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1. How does your company deal with updating client and servers with the latest patches?



We currently roll out all critical patches using kix scripting (of course). The server are all done manualy. All the different depts in IS are responsible for their own servers (citrix,sql,web,etc...) and there is usually one person that keeps track of progress.

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2. How do you roll these patches out ?



Using kixtart scripts...Every location has their own login script so we can roll them out a few sites at a time. That way if there any unexpected problems we can still keep it under control rather tham pushing them out company wide all at once. All the patches are applied at login with a nice little splash screen telling the user a patch is being applied and that their computer will reboot once it finishes.

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3. How do you know what client has the patch installed ?



I always use the registry key to verify patch isntallation. The MS articles almost always give you a key to check for. If not you can always use getfileversion, as in the case of the MDAC update. Ive also written a kixforms app that allows you to scan an entire subnet (local or remote) and it will report all unpatched and patched systems.