Deploying extended support patches with BigFix

You can apply Extended Support (EUS and ELS) patch Fixlets the same way you have been applying all your RHEL patches with BigFix.

To apply Extended Support (EUS and ELS) patch Fixlets with BigFix – include them in baselines, use maintenance windows, even include them in patch policies (scheduled for Dec 2020).

Taking action on an EUS or ELS patch Fixlet works the same way as taking action on any other patch Fixlet in BigFix individually or as part of multiple action groups. However, using EUS and ELS Fixlets in multiple-package baselines requires a little extra attention to detail as shown in the figure.

Note that there are separate Fixlets to install multi package baselines for each Extended Update Support version, similarly to separate Fixlets to install multi package baselines for servers, clients, and workstations in the standard Patches for RHEL sites. In order to ensure the EUS/ELS patches are installed from the correct repo, you must use the multiple-package baseline installationFixlet that matches the same release of the patch Fixlets in your baseline. For example, a multiple-package baseline that contains RHEL 7.5 EUS patch fixlets should use the 7.5 EUS installation fixlet as its final component:. An example is shown in the following figure:
Figure 1. Extended Support Patches


In the preceding example, the version (7.5) and architecture (x64 / x86_64) matches for all the patch Fixlets and for the multi package baseline installation Fixlet – just like you match up server or client Fixlets with the corresponding multi baseline installation fixlet in the standard Patches for RHEL sites.

The Fixlets to import the GPG key and enable multi package baseline mode are generic to the major RHEL version.

For a refresher on multi package baselines in general, see the following documentation: https://help.hcl-software.com/bigfix/10.0/patch/Patch/Patch_RH/c_multiple-packagebaselineinstallation.html