V-Series appliance patch management

Help | V-Series Appliance | v8.1.x

Related topics:

V-Series appliance patch update options

V-Series appliance hotfix management

V-Series appliance patches and hotfixes proxy settings

Use the Administration > Patches / Hotfixes > Patches page in the Appliance manager to keep your V-Series appliance up to date. A patch typically upgrades the appliance controller and all software modules on the appliance while preserving your existing settings.

Appliances automatically check for new patches once a day. The time of the check is randomized, cannot be configured, and is different for every appliance. Click Check for Patches to initiate the check manually.

When a new patch is available, the patch version number, description, and status are displayed in the Available patches table, and an alert is displayed on the Status > General page.

After a patch is downloaded it can be copied to another location on your network where it can be easily uploaded to multiple appliances.

If the appliance management interface (C) does not directly connect to the Internet, you can configure a proxy server through which the appliance checks for patches. See V-Series appliance patches and hotfixes proxy settings.

For instructions on applying a patch, see V-Series appliance patch update options.

A new appliance at your site should immediately be patched to the latest version.

Keep all V-Series appliances on your network at the same version.

Install software patches as soon as they become available.

Once a patch has been applied to the appliance, its details appear in the Patch History table. For each patch, the table displays:

Version number

Date and time of the patch installation

Comments that confirm the success or failure of the patch installation

A link to the patch log file, showing patch details

Patch process for appliances

Patch download and installation is initiated manually by the appliance administrator.

Download and install each patch during a low-activity period on your network. See V-Series appliance patch update options for details.

If Network Agent has been temporarily disabled, re-enable it before starting the patch installation. See Re-enabling Network Agent before installing a patch.

Install patches in consecutive sequence.

On the Patches page, the "Appliance current version" number is the current appliance version (reflects the latest patch installed).

Be sure that all Websense modules running off the appliance, such as Log Server, are upgraded to the appropriate level each time you patch the appliance. See the patch release notes for details.

The online V-Series Compatibility Matrix shows a table of the Websense software module versions that are compatible with each appliance version.

If multiple appliances are deployed in your network, they must all run the same version of Websense software. Websense, Inc., does not support running different versions of the software on different appliances in the same network.