Patching business critical users

[teamfox201]

Hello,

 

We have a call center (bread and butter of business) with about 1000 users. What would be the best way to scatter patching to this group in case we have a bad patch (management concern) so we don't take out the whole department.

 

Thanks!

[YPCC]

are you patching any other users in the organisation?

 

If yes:

- Patch those first, phased approach. Then leave these business critical users till the end of the patching cycle.

 

If no, then a choice of options:

- attempt to determine "less" critical users/pilot group from those in the call center and patch those first, followed by rest a few days later

- make patches available with a 7 day deadline, so users who want to patch can do so at their convenience. Others get patched at deadline (this empowers you users but management may not like this)

- Break down the 1000, into 10, 30, 200, then rest over a 4 day period

 

Lots of choices, management will just want the assurance that you're don't take down the whole lot with a bad patch. Basics of any deployment (especially patch management) should be using a phased approach. Start with a pilot, and slowly ramp up the numbers.

[Apexes]

+1 for phased approach, building numbers over time