LinuxSecurity.com: Patching it Up

“I wonder what goes through Jay. F.’s head when I send another
patch update with a few dozen servers to patch. Patch Management
can be a headache, especially in a large network environment. It
can also be disastrous if someone doesn’t read the documentation
that comes with patches or types the wrong command to upgrade a
software package. Consequently, knowing how to back out of a
botched patch job is just as important as knowing how to apply the
patch.

“Don’t apply multiple patches at once. Apply patches in
increments, it makes recovering from a problem with one patch a
whole lot easier. Patching will require you to know the
functionality of services running and the current security
settings. Some patches may disable security settings, overwrite a
configuration file or may start services that were shut down or
weren’t even previously enabled. Backup configuration files for a
software package before applying a patch to it…”

Complete Story