RMM fundamentals: monitoring, alerts and patching

Skills you'll practise

• Write a monitoring condition with a clear threshold, duration and action
• Tune a noisy alert from evidence instead of silencing it
• Plan patch rings (pilot, broad, critical systems) with approvals and maintenance windows
• Decide how to handle an urgent, actively exploited vulnerability outside the normal cycle
• Verify patch results and follow up failures and pending reboots

Course outline

1. 1.Monitoring conditions that mean somethingLesson · 15 min
2. 2.Alert tuning without going blindLesson · 12 min
3. 3.Patch rings, approvals and follow-upLesson · 20 min
4. 4.RMM fundamentals: monitoring, alerts and patching: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 15 questions
5. 5.The pilot ring breaks the practice softwareScenario
6. 6.Final exam9 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out

Sources it draws on

The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.

• NIST SP 800-40 Rev. 4: Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Planning (2022)
• CIS Critical Security Controls v8.1 (Control 5 Account Management, Control 6 Access Control Management incl. 6.5 Require MFA for Administrative Access, Control 7 Continuous Vulnerability Management)
• General MSP remote monitoring and management practice