V-Series appliance hotfix management

Use the Administration > Patches / Hotfixes > Hotfixes page to find, install, uninstall, and otherwise manage hotfixes for the appliance and its software modules.

In the majority of cases, you are notified of hotfixes by either:

A Websense Technical Alert email

A Websense Technical Support agent (The agent provides the name of a specific hotfix to address the problem you reported.)

As a best practice, install all security vulnerability patches.

A hotfix may address an issue on any module running on your appliance.

A hotfix should not be recommended to you for a module that you have not configured or are not running on your appliance.

The hotfix facility on the appliance will not install a hotfix that is not valid for the module versions on your appliance.

A hotfix may have dependencies on one or more other hotfixes, in which case the hotfix facility will not allow the installation of the hotfix until after its dependents are installed.

Hotfix application process

To download and apply a hotfix to the V-Series appliance:

Under Hotfix Installation, enter the name of the hotfix and click Find.

If the hotfix is not found, make sure the name is entered correctly:

Specify the exact name of the hotfix, including any leading or trailing zeros.

The format is: Module-version-number (for example: Email-8.1.1-001)

If the name repeatedly returns not found, contact Websense Technical Support.

When the hotfix is found, review the description in the Hotfix Details pop-up that is displayed.

If the description is what you expect, click Download to download the hotfix to the appliance.

Otherwise, click Cancel.

After the hotfix is downloaded, a description and status display in the Downloaded hotfixes table.

Check the Status column of the table to confirm that the hotfix has no dependencies and is ready for installation.

If the hotfix is dependent on another hotfix, you must download and install that hotfix first.

If you plan to apply this hotfix to other V-Series appliances in your network, optionally click Save to network location to copy the hotfix file to a drive in your network. Once the file is saved, you can manually upload it to your other appliances.

Click Install to install the hotfix.

If you have already downloaded the hotfix file to a machine in your network, click Upload Hotfix Manually to copy the file to the appliance.

Hotfix history

Use the Hotfix History list to find the current appliance version, uninstall hotfixes, or review a record of installed or uninstalled hotfixes.

To start, select an option from the View drop-down list:

Installed hotfixes populates the table with a list of hotfixes that have been installed, or that you attempted to install unsuccessfully.

Uninstalled hotfixes populates the table with a list of hotfixes that have been uninstalled, or that you attempted to uninstall unsuccessfully.

Both lists show the Hotfix ID (the name of the hotfix file), the date the hotfix was installed or uninstalled, and the status of the hotfix installation or removal process.

The Installed hotfixes list also shows:


A radio button	Select the radio button to activate the Uninstall button. If the hotfix has dependencies that prevent it from being uninstalled, a message is displayed below the table.
Name	The name of the hotfix and a link to the Release Notes.
Module	The name of the affected appliance module.
Uninstall button	Use this button to initiate uninstallation of the selected hotfix.

The Uninstalled hotfixes list also shows a reason that you provide for uninstalling the hotfix. It is easy to lose track of why a hotfix was uninstalled. Recording a clear description here can save repeated errors and lost time in the future.