Patching operation differences between Linux and Windows Server
This topic describes important differences between Linux and Windows Server patching in Patch Manager, a capability of AWS Systems Manager.
Note
To patch Linux managed nodes, your nodes must be running SSM Agent version 2.0.834.0 or later.
An updated version of SSM Agent is released whenever new capabilities are added to Systems Manager or
updates are made to existing capabilities. Failing to use the latest version of the agent can prevent your managed node
from using various Systems Manager capabilities and features. For that reason, we recommend that you automate
the process of keeping SSM Agent up to date on your machines. For information, see Automating updates to SSM Agent. Subscribe to the SSM Agent
Release Notes
Difference 1: Patch evaluation
Patch Manager uses different processes on Windows managed nodes and Linux managed nodes in order to evaluate which patches should be present.
Linux
For Linux patching, Systems Manager evaluates patch baseline rules and the list of approved and rejected patches on each managed node. Systems Manager must evaluate patching on each node because the service retrieves the list of known patches and updates from the repositories that are configured on the managed node.
Windows
For Windows patching, Systems Manager evaluates patch baseline rules and the list of approved and rejected patches directly in the service. It can do this because Windows patches are pulled from a single repository (Windows Update).
Difference 2: Not Applicable
patches
Due to the large number of available packages for Linux operating systems,
Systems Manager doesn't report details about patches in the Not
Applicable state. A Not Applicable patch is, for
example, a patch for Apache software when the instance doesn't have Apache
installed. Systems Manager does report the number of Not Applicable patches
in the summary, but if you call the DescribeInstancePatches API for a managed node, the returned data
doesn't include patches with a state of Not Applicable. This
behavior is different from Windows.
Difference 3: SSM document support
The AWS-ApplyPatchBaseline Systems Manager document (SSM document)
doesn't support Linux managed nodes. For applying patch baselines to Linux,
macOS, and Windows Server managed nodes, the recommended SSM document is
AWS-RunPatchBaseline. For more information, see SSM Command documents for patching
managed nodes and SSM Command document for
patching: AWS-RunPatchBaseline.
Difference 4: Application patches
The primary focus of Patch Manager is applying patches to operating systems. However, you can also use Patch Manager to apply patches to some applications on your managed nodes.
Linux
On Linux operating systems, Patch Manager uses the configured repositories for updates, and doesn't differentiate between operating systems and application patches. You can use Patch Manager to define which repositories to fetch updates from. For more information, see How to specify an alternative patch source repository (Linux).
Windows
On Windows Server managed nodes, you can apply approval rules, as well as Approved and Rejected patch exceptions, for applications released by Microsoft, such as Microsoft Word 2016 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2016. For more information, see Working with custom patch baselines.
Difference 5: Rejected patch list options in custom patch baselines
When you create a custom patch baseline, you can specify one or more patches for a Rejected patches list. For Linux managed nodes, you can also choose to allow them to be installed if they're dependencies for another patch allowed by the baseline.
Windows Server, however, doesn't support the concept of patch dependencies. You can add a patch to the Rejected patches list in a custom baseline for Windows Server, but the result depends on (1) whether or not the rejected patch is already installed on a managed node, and (2) which option you choose for Rejected patches action.
Refer to the following table for details about rejected patch options on Windows Server.
| Installation status | Option: "Allow as dependency" | Option: "Block" |
|---|---|---|
| Patch is already installed | Reported status: INSTALLED_OTHER |
Reported status: INSTALLED_REJECTED |
| Patch is not already installed | Patch skipped | Patch skipped |
Each patch for Windows Server that Microsoft releases typically contains all the
information needed for the installation to succeed. Occasionally, however, a
prerequisite package might be required, which you must install manually.
Patch Manager doesn't report information about these prerequisites. For related
information, see Windows Update issues troubleshooting
