While most of us who update our systems blindly click on “auto-update”, it is important for Sys Admins, server managers, and production environment team leads to inspect the changes that the new patch and updates bring to the systems.
It is necessary to know exactly what software is being downloaded, the source, the version, the vulnerabilities that were patched, and the changes that it can cause. Very often an in-house produced software is known to break when the Operating System updates. Security software like third-party firewalls, anti-virus may also stop functioning with new OS updates.
A good policy for OS updates is:
- A thorough study of documentation of the upgrades/patches by Sys Admins
- Mirror image and backing up of the existing system before running patches and upgrades
- Monitored upgrades and documentation of environment changes
- Upgrading other software which is compatible with the new version of the OS.