ESX 4.0 patch application

[Indigo2009]

I have a new ESX 4.0 / Vsphere installation I am just learning - a 3 host cluster. I see there are 16 new host patches just released, some of them flagged critical. Do you folks wait a certain amount of time before patching to see what the fallout might be? Do you apply all patches or only those noted as critical / applicable to your systems? Do you patch all hosts in a cluster or one and wait? I am wondering what the best practice to follow here might be - I was looking for a patch specific thread in the vSphere top heading but I didn't see one. Thanks!

[Troy_Clavell]

patching is based on needs, and not all patches will be relevant to your environment. We have a luxury of a TEST/DEV environment where we can deploy patches to first. Patches for ESX should be handled just like any other OS patch management.

This may be of some use

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/esx_patching_best_practices.pdf

[Indigo2009]

We do not have a DEV ESX environment / only a production one. Is it possible to create an ESX host that is a VM and test on that? My other question or point would be is there a central forum or location where patches are reviewed or bugs with specific patches are noted? Thanks.