How do you make host patching easier

[papahendo31]

Hi all,

I am brainstorming ideas on how to make host patching less time consuming.  We use update manager but I find the whole scan\remediation process very lengthy especially when I know the host requires patching.  Additionally there is usually BIOS and firmware updates that have to be completed first.  I would love to hear examples of what folks are doing to make patching easier or more hands off. 

Is it Ansible?  Scripted installs, Auto Deploy? VUM with some automation for the BIOS\firmware? Or some combination of these? 

Thanks for any information you can share.

[berndweyand]

my patch procedure is initiating bios/firmware-updates with Dell Open Manage Enterprise Appliance (only for dell hardware) . This appliance triggers all needed updates.

before starting the update i assign the new image profile for autodeploy for this host - when firmware-updates completes the host automatically boots the new esxi-version

[papahendo31]

I like this approach.  As a past user of Auto Deploy I can say the ability to just boot to a new hypervisor version is incredible.  We also have some Dell so Open Mange is actively being looked at.  Is there any real word advice or info you can share about Open Manage?  Is is really hands off or are there caveats I should be aware of?

Thank You for the reply

[IRIX201110141]

Aehm.......

- The scan can be scheduled and we to it every 24h. So no need for a manual scan and waiting

- VUM is used on Cluster level and we have DRS. So VUM triggert MM and all VMs moved away trough vMotion

For FW patching we use Dell OpenManage Integration for vCenter. Similar usage as VUM and fully usable trough vSphere Client(HTML5)  IIRC have HPE something similar but Dell have it since 2011.

Regards,
Joerg

[berndweyand]

you can download the appliance here: Support for OpenManage Enterprise | Dell Deutschland

its free of charge - only for the vcenter integration irix mentioned you pay for licenses.

also it depends on how your hosts are deployed - for auto deploy the updatemanger is useless. and with autodeploy you have the advantage of doing a rollback if the new version has bugs