Course Description

BigFix Patch provides an automated, simplified patching process that is administered from a single console. It provides real-time visibility and enforcement to deploy and manage patches to endpoints helping to cut operational costs and reduce patch cycle times. In this course, you will learn to interact and operate the BigFix Patch solution. You will gain a solid understanding of the various components of the solution and will be able to configure, operate, develop reports, perform maintenance tasks, and troubleshoot BigFix Patch.
 

Objectives

Upon completion of the BigFix Patch v9.5 course, students will be able to:

• Gain insight into BigFix Patch’s major offerings
• Understand the Patch release process
• Learn how to create, deploy and rollback, Windows Patches
• Learn how to create, deploy and rollback, UNIX / Linux Patches
• Learn how to optimize your patching routines including air-gapped networks
• Learn how to automate your patching processes with Wizards
• Understanding Dashboard functionality
• Perform basic troubleshooting techniques for application and platform issues

Audience

Prerequisites

• BigFix Operator Fundamentals course
• Basic Microsoft Windows and VMWare skills

Content

Day 1 Introduction

• What's covered in this course?
• What is BigFix Patch?

Support Patch Platforms

• All current platforms for which patches are available

Features of BigFix Patch

• Fixlets
• Dashboards
• Wizards
• Analyses

How to Get Started with BigFix Patch

• What are content sites?
• How to enable and subscribe computers into content sides
• Scaling out patch deployment to other operating systems
• Who publishes patches into External patch sites?
• Differences between External and Custom content sites
• Differences between Windows and Non-Window patches
• Download Plugins (for Non-Windows patches)

Deploying Patches (Using Default Parameters

• One patch
• Many patches as an ad-hoc group
• Many patches as 'Baselines'
• What is a Baseline?
• Creating a new Baseline
• Modifying an existing Baseline

Customizing a Patch Action

• Targeting
• Statis Snapshot of targets
• Dynamically selecting targets
• Manually listing targets
• Constraints and Behavior
• Post-Action: Reboot/Shutdown

Day 2 Advanced Patch Management

• Superseded Patches: What are they? ; How to figure out what superseded them ; How to work with them even though they are suspended
• Blacklisting patches: Hiding globally
• Whitelisting patches: Creating Custom Sites and populating only pre-approved patches or Baselines
• Streamlining the patch process: Making Baselines efficient ; Storing Baselines offline until/if needed again

Autonomous Patch Management (Set and Forget)

• Using 'execution constraints' to better manage patch actions
• Usiing WebUI 'Patch Policies' to approve and deploy patches automatically (no operator intervention)

Reporting

• Pre-defined Web Reports
• Creating custom patch reports
• Importing community-created patch reports

Troubleshooing

• Patch Failure (Analyzing in the console)
• How to upload and review client logs

Appendix

• Patching in an air-gapped network