Managing Third party Application Updates & Patches on Linux Devices

IT Admins can get a view of OS and Third Party Applications (having one or more app updates available) installed on Scalefusion managed Linux devices, as per devices as well as apps, sync the updates and take more actions on them all from one place.

This document covers details of the features provided on Scalefusion Dashboard for managing OS and third-party app updates.

Pre-requisites

1. Configure Third Party Application Update & Patch Management Settings

2. Linux devices should be enrolled in Scalefusion with the latest Tux MDM agent, that is, version 0.0.0~20241204113849

Description

1. On Scalefusion Dashboard, navigate to Update & Patch Management > Linux OS & App Updates

2. Based on the configuration settings, once the Scalefusion agent syncs the available updates, they will start appearing on Dashboard.

3. Summary View: A quick view shows the following information on the status of updates

   1. Device Summary

      1. Updated: Total no. of devices updated with no pending updates

      2. Pending: No. of devices on which updates are pending (not yet installed)

      3. OS Updates: Total number of devices that have an OS update pending

      4. Critical: No. of devices that have critical updates pending.

   2. Install Summary

      1. Approved: No. of updates that have been Approved and in progress state

      2. Installed: No. of updates that were approved and installed successfully.

      3. Failed: No. of updates that were approved but failed to install. Failed count will be based on Failure handling settings configured under OS Update Management settings.

4. Following details are fetched and displayed with respect to app and OS updates. There are two ways in which you can view the updates:

   1. Devices View: Provides the details based on devices on which app(s) and patches are to be updated.

   2. Updates View: Provides the details based on updates reported
      

      

Devices View

Devices view will display list of devices where on each device, one or more app or OS update is available. In case all the apps and patches are updated on a device, that device will not be visible in Devices view. Following are the components in device view:

Filters

You can filter and view the devices accordingly. The devices can be filtered over following:

Device Details

 The device view displays the following details with respect to updates:

1. Name: Device Name and model

2. Group/Profile: Group and Profile applied on the devices.

3. Installed Updates: No. of updates installed on the device

4. Available Updates: No. of updates which are pending (not yet installed) on the device

5. Critical Updates: No. of critical updates pending on the device.

Device Level Actions

Following actions can be performed on devices.

1. View Details: Clicking on the eye icon opens a Dialog that displays the available updates on the device along with their version, update type and other related information. Here, you can also filter the updates by their update type.

   1. Show Obsolete Updates: Obsolete updates are the updates that were previously available on the device or are no longer required on the device. On checking this setting, you will get a list of obsolete updates on the device.
      

      

Bulk Actions on Devices

You can also perform actions on all or selected devices in bulk. To access these actions, click on the Actions button at the right of the filters. The following actions can be performed:

1. Schedule Scan: This will schedule the scanning of updates on the selected devices

2. Download Compliance Report: A report of all the Linux devices, their make and model, OS version, pending updates and more details get downloaded in CSV format.

   

Updates View

Following are the components in the updated view

Filters

You can filter and view the updates accordingly. The updates can be filtered over the following:

Update Details

The updates view displays the following details with respect to each update:

1. Name: The info of the update to be applied, including the update name and download size

2. Source: The source from where the package will be downloaded

3. Version: The version of the update.

4. Type: The type of the update.

5. Available On: Number of devices the update is available on.

6. Downloaded On: Number of devices the update is downloaded on.

7. Installed On: Number of devices the update is installed on.

8. Failed On: Number of devices on which the update failed to install.
   

   

Publishing an Update

An update can be published on Linux devices from the Dashboard. To do so,

1. Click on the three dots (under Actions) in front of the update and click on Publish
   

   

   
   

2. This will open the Publish dialog box. This contains the following:

   1. Details of the update, version, download size etc.

   2. All the devices on which this particular update is available will be listed. You can select the device(s) on which you want to publish the update. The device details like OS version, Status, Group/Profile, managed/unmanaged etc. will also be displayed.

3. Click on the Publish button after making selections.
   

   

Bulk Actions on Updates

You can also perform actions on all the updates in bulk. To access these actions, click on the Actions drop-down at the right of the filters. The following actions can be performed:

1. Download Compliance Report: A report of all the macOS devices, their make and model, OS version, pending updates and more details get downloaded in CSV format.
   

   

Known Behavior

1. All updates, including application updates, will display as OS update type.

2. If you use Schedule scan, it will manually look for updates on devices and not wait for sync interval.