Policy management

Patches recommended in the scanning phase can be remediated on the managed server. A typical software remediation job involves a software policy with some policy items to be remediated. In the case of Red Hat Patch remediation, a Dynamic Patch Policy is involved.

A Red Hat Dynamic Patch Policy is very similar with a normal (static) policy. It contains the same properties like name, description, platforms associated, can be attached to multiple managed servers and it allows the same management operations that software policies and static patch policies allow. The difference comes from the fact that Red Hat Dynamic Patch Policies do not allow editing policy items. Upon remediation of a dynamic patch policy, the process will populate the policy items at runtime with patches.

Creating a Red Hat dynamic patch policy

To create a dynamic patch policy for a Red Hat managed servers:

1. In the navigation pane, select Library > By Type > Patch Policies.
2. Select a specific Red Hat operating system
3. Select Actions or right click in the patch policies pane.
4. Select New Dynamic Policy.
5. Provide a name and description to the policy. Save and close.

Attaching a dynamic patch policy to a Red Hat managed server

After a dynamic patch policy is created, the policy must be attached and then the remediation can occur. To attach a dynamic patch policy:

1. In the navigation pane, select Library > By Type > Patch Policies.
2. Select a specific Red Hat operating system, and view the list of Red Hat patch policies.
3. Select a patch policy from the content pane and open it.
4. In the server browser from the Views drop-down list, select Servers.
5. From the Actions menu, select Attach.
6. From the new dialog select a Red Hat server click Attach. If you want the server to be remediated immediately, select the Remediate Servers Immediately.

Remediating Red Hat dynamic patch policies

After this step, the recommended patches from the scan phase are installed to the system. To remediate a patch policy:

1. In the navigation pane, select Library > By Type > Patch Policies.
2. Select a specific Red Hat operating system, and view the list of Red Hat patch policies.
3. Select a patch policy from the content pane and open it.
4. In the server browser from the Views drop-down list, select Servers and then select a server to remediate on.
5. From the Actions menu, select Remediate.