We are excited to announce the Public Preview of the Update management center (UMC), the next iteration of the Azure Automation Update Management solution. Along with zero onboarding steps, UMC offers new capabilities such as flexible scheduling options and on-demand assessments that help you manage a patch workflow that is best suited for your needs.
Ongoing management of operating system and application patches is critical in order to ensure your machines remain secure and meet compliance policies. With the increasing size and diversity in IT estates, this could be a complex process. UMC eases this process of managing and automating patching of Windows and Linux Operating systems, and central management of patching on Azure virtual machines and devices in on-premises or other public clouds (via Azure Arc). It facilitates you to assess and install patches on a single VM or at scale.
What’s new in the UMC?
- The “overview” tab offers a wide range of filters, charts and categories and provides a unified view of patching status of all Windows and Linux machines on Azure and Azure Arc-enabled servers.
- UMC leverages native functionality on Azure Compute and Azure Arc for Servers platform to provide a zero-step onboarding and a simplified user experience.
- UMC offers granular access control at individual VM instead of that at an account or workspace level. RBAC and roles based off ARM enable fine grained control on who can manage, assess and update a machine in Azure.
- The enhanced flexibility in UMC allows deployment of patches on a flexible schedule. UMC provides on-demand assessment and installation of patches, customizable scheduled patching, periodic assessment, and offers patching methods such as automatic VM guest patching in Azure, hotpatch or custom maintenance schedules and more.
Getting Started
You can find the Update management solution in the “updates” option on your Azure VMs or Azure Arc-enabled servers.
You can also navigate to the Update management center using the search bar on the Azure portal. The overview tab for UMC enables you to view the patching compliance and status for all your Azure and Non-Azure machines. You can use the filters on top to drill down to a specific set of machines, view a breakdown of machines and their statuses based on multiple categories, and identify the machines that are non-compliant to quickly take corrective action. The “No updates data” status tells you the count of machines that have not been assessed in the past 7 days or do not have Periodic assessment setup.
The machines tab shows the list of all VMs under a given subscription. You can access the features of UMC from the menu on the top. Broadly, “Check for updates” allows you to assess updates on-demand while “One-time update” allows to install patches on-demand. The Scheduled updates and Updates Settings options allow you to enable customised patching schedules.
Overall, Update management center offers an easy to use one-stop location for all operating system and application patching scenarios for a single VM or VMs at scale.
Overall, Update management center offers an easy to use one-stop location for all operating system and application patching scenarios for a single VM or VMs at scale.
What’s next in UMC?
- Extend patch management to all Azure supported distros & OSes, and all Arc workloads such as Azure Arc-enabled private clouds.
- Provide additional controls for configuration of patching workflows and orchestration of patch schedules.
Stay tuned for more announcements!
Additional Resources
- You can try the experience at Update management center (Preview) - Microsoft Azure.
- Read more on the capabilities of UMC ACOM Product page and Public Preview documentation
- If you have suggestions and feedback, reach out to us here
- Follow us on Twitter (@AzureUpdateMgmt) to interact and get updates.