How does Linux patch management work?

Linux is the world's most popular open source operating system that powers most web servers and nearly all cloud infrastructure. It works behind the most popular servers, systems and smartphone technologies, including Android.

This is why having a constant eye on endpoints and implementing an effective patch management strategy becomes mandatory for Linux servers. Moreover, the ever-increasing problem of data security and regular bug fixing or system upgrading demands a reliable patching process.

So if you want to know how it all works and what the benefits of the patch are, here's some quick info on Linux Patching –

Linux patch management

Being an open source operating system, Linux needs more attention from the administrator because a single incompatible change can cause unwanted problems in the whole organization.

Therefore, when it comes to patching, this complex operating system requires more than technical expertise. Unlike other operating systems where patches are released in an orderly fashion, Linux requires patches to be downloaded from vendors and deployed manually or automatically.

Benefits of an effective patch management tool

Before jumping into how patch management works, let's understand why patching the Linux server is necessary and beneficial.

Here are the main advantages of Linux Patch Management –

Unpatched web servers can become a cybersecurity threat; therefore, patching is essential to stop all data and security breaches.
Bug fixes and software feature enhancements
Resolves driver or software issues.
An excellent patch management tool also relieves you of custom scripts or manual deployment and eliminates the risk of human error.
Fix fixes future issues – when a server needs a fix and it doesn't fix that issue as soon as possible, it's likely to need more fixes in the future and can also become a cybersecurity issue.
An automatic patch management process saves time and effort and increases the chances of patch success.

How does patch management work?

The whole patch management involves some key procedures that you can do manually (which takes a lot of time and effort) or select patch management software that does everything automatically.

Depending on the distro(s) you are running, you can decide your patch management strategy. Every distro like CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Oracle, Amazon Linux 2 has its own patch management tools to help you patch the server.

Alternatively, you can opt for a single tool that works with all major distros like JetPatch.

When you run a vulnerability scan on all devices, your scan tool examines the endpoints for missing patches and updates you if the system needs a patch and what exact patch it needs. /P>

The next job runs the patch with the good patch management tool . For this, you need to download the updates or patches and run a full test in a non-production environment. If the results are successful, you continue with the deployment according to your deployment strategies and the fix is made.