Tip

Conserve bandwidth during Windows patching

What you will learn from this tip: Three best practices you can do to to conserve bandwidth during patching.

There are a number of things you can do to conserve bandwidth during peer-to-peer or most any patch management processes. Here are the three I recommend:

  1. Schedule your patch distribution and installations

    2. This is probably the most common means of conserving bandwidth. Scheduling patches for distribution during off hours or non-peak times will ensure that critical business traffic is not adversely affected by patch installations.

  2. Buy tools with the bandwidth features you need

    3. Many patch management vendors build bandwidth conservation into their tools. For example, you may have the option to resume stalled installations or the ability to configure and limit bandwidth used. If you need to conserve bandwidth, investigate the options available with your patch management tool.

  3. Place patch distribution repository near nodes to be updated

    4. In general, you want to place the distribution servers close to the end nodes that are being updated. For example, if you have a number of remote offices, a common way of regulating bandwidth is to place a distribution server in each office. This way, the patch is only transferred to the remote office once, and the local distribution server then uses the local network to disseminate the patches. Careful configuration and design of the patch distribution

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    servers is critical to bandwidth management.


More Information
  • Discover what all the fuss is about
  • Learn the key criteria you need to consider when purchasing a patch management solution to ensure it is effective.
  • View this on-demand webcast and learn how to overcome the challenges inherent to patch management

About the author
Jason Chan serves as a co-moderator for the patchmanagement.org mailing list, and he has written articles for publications such as SysAdmin Magazine and Computer Fraud and Security. He is a consulting services technical lead for Symantec Professional Services, where he also serves as technical leader for the Secure Infrastructure Center of Excellence. He is also a site expert on SearchWindowsSecurity.com.

This tip orginally appeared on SearchWindowsSecurity.com

This was first published in June 2005

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.

    Disclaimer: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.

    Back to top