On This PageOverviewThis chapter outlines the daily, weekly, monthly, and as-needed tasks required to optimize the deployment of a software update into your production environment. Additional tasks might be required, depending on the environment, existing management procedures, and corporate standards. For more information about the MOF Team Model role clusters that are referenced throughout this section, see the Team Model for Operations white paper at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/mo/mof/moftml.mspx. Essential Maintenance TasksDaily TasksPerform an inventory on servers | Assess | Operations | Check production environment for unmanaged or rogue computers | Assess | Security | Check for potential system vulnerabilities | Assess | Security | Check to ensure compliance with security standards and policies | Assess | Security | Check Web sites, e-mail messages, and other sources for information about new software updates | Identify | Operations | Monitor progress of deployment | Deploy | Release |
Weekly TasksPerform an inventory of workstations | Assess | Operations | Check that workstation inventory is up to date | Assess | Operations | Ensure that software distribution tools are configured, maintained, and able to support normal and emergency patch management | Assess | Infrastructure | Review non-emergency change requests and determine the most appropriate response | Evaluate and Plan | All |
Monthly TasksCheck for new sources of patch information | Assess | Operations | Review security standards and policies | Assess | Security |
As-Needed TasksReview and update build baselines | Assess | Infrastructure | Identify the best source of information for new software updates | Assess | Security | Review management architecture to determine whether it is able to support patch management | Assess | Infrastructure | Review patch management operational processes and administration model | Assess | Operations | Confirm that people have assigned roles and responsibilities and that they know how to respond when an emergency software update is identified | Assess | Operations | Perform physical audit of assets within the production environment | Assess | Infrastructure | Review security vulnerabilities whenever changes are made or are proposed to the production environment | Assess | Security | Review notification of a new software update to determine that it is valid and comes from a recognized source | Identify | Security | Acquire files and confirm that they are virus free and that the software update installs successfully | Identify | Security | Confirm that a software update is relevant to computers within the production environment and submit a request for change (RFC) to deploy it | Identify | Security | Review information supplied with a patch and, if necessary, perform an immediate audit of computers at risk | Identify | Security | Review emergency change requests and determine the most appropriate response | Evaluate and Plan | All | Plan for the release of the software updates into production | Evaluate and Plan | All | Develop the scripts, tools, and procedures that will be needed to deploy the software updates into production | Evaluate and Plan | All | Test that critical business systems continue to work after deployment of the software updates | Evaluate and Plan | All | Prepare the production environment for the release of new software updates | Deploy | Release | Deploy a software update and monitor progress | Deploy | Release | Resolve issues with computers that fail to install a software update | Deploy | Release | Perform a change review to assess how successful the deployment of the software update was and whether the process needs to be improved | Deploy | All |
| |
