01. Introduction
Azure Update Manager is a unified service designed to manage and govern updates for all your machines, whether they are in Azure, on-premises, or in other cloud environments connected via Azure Arc. It provides a centralized platform to monitor, deploy, and manage updates, ensuring your systems are secure and up-to-date.
02. What is Azure Update Manager?
Azure Update Manager, part of the Azure Automation suite, offers:
- Automated Update Deployment: Schedule updates for Windows and Linux servers.
- Unified Management: Manage updates across Azure, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
- Compliance Monitoring: Ensure all machines meet update compliance standards.
- Custom Scheduling: Configure maintenance windows to minimize disruption.
03. Key Features and Benefits
Here are some key benefits of using Azure Update Manager:
- Native Experience: Integrated as a native feature on Azure Compute and Azure Arc.
- No Dependency on Log Analytics and Azure Automation: Operates independently of these services.
- Azure Policy Support: Compatible with Azure Policy.
- Global Availability: Available in all Azure Compute and Azure Arc regions.
- Granular Access Control: Offers role-based access control at the individual resource level.
- Azure Resource Manager-Based Operations: Supports role-based access control and Azure Resource Manager roles.
- Increased Flexibility: Allows immediate or scheduled update deployments.
- Unified Management: Manage updates for Azure VMs, on-premises machines, and other cloud environments.
- Flexible Patching: Schedule updates or deploy them immediately.
- Compliance Monitoring: Track update compliance and generate custom reports.
- Patch Orchestration: Reduce downtime with intelligent patch sequencing.
- Hybrid Support: Manage both Azure and on-premises systems.
- Detailed Insights: Real-time update compliance reports.
- Customizable Maintenance: Configure maintenance windows tailored to business needs.
04. Prerequisites
Before using Azure Update Manager, ensure you have:
- An Azure subscription.
- Azure VMs or machines connected via Azure Arc.
- Appropriate permissions (Azure Owner or Contributor role).
05. Pricing for Azure Update Manager
- Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Stack HCI VMs: Free of charge.
- Azure Arc-enabled Servers: $5 per server per month (prorated daily). Free under specific conditions if using Extended Security Updates (ESU) or Microsoft Defender for Servers Plan 2.
06. How Azure Update Manager Works
Monitoring and Compliance:
- Single Dashboard: Monitor update compliance across all machines.
- Compliance Status: View compliance status, including pending updates and installation history.
Update Deployment:
- Real-Time Updates: Deploy updates immediately to address critical vulnerabilities.
- Scheduled Updates: Schedule updates within defined maintenance windows.
- Automatic Updates: Enable automatic VM guest patching and hot patching for Azure VMs.
Configuration and Management:
- Dynamic Scoping: Group machines based on criteria (e.g., tags, resource groups) and apply updates at scale.
- Pre and Post Events: Configure scripts or automation tasks to run before and after updates.
Advanced Features:
- Azure Policy Integration: Enforce update compliance and schedule patching.
- Custom Reporting: Generate custom reports using Azure Workbooks.
Security and Access Control:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Provide granular access control for patch management tasks.
- Secure Data Storage: All update data is stored in Azure Resource Graph (ARG).
07. Visual Overview
Here's a visual representation of the Azure Update Manager workflow:
08. Update Options in Azure Update Manager
- Automatic VM Guest Patching: Automatically downloads and applies critical and security patches to Azure VMs during off-peak hours.
- Hotpatching: Available for Windows Server Azure Edition VMs, allowing updates without requiring a reboot.
- Customer-Managed Schedules: Define custom maintenance schedules for both Azure and Arc-connected machines.
- Azure Managed - Safe Deployment: Azure orchestrates updates for a group of VMs, ensuring availability-first principles.
- Periodic Assessment: Runs every 24 hours to check for updates and ensure compliance.
09. Supported Operating Systems
Azure Update Manager supports updates for both Windows and Linux operating systems:
Windows:
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
Linux:
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS
- CentOS 7 (Note: CentOS is reaching End of Life status)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, 8
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12, 15
Azure Arc-enabled Servers:
- Supports both Windows and Linux operating systems connected via Azure Arc.
Unsupported Workloads:
- Windows Client: Use Microsoft Intune for managing updates on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- Virtual Machine Scale Sets: Use Automatic upgrades for patching.
- Azure Kubernetes Service Nodes: Follow the patching guidelines for AKS nodes.
10. Update Classifications in Microsoft Update Management
Microsoft Update Management categorizes updates into several classifications to help organize and manage them effectively. Here are the main classifications, along with definitions and examples for each:
Critical Updates:
- Definition: A widely released fix for a specific problem that addresses a critical, non-security-related bug.
- Example: An update that resolves a critical issue causing system crashes or data corruption.
Security Updates:
- Definition: A widely released fix for a product-specific, security-related vulnerability.
- Example: An update that patches a vulnerability in Windows that could allow remote code execution.
Update Rollups:
- Definition: A cumulative set of hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates packaged together for easy deployment.
- Example: A rollup that includes all updates released for Windows Server in a given month.
Feature Packs:
- Definition: New product functionality that is first distributed outside of a product release and typically included in the next full product release.
- Example: A feature pack that adds new capabilities to Windows, such as enhanced security features or new management tools.
Service Packs:
- Definition: A tested, cumulative set of all hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates applied to a product. Service packs may also contain additional fixes for problems found internally since the product's release.
- Example: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which includes all previously released updates and additional improvements.
Definition Updates:
- Definition: A widely released and frequent software update that contains additions to a product's definition database.
- Example: Updates for Windows Defender that include new virus definitions to protect against the latest threats.
Tools:
- Definition: Utilities or features that help complete one or more tasks.
- Example: The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which helps remove specific prevalent malware from Windows systems.
Updates:
- Definition: A widely released fix for a specific problem. An update addresses a non-critical, non-security-related issue.
- Example: An update that fixes a minor bug in Microsoft Office that causes occasional crashes when opening certain file types.
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