If you have any spare hardware for it, setting up a small test environment can help, especially if you are running any custom software on your servers. That way, you have another layer of protection against the update(s) you are installing blowing your production servers out of the water. The initial cost of setting up a test server should pay for itself shortly by saving you a few "oh, crap" moments each year.
As far as testing the patches on a test system goes, you just want to run a server through all possible scenarios. Run everything that you expect to work on a regular basis, test any services that the server provides to end users, and so on.. checking your event log and any application specific logs for errors is probably the easiest route for that. And of course, always read release notes for any known issues or conflicts introduced by a patch. Stefan Dorn Murad Talukdar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 01-09-2006 11:06:22 PM: > Hi all, > I wanted to get a few ideas of what people do to test their systems once > they have applied a patch/hotfix. > > Currently I pull one of the hotswap drives that has the OS mirrored on it > and then let it run with the patch applied for a few days/week before > letting it rebuild. > In that time I will check things like event logs/performance and do some > general 'listening' for any issues. > Does anyone have a more scientific method? What do you keep an eye on? Also, > Do you actually ever check whether the vulnerability(for example) that the > patch was designed to thwart has actually been plugged? > In the last two years I've only had one instance of a patch causing an OS to > fail--and then just removing and then reapplying the patch seemed to work > just fine. However, I don't want to get complacent. > > Kind Regards > Murad Talukdar > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > PRIVACY NOTICE: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain business confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If this e-mail was not intended for you, please notify the sender by reply e-mail that you received this in error. Destroy all copies of the original message and attachments.
