Working with Baselines
Learner Objectives
After completing this Working with Baselines lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
- Identify types of baselines and baseline groups
- Recognize how to create baselines
- Describe how to update hosts using baselines
Baselines and Baseline Groups
A baseline includes one or more patches, extensions, or upgrades.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager includes the following dynamic baselines by default:
- • Critical Host Patches
- • Non-Critical Host Patches
- • Host Security Patches
A baseline group includes multiple baselines. Baseline groups can contain one upgrade baseline and one or more patch and extension baselines.
Creating and Editing Patch or Extension Baselines
Using the New Baseline wizard, you can create baselines to meet the needs of your deployment:
- Fixed patch baseline: Set of patches that do not change as patch availability changes.
- Dynamic patch baseline: Set of patches that meet certain criteria.
- Host extension baseline: Contains additional software for ESXi hosts. This additional software might be VMware or third-party software.
When you create a patch or extension baseline, you can filter the patches and extensions available in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager repository to find specific patches and extensions to include in the baseline.
Creating a Baseline
To create a baseline, select Lifecycle Manager from the Menu drop-down menu. Click NEW > Baseline.
Creating a Baseline: Name and Description
Provide the name, a description, the content of the baseline, and the ESXi version that this baseline applies to.
Creating a Baseline: Select Patches Automatically
To create a dynamic baseline, set the criteria for adding patches to the baseline and select the check box for automatic updating of the baseline.
Creating a Baseline: Select Patches Manually
To create a fixed baseline, select the patches that you want to include in the baseline. You must also disable the automatic updates by deselecting the check box on the Select Patches Automatically page.
Updating Your Host or Cluster with Baselines
Managing the life cycle of a standalone host or cluster of hosts is a five-step process:
- Select your host or cluster and select the Updates tab. The Baselines window is the default view.
- Attach one or more baselines.
- Check compliance of your host or cluster with the attached baselines.
- Perform a precheck before remediating.
- Remediate the host or cluster. Optionally, stage your patches to copy them to hosts for remediation later.
Remediation Precheck
The Remediation Pre-check in vSphere Lifecycle Manager helps to verify that your remediation is successful. vSphere Lifecycle Manager notifies you about any actions that it takes before the remediation and recommends actions for your attention.
Remediating Hosts
During the remediating process, the upgrades, updates, and patches from the compliance check are applied to your hosts:
- You can perform the remediation immediately or schedule it for a later date.
- Host remediation runs in different ways, depending on the types of baselines that you attach and whether the host is in a cluster.
- For ESXi hosts in a cluster, the process is sequential by default.
- The remediation of hosts in a cluster temporarily disables cluster features such as vSphere HA admission control.
Review of Learner Objectives
After completing this Working with Baselines lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
- Identify types of baselines and baseline groups
- Recognize how to create baselines
- Describe how to update hosts using baselines