How an update strategy is determined

Updates can be accomplished using many methods. You can use update tasks, manual updates, login scripts, or schedule updates with management tools. This section describes using the update task. Any other methods are beyond the scope of this guide.

An efficient updating strategy generally requires that at least one client or server in your organization retrieve updates from the McAfee download site. From there, the files can be replicated throughout your organization, providing access for all other computers. Ideally, you should minimize the amount of data transferred across your network by automating the process of copying the updated files to your share sites.

The main factors to consider for efficient updating are the number of clients and the number of sites. You might also consider the number of systems at each remote site and how remote sites access the Internet. However, the basic concepts of using a central repository to retrieve updates and scheduling update tasks to keep your environment up-to-date apply to any size organization.

Using an update task allows you to:

• Schedule network-wide DAT file rollouts at convenient times and with minimal intervention from either administrators or network users. You might, for example, stagger your update tasks, or set a schedule that phases in, or rotates, DAT file updates to different parts of the network.
• Split duties for rollout administration among different servers or domain controllers, among different regions of wide-area networks, or across other network divisions. Keeping update traffic primarily internal can also reduce the potential for network security breaches.
• Reduce the waiting time required to download new DAT or upgraded engine files. Traffic on McAfee computers increases dramatically on regular DAT file publishing dates and whenever new product versions are available. Avoiding the competition for network bandwidth enables you to deploy your new software with minimal interruptions.