How to apply rolling patch updates with no downtime
This topic walks you through the process of how to apply rolling patch updates to your infrastructure with no downtime using TrueSight Server Automation. This example uses a Patch Catalog smart group to patch the servers behind the load balancer so that there is no downtime to the business services that rely on the web servers.
It includes the following sections:
- Overview
- What do I need to do before I begin?
- To create and run the Patching Job
- To apply the updates
- Where to go from here
The video at right from BMC Communities (8:25) provides a quick demonstration of the process.
Overview
In this example, the environment has a simple structure: one load balancer (called HA Proxy in this example) and three web servers (running Red Hat Linux) behind the load balancer.
The load balancer is used to distribute requests to the three web servers. This example shows how you can patch the servers behind the load balancer so that there is no downtime to the business services that rely on the web servers.
What do I need to do before I begin?
Prior to performing the steps in this example, you must have:
- Set up a patch catalog. For specific steps, see Walkthrough-Setting-up-and-managing-an-online-patch-catalog-for-Windows or Walkthrough-Setting-up-and-managing-an-online-patch-catalog-for-Linux. The patch catalog in this example is for Linux (Red Hat).
- Created a patch catalog smart group containing the servers you will be patching. This smart group can be used as an include filter for the Patching Job to determine if the specific patch in the smart group is missing from the target web servers. See step 7 in Walkthrough-Setting-up-and-managing-an-online-patch-catalog-for-Linux. In this example, the patch catalog smart group looks for a specific Red Hat errata (RHSA-2015:2550).
To create and run the Patching Job
To apply the updates
Where to go from here
To review other specific patch management examples, see Example-patching-scenarios