update the patch orchestration to Customer Managed Schedules for all Azure VMs. If you fail to update the patch orchestration, you can experience a disruption in business continuity because the schedules will fail to patch the VMs.

For Arc-enabled servers, the updates and maintenance options such as Automatic VM Guest patching in Azure, Windows automatic updates and Hotpatching aren't supported.

You can schedule updates from the Overview or Machines pane on the Update Manager page or from the selected VM. To schedule recurring updates on a single VM, sign in to the Azure portal, select your subscription, and then select Schedule updates.

Here is a step-by-step guide to scheduling recurring updates on a single VM:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. On the Azure Update Manager | Overview page, select your subscription, and then select Schedule updates.

3. On the Create new maintenance configuration page, you can create a schedule for a single VM.

4. On the Basics page, select Subscription, Resource Group, and all options in Instance details.

5. On the Machines tab, select your machine, and then select Next.

6. On the Tags tab, assign tags to maintenance configurations.

7. On the Review + create tab, verify your update deployment options, and then select Create.

You can also schedule updates from the Machines pane. To do this, sign in to the Azure portal, select your subscription, select your machine, and then select Schedule updates.

Here is a step-by-step guide to scheduling recurring updates at scale:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. On the Azure Update Manager | Overview page, select your subscription, and then select Schedule updates.

3. On the Create new maintenance configuration page, you can create a schedule for multiple machines.

4. On the Basics tab, select Subscription, Resource Group, and all options in Instance details.

5. On the Machines tab, verify if the selected machines are listed. You can add or remove machines from the list.

6. On the Updates tab, specify the updates to include in the deployment.

7. On the Tags tab, assign tags to maintenance configurations.

8. On the Review + create tab, verify your update deployment options, and then select Create.

Azure Update Manager allows you to target a group of Azure or non-Azure VMs for update deployment via Azure Policy. The grouping using a policy keeps you from having to edit your deployment to update machines. You can use subscription, resource group, tags, or regions to define the scope.

To configure patching, you need to have an active Azure subscription and an Azure Automation account to use Azure Update Management. This service is available as part of Azure Automation, so make sure you have the necessary setup before proceeding.

You'll also need to install agents on the target Windows systems that you want to manage, which will communicate with Azure Update Management and enable patch deployments. Define the update deployment settings, such as the target systems, update classifications, and maintenance windows, to align with your organizational requirements.

To streamline patch management processes, create recurring schedules for patch deployments to ensure that updates are consistently applied to target systems. This reduces the risk of missing critical updates and helps organizations stay up to date with the latest patches. Consider enabling automatic updates to ensure that systems receive patches promptly and eliminate the need for manual intervention.

Here are the key steps to configure patching:

By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to configuring patching and maintaining a robust security posture for your organization.

To enable the VM property, you need to understand how Automatic VM guest patching works. It automatically downloads and applies Critical or Security patches on your VM.

Before enabling Automatic VM guest patching, check the requirements. It works for all VM sizes.

To get started, you'll need to obtain an understanding of how Automatic VM guest patching works. Check the requirements before you enable Automatic VM guest patching.

You can enable the VM property by following these steps:

Attaching a maintenance configuration to multiple machines is a breeze with Azure Update Manager. You can do this at the time of creating a new maintenance configuration or even after you create one.

To attach a maintenance configuration, you'll need to follow these steps: select Machines, then your subscription, then the machine you want to attach the configuration to. On the Updates pane, select Scheduled updates to create a maintenance configuration or attach an existing one.

Here's a step-by-step guide to attaching a maintenance configuration:

Once you've attached a maintenance configuration, you can easily manage it from the Updates pane. This way, you can ensure that all your machines are patched and up-to-date without having to manually configure each one individually.

Patch deployment is a crucial step in maintaining the security and integrity of your Azure environment. You can schedule updates during maintenance windows to minimize disruption to business operations.

Azure Update Management allows you to target specific systems or groups for patch deployments, giving you the flexibility to prioritize critical systems or test updates on a smaller subset of devices before deploying them to the entire organization.

To deploy patches, you can choose from various deployment options, including scheduling updates and targeting specific systems or groups. Monitoring the progress of patch deployments is essential for maintaining visibility and ensuring successful updates.

Here are some key deployment options:

By leveraging Azure Update Management, you can streamline patch management processes and reduce manual effort, ensuring that your Azure environment remains secure and up-to-date.

Hotpatch is a game-changer for patch deployment. It allows you to apply security patches to supported VMs without requiring a reboot.

Azure Update Manager provides the flexibility to either install updates immediately or schedule updates within a defined maintenance window, which is essential for patching orchestration.

However, Hotpatch has its limitations. It is only supported on very limited images, specifically Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition Core and Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition with Desktop Experience.

If you can use Hotpatch, it's great. But for many, it's not an option, although support is expected to grow over time.

Hotpatching can be a lifesaver in terms of minimizing downtime and keeping your systems secure. But it's essential to understand its limitations and plan accordingly.

Here are the specific images that support Hotpatch:

Patch deployment and monitoring are crucial aspects of maintaining a secure computing environment. You can schedule patch deployments during maintenance windows to minimize disruption to business operations.

Azure Update Management allows you to target specific systems or groups for patch deployments, giving you the flexibility to prioritize critical systems or test updates on a smaller subset of devices before deploying them to the entire organization.

Monitoring the progress of patch deployments is essential for maintaining visibility and ensuring successful updates. Azure Update Management provides built-in reporting capabilities, allowing you to track compliance and update status across your Windows environment.

To monitor the deployment status, you can review the process by machine or target group. This will help you determine the success of the update deployment.

Azure Update Management provides various deployment options, including scheduling updates, targeting specific systems or groups, and automatic updates.

By leveraging automation capabilities, you can streamline patch management processes and reduce manual effort. This includes recurring schedules, automatic updates, and compliance monitoring.

Automatic VM guest patching is another feature of Azure Update Management that helps ease patching for virtual machines. It automatically downloads and applies critical or security patches on the VM, and applies patches during off-peak hours for IaaS VMs in the VM's time zone.