Using the Operations Manager Update Management Solution Suite (OMS) you have the ability to centrally manage and control the update status of systems in heterogeneous environments both Windows and Linux machines and independently from their placement, on-premises rather than in the cloud. In this article, we explored aspects of solution regarding Linux systems.
The Update Management solution allows you to quickly assess the status of updates available on all servers with the OMS agent installed and is able to start the process of installing the missing updates. Linux systems are configured to use this solution require in addition to the presence of ’ agent who Powershell Desired State Configuration (DSC) for Linux andHybrid Runbook Automation Worker (installed automatically).
The solution currently supports the following Linux distributions:
- CentOS 6 (x 86/x 64) and CentOS 7 (x64).
- Red Hat Enterprise 6 (x 86/x 64) and Red Hat Enterprise 7 (x64).
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x 86/x 64) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (x64).
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and later (x 86/x 64).
In addition to work correctly you need the Linux system has access to an update repository. In this regard it is worth noting that at the moment there is a chance by who to select which updates to apply, but ’ all available updates are available from the update repository configured on the machine. To have more control over updates to apply you may evaluate the ’ using a custom update repository created and contains only the updates that you want to approve.
The following diagram shows the flow of operations being carried out by the solution to move towards compliance status and the workspace who to apply the missing updates:
Figure 1 – Flow of operations performed on Linux systems
- The agent who for Linux scans each 3 hours to detect missing updates and reports the outcome of the scan to the workspace who.
Figure 2 – OMS Dashboard Update Management solution
- The operator using the dashboard OMS can refer to update assessments and define the schedule for deployment of updates:
Figure 3 – Management of Update Deployment
Figure 4 – OMS Dashboard Update Management solution
In creating the Update Deployment is defined a name, the list of systems to be involved, that can be provided explicitly or by using a query of Log Analytics, and scheduling.
- The component Hybrid Runbook Worker running on Linux systems checks for maintenance Windows and the availability of any deployment to apply. In this regard it is good to specify that enabling the solution to Update Management every Linux system connected to the workspace who is automatically configured as Hybrid Runbook Worker to perform runbook created to deploy updates. Also every system managed by the solution is a Hybrid Runbook Worker Group within the Automation OMS Account following the naming convention Hostname_GUID:
Figure 5 – Hybrid Worker Groups
- If a machine has an Update Deployment (as a direct member or because it belongs to a specific group of computers) on it starts the package manager (Yum, Apt, Zypper) to install updates. Installing updates is driven by who through specific runbook Automation within Azure. These are not visible in Azure runbook Automation and require no configuration by the administrator.
Figure 6 – Azure Automation Account used by the solution of Update Management
- After Setup OMS agent for Linux and the basic status of Update Deployment and compliance to the workspace who.
Conclusions
Microsoft Operations Management Suite is a tool that lets you manage and monitor heterogeneous environments. Still today, unfortunately, you are faced to the debate on the real need to maintain regularly updated Linux systems, but considering some recent security incident caused by outdated systems, It is evident that it is good to have a solution that allows you to manage updates for Linux machines. The solution to Update Management of OMS is constantly evolving, but already today enables us to control and manage the distribution of updates also on Linux systems in a simple and efficient way.
For more details, I invite you to consult Microsoft's official documentation Solution for Update Management of OMS.
To further explore this and other features you can activate free OMS.
