Use > Server patching > Patch management for Unix > Use software policies to manage patches

Use software policies to manage patches

Patch Policies for Windows and Solaris are the best way to manage patches for the Windows and Solaris platforms. For more information see Patch management for Windows and Patch management for Solaris .

For other platforms, software policies enable you to customize patch distribution in your environment. Software policies define which Unix patches should be installed or not installed on certain managed servers.

If you use software policies and you also perform ad hoc patch installs, you must run the remediate process to install all applicable patches on servers. See the SA 10.51 Administer section for more information about creating and remediating software policies to install Unix patches.

Patch compliance reports

To troubleshoot and resolve patch compliance problems, you can run and examine several patch compliance reports in the SA Client. The following patch compliance reports identify whether all patches in a software policy were installed successfully on managed servers in your environment.

Patch policy compliance (All servers)

This report groups all managed servers by their patch policy compliance level to show compliant and non-compliant servers.

Patch policy compliance by customer

This report lists all servers by the customer they belong to and then by the patch policy compliance level.

Patch policy compliance by facility

This report groups all managed servers by the facility they belong to and then by the patch software policy compliance level.

See the SA 10.51 Administer section for information about how to run, export, and print these reports.