About Dual-Mode Os Patches; Analyzing The Impact Of Installing A Microsoft Operating System Patch - Novell ADMINSTUDIO 9.5 User Manual

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Information About Missing Patch Files

The OS Security Patch Wizard imports a Microsoft operating system patch using the patch's INF file. An INF file is

a text file that is used by Microsoft to install the patch and which contains the information necessary to install a

patch, such as for a driver, including file names and locations, registry information, and version information.

An OS Security Patch can consolidate patches for different Windows Operating Systems. Any given INF file may

contain information about files that do not exist or are not relevant for a particular Windows Operating System. The

OS Security Patch Wizard ignores these files when importing the patch information into the Application Catalog

and reports the missing files in the log file. The OS Security Patch Wizard will not import any information about the

missing files into the Application Catalog.

About Dual-Mode OS Patches

The OS Security Patch Wizard imports a Microsoft operating system patch using the patch's INF file, which is a text

file that contains all the information necessary to install a device (such as INI and registry changes, filenames, and

locations of the source files on source media).

The Branch listed in this column is the name of the patch's INF file minus its extension. Because all obvious

identifiable information within the INF file (like Name) is often identical, this Branch information is included to help

differentiate the patches within a dual mode patch.

A sample branch name could be:

QFE = Quality Fix Engineering updates (also known as hot fixes). These include security updates, feature

packs, update roll-ups, drivers, and critical updates. They are created when an issue is identified that needs a

fix in a specific and small subset of customer environments. These fixes have not been tested for the same

length of time for regressions or incompatibilities as what a GDR fix typically goes through.

GDR = General Distribution Release updates. These updates can be found on the Windows Update site,

meaning that they are available to a wider audience. GDRs are tested to a greater degree than QFEs.

QFEs generally contain all the prior fixes from both GDR and QFE releases while GDR releases do not

contain QFE fixes.

Analyzing the Impact of Installing a Microsoft

Operating System Patch

After you have imported a Microsoft operating system patch into the AdminStudio Application Catalog, you can

continue to use the ConflictSolver Patch Impact Analysis Wizard to identify conflicts between Microsoft operating

system patches and the packages and OS Snapshots in the Application Catalog. This helps you determine how

specific MSI packages or OS Snapshots would be affected when a Microsoft operating system patch is installed.

AdminStudio 9.5 User Guide

Chapter 15: Analyzing the Impact of Installing Microsoft Operating System Patches

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