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Patch management has
become an area of concern for business networks and home networks as well.
Updates and patches are continually developed by vendors to improve their
solutions. Most network administrators would know the chaos resulting from the
release of a new critical patch. PatchQuest is patch management software that frees administrators from manually managing patches for their existing
Windows/Linux installations. Linux-Tip tested the free edition , which can
manage up to 5 computers.
 Stumble It!
The software works on all versions of Windows starting from NT Server and Workstations to Windows 2003 Server and XP professional. It is also patching Linux systems like Red Hat and Debian. We tested it using a P4 1.8 GHz with 512 MB RAM. The software is using 10 MB free hard drive space for installation and needs at least 10 GB for the database.
The free edition can be used for a home network. In a lot of places you will find more and more families with three or more computers. Very often they are connected by a wired or wireless network using a file server running a Linux distribution. The following scenario is based on this situation: Dad is using his desktop computer at home running Debian Linux but has a laptop which he is using at work and at home. Mom has a laptop computer running Windows 2000. The two kids (Mike and Sandra) have their own computers. Sandra got a very new one and is using Windows XP. Mike discovered Linux and started to run Debian. All computers are connected by a home network. Dad “sponsored” a DSL connection and a flat rate. He installed a Linux (Red Hat) server, which he is normally using to test software. This hardware is also running a File Server and a Groupware Server for the whole family. The scenario could look like this:
Step
1: Install PatchQuest on a Linux (Red
Hat) server
We are
running PatchQuest on a Red Hat 9.0 server. I know, it is an old version and
not supported any more, but it is still running in different environments. If
you do not have the software, please download it here:
Please arrange a basic installation. You do not
need a system with all “bells and whistles”.
Configure a static IP address for your system, which you can later use
to configure the agents.
The free Edition allows
you manage 5 systems in your network. It
never expires and you get all the functionalities of the Professional
Edition except technical support The PatchQuest Linux version is available as a
binary file. Download the file here and provide executable permissions using
the chmod command.
Open a
console and execute it from the shell prompt like this:
su
cd /home/user/Downloads/
chmod
755 SecureCentral_PatchQuest.bin
./SecureCentral_PatchQuest.bin
The
installation works well for system without X-server also. In this case type the
following:
su
cd
/home/user/Downloads/
chmod
755 SecureCentral_PatchQuest.bin
./SecureCentral_PatchQuest.bin
–console
Remark: If
you would like to use PatchQuset server for managing Windows systems in the
agentless mode, you have to install Samba-TNG first. We have just 5 clients
running on our network. For that reason we will use the agent mode and will
install agents on every client PC. Get
more information about Samba-TNG here.
Please do
the next steps accordingly:
PatchQuest uses default web server and default
listener ports to receive response from the agents. If you want to run it on
different ports, this is the chance to configure it:
I recommend running PatchQuest as a service.
It is time to configure the installation directory.
The installation will
take a bit, time to grab a cup of coffee:
The installation is done. The PatchQuestService
should start automatically after rebooting the server.
Open you favorite browser and use the following
URL:
https://192.168.x.x:8443
(use your server IP instead)
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