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Major configuration changes or the addition of services require a vetting of the changed system and services by the NCSA Security team. The Security team reviews the configuration for adherence to best practices and runs vulnerability scanning tools against the changed service.

Patching Types

Standard 

Critical

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Standard

Standard patches are performed during regular quarterly outages and include basic OS updates (including security patches) and other updates from vendors. A full vulnerability scan is performed again after any of these planned maintenances (PM). Some software patches do not require downtime and may be done sooner than the next quarterly. 

Urgent

Urgent patches could be from a critical security vulnerability that cannot be mitigated or for something that destabilizes the system or a component. When possible these are done in a rolling update to avoid complete system outages, but it can require and entire unplanned outage.

Special Request

Customers may have special requests for updated packages or libraries. If this is any change beyond a simple update of a minor software version, it goes through the standard change control process. Otherwise a ticket with the request is sufficient, and it is at the Systems Team's discretion how and when to roll out the update.