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Azure Update Management is a service that helps you manage updates and patches for your Azure VMs, as well as on-premises servers. The service provides capabilities such as assessment of update status, scheduling of updates, and integration with other Azure services.
To begin implementation, you must first assess the compliance status of your VMs. Azure Update Management can provide you with a detailed assessment by identifying missing updates across your machines.
This overview will show which VMs are compliant and which ones need attention. The dashboard displays assessments based on classifications such as Critical Updates, Security Updates, and others.
Once the assessment is complete, you can schedule and deploy updates as follows:
Azure VMs can have the Update Management extension installed, which allows direct interaction with the Azure Update Management service. The extension can be deployed automatically to new VMs using the Azure Policy or manually from the Azure portal.
Update Management in Azure is not limited to Azure VMs; it also supports on-premises servers and those hosted in other clouds through Azure Arc. Enabling Azure Arc on non-Azure VMs allows you to manage updates across your hybrid environment consistently.
Implementing and managing security updates for VMs in the Azure environment requires a strategic approach, but with the right tools and processes like Azure Update Management, Azure Automation, Azure Policy, and Azure Security Center, you can ensure that your cloud infrastructure remains secure and up-to-date. Preparing for the AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies exam will further equip you with the necessary skills to proficiently manage security updates and maintain a strong security posture in Azure.
Explanation: Azure Security Center provides recommendations for missing updates, but it does not automatically install updates. You must configure update management or take appropriate actions to manage the updates.
Explanation: Azure Automation Update Management allows you to manage updates and patches for your Azure VMs and on-premises servers.
Explanation: Azure Policy can be configured to audit if VMs are not compliant with update requirements and enforce update management on the VMs.
Explanation: Update Management in Azure Automation is used to manage updates and patches for Windows and Linux VMs.
Explanation: While Azure Automation Update Management is a common way to manage updates, you can also use other methods such as manual updates, group policies, or third-party update management systems.
Explanation: Azure Automation Update Management gives you control over both critical, security, and other types of updates that you might want to include in your deployment schedules.
Explanation: By default, Azure Automation Update Management performs an assessment every 24 hours.
Explanation: An Azure Log Analytics workspace is required for Azure Automation Update Management to store data and provide advanced analytics.
Explanation: Azure Automation Update Management allows you to configure update classifications, maintenance windows, and exclusion lists to have granular control over update deployments.
Explanation: While Azure Security Center provides update compliance information, you are not obligated to use it. You can manage and track update compliance using Azure Automation Update Management or other third-party tools.
Explanation: Azure Automation Update Management supports deploying updates to both Azure VMs and non-Azure (on-premises) VMs for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
Explanation: Azure Automation Update Management is included at no additional charge with your Azure subscription but does incur costs related to log data stored in the Log Analytics workspace.
Azure Automation Update Management is a service in Azure that allows you to manage updates and patches for your virtual machines. It provides a centralized view of update compliance, and you can schedule and orchestrate updates across multiple machines. Its benefits include improved security, compliance, and reliability.
You can create either a scheduled update deployment or an ad-hoc update deployment.
You can configure a hybrid worker group in Azure Automation, which allows you to manage updates for VMs that are located in different Azure regions.
Microsoft recommends checking for security updates on a weekly basis and installing them on a monthly basis.
Azure Security Center’s vulnerability assessment provides a continuous assessment of your virtual machines, containers, and databases to identify security vulnerabilities, whereas built-in vulnerability assessment provides a point-in-time assessment of virtual machines.
You can enable vulnerability assessment for your VMs by enabling the Security Center on the subscription or resource group level and deploying the Log Analytics agent.
The Just-In-Time VM Access feature allows you to reduce the attack surface of your VMs by providing temporary access to them only when needed. This helps to minimize the risk of a successful attack.
The standard tier provides advanced threat protection, including threat intelligence, behavioral analysis, and anomaly detection, while the free tier provides basic security recommendations and vulnerability assessments.
Azure Security Center’s Secure Score is a metric that provides an overview of your security posture. It is calculated by analyzing your security configurations and comparing them to Microsoft’s security recommendations.
The adaptive application controls feature allows you to manage and control the applications that run on your virtual machines. It helps to reduce the risk of malware and other threats by allowing only trusted applications to run.
You can configure adaptive application controls by defining an allow list of applications that are allowed to run on your virtual machines, and enforcing this list through group policy or other methods.
Azure Security Center’s threat protection policy allows you to configure advanced threat protection for your VMs. You can configure it by defining rules for threat detection, setting up alerts and notifications, and specifying response actions.
You can use Azure Policy to define and enforce policies that ensure compliance with security standards for your VMs. This can include policies for access controls, network security, and other security-related settings.
Azure Security Center can automatically detect and remediate security vulnerabilities in your VMs by providing recommendations for security improvements and automating the remediation process.
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