Routine Updates

VUM uses the term remediation to refer to the process of applying patches and upgrades to a vSphere object. As described in the previous section, VUM uses baselines to create lists of patches based on certain criteria. By attaching a baseline to a host or VM and performing a scan, VUM can determine whether that object is compliant or noncompliant with the baseline. Compliance with the baseline means that the host or VM has all the patches included in the baseline currently installed and is up to date; noncompliance means that one or more patches are missing and the target is not up to date.

After compliance with one or more baselines or baseline groups has been determined, the vSphere administrator can remediate —or patch —the hosts or VMs. Optionally, the administrator can also stage patches to ESX/ESXi hosts before remediation.