Azure Update Management
Tags: azure, security, linux, windows
Published: 2021-06-07 06:40:59

An Azure Automation Account has a feature called Update Management that can manage your Windows and Linux Operating System (OS) updates for Azure, On-Premise and other third party Cloud environments. In this post I will explain what Update Management is, how to switch it on and how to add your servers to it.

## What is Update Management

Update Management is a toggle on feature of Azure Automation Account. Within Update Management, you can add servers from multiple environments and manage both Windows and Linux updates. Microsoft does have a supported Operating Systems list [here](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/automation/update-management/overview#supported-operating-systems) but I will outline in brief what is supported:


- Windows 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 (excl. core), 2019
- Centos 6, 7, 8 (excl. 7.5)
- Red Hat Enterprise 6, 7, 8
- SUSE Enterprise 12, 15, 15,1
- Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, 18.04

From within Update Management you can assess servers for missing updates, configure a schedule for updates to run within a maintenance window and configure what to include/exclude from the update cycle.

## How do I enable Update Management

To enable Update Management you need to create a Automation Account and Log Analytics Workspace. Once you have both of these created:

1. Open the **Automation Account** you created
2. Select **Update Management** from the left side menu
3. Here you are presented with a configure window. Select the **Log Analytics Workspace** you created and click **Enable** to complete.

Update Management is now enabled and will monitor any servers that have been configured to use the Log Analytics Workspace.

## How do I add Azure VMs

To add an Azure VM, all you need to do is either:

1. From within the **Update Management** blade within the **Automation Account** resource, select **Add Azure VM** from the top menu bar
![addazvm.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1623049395294/01xALwn5R.png)
2. Select a VM from the list provided (note that you may have to move Log Analytics Workspaces if it reports the VM using an alternative).

*or*

1. From within the **Virtual Machine* select the **Guest + host updates** blade from the left side menu
![guesthostupdates.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1623049511645/zFfkkg_vB.png)
2. Now select the **Go to Update management** option and then select **Log Analytics Workspace** and the **Automation Account** to be used for updates.
![guesthostupdates2.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1623049589800/jy7gs3zR0.png)

## How do I add On-Premise Servers

First you need to install the Log Analytics agent onto either [Windows](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/agents/agent-windows) or [Linux](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/agents/agent-linux). When running the installer you will be asked to select a Log Analytics Workspace, select the one you created earlier.

Once the installer completes, allow 30 minutes for it to appear in Azure. To add the server to Update Management:

1. From within the **Update Management** blade within the **Automation Account** resource, select **Add non-Azure VM** from the top menu bar
![addnonazvm.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1623049449128/RjGmVHeNv.png)
2. Select a server from the list provided.

## What type of update can I manage

On **Windows** you can manage:

- Critical Updates
- Security Updates
- Update Rollups
- Feature Packs
- Service Packs
- Definition Updates

On **Linux**:

- Critical and Security Updates
- Other Updates (those not specified as Critical or Security)

## How do you schedule updates

From within the **Update Management** blade within the **Automation Account**, select **Schedule update deployment** from the top menu. Here you can select:

- The type of OS you want this deployment to apply to (cannot be both Windows and Linux)
- What Virtual Machines or groups containing VMs you want to apply this to
- What update categories you want to apply as part of this schedule
- Any updates to include (leaving this blank means it will do them all) or exclude
- Maintenance Window
- Date and Time to start
- Recurrence (if you want it to repeat)
- Reboot options

Select **Create** once configured. Use the **Deployment** tab to monitor the progress or history of a scheduled deployment.