When designing and implementing a methodology to manage software updates, administrators can also plan for and select appropriate hardware updates, thereby consolidating both functions into a single process that can help keep environments stable and reliable.

This article provides best-practices guidelines for those who manage, review or approve hardware updates for Dell servers or oversee Dell server-based data centers and test environments. The update process described in this article is based on a high-level, four-stage patch management process model. The four phases are:

• Assess
• Identify
• Evaluate and plan
• Deploy

Download Applying Updates for Dell PowerEdge Servers Using Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Part 1 now.