Just few months after the first release, Microsoft is back with its patch management solution for offline virtual machines.
As virtualization professionals and security expert know, one area where virtualization can become a security issue instead of a security enabler is the operating system patching.
VM library templates and offline virtual machines in production may skip the patching process in those companies without a strict operational framework.
This happens also in the physical world, but inside a virtual infrastructure an administrator can clone tens or thousands of virtual machines in minutes, making the offline server patching a much bigger issue.
For this reason some virtualization vendors are offering the capability to patch the offline VMs.
VMware does this through its Update Manager, introduced with VI 3.5.
Microsoft offers the same capability through a stand-alone product called Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool.
This new release doesn’t change the way the offline virtual drive is patched, but introduces support for Hyper-V 1.0, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008, Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 SP1 and R2, and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP1.
Download it for free here.