I'm attempting to bring some 5.0.0 U1 hosts up to U2. These hosts haven't been patched since June of 2012.
- I download new patch metadata, add all new ESXi5 patches to our baseline, and scan. Update Manager reports that 29 patches are missing...OK.
- I stage a host, and I'm told that 12 patches were staged out of the 29 (see attached.)
- When i drill down into the details, it appears that some of the staged patches are BugFixes post-U2 (attached.)
- Patches issued between 7/2012->3/2013 are shown as missing (attached.)
I have all the faith in the world for the software, but I need to submit a change control and understand the process of installing all critical patches since last spring. Should I expect the recent bugfixes to take place, then the "missing" patches (including U2) to be successfully staged and remediated as I scan across reboots? I thought the process would be sequential (oldest->newest.) Unfortunately, I do not have a host to test on. Management will want to know if they'll be on a new build vs. a series of patches.
Another question:
Is it normal for Update Manager to only download metadata for patches, downloading the actual patch data when a stage/remediate takes place? We need to know this for firewall coordination purposes.
Thank you!