Backup recommendations prior to applying Windows security updates

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark Heywood
  • Start date Start date
M

Mark Heywood

Hi

What backups are recommended before applying security updates to a Windows
2000 / 2003 server ?

Is backing up the System State sufficient to always enable the update to be
rolled back if necessary ?
(I thought it would be if it includes the registry, system files and boot
files)

One company I am working with wants us to shutdown the servers and take an
image of the whole system partition (C:) before applying each new security
update.

There are SLA's in place with big penalties so I want to be sure before we
change the process.

Thanks
Mark.
 
One company I am working with wants us to shutdown the servers and take an
image of the whole system partition (C:) before applying each new security
update.
Click to expand...

While I don't do that myself it is an easy process that only takes 10-30 minutes if you
get a fast ghosting program. If disruption of services is costly there is considerable
justification to taking this cautious approach. I have a stack of old hard drives
on my shelf that I use for similar purposes. These days a spare hard drive is
one of the cheapest media for backing up a system, and most hard drives come
with a ghosting program as well.

The April updates were notorious for causing systems to become unbootable,
and you do need to boot up before uninstalling any patch.
 
Back
Top