Patch Management Quick Start Guide

This guide provides an overview of the steps needed to begin using Patch Management in N-able N-central. Follow the steps to get up and running quickly and easily.

This is not an all-inclusive guide to using Patch Management and does not cover all its features and capabilities. For full information on the product, please see the complete N-central documentation.

Pre-Download

Prepare the following before downloading and installing Patch Management.
  • Review the Patch Management engine system requirements. See PME system requirements.
  • Configure Patch caching as required. See Patch caching.

  • If you have a small group of devices you likely do not need a probe cache. You can set up a patch profile that instructs devices to go directly to Windows Update for their patches. For more information, see Patch Management profiles.

Setting Up & Configuration

Configure and set up Patch Management with the help of the Setup Wizard. The Wizard will guide you through the creation of maintenance and installation windows that define a Patch rule. See Setup Wizard.
  • Create a Patch profile. See Create a Patch profile.
    Configure detection maintenance preferences to define the schedule for the detection of new updates.
    Configure pre-download maintenance preferences to establish the schedule for patch installation. See Pre-deployment self-audit.
    Configure the installation maintenance preferences to define the schedule for downloading approved patches to a device. See Patch install maintenance windows.
    Configure the reboot schedule for devices in reboot maintenance window.
    Configure and create a Patch rule. See Patch Management Rules.
  • Enable Patch Management on devices. See Enable Patch Management on devices.

Automatic Patch Approvals

Configure automatic patch approvals and declines. See Patch approval definitions for more information.

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