Overview

When deploying patches, LanGuard needs to download the setup files which it then pushes to targets and executes locally via a batch file (see Explaining LanGuard Patch Deployment Process). You want to know where these patches are stored, how much storage is needed, and how to manage this storage.

Solution

Note for Linux systems: The LanGuard server does not store any patches for Linux machines in a repository. These are downloaded directly from the internet via the Linux operating system's package manager. This is one of the reasons why an internet connection is a hard requirement for patching Linux machines.

You can check LanGuard's patch repository by navigating to Configuration > Patch Auto-Download > "click here" link in the page that displays. 

The default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\GFI\LanGuard 12\Repository and can be changed as per your requirements in the Patch Repository tab.

So if you have another drive with more storage, feel free to browse to a folder within it to set your repository location. You will be able to move any existing patches from the old repository to the new repository automatically with the prompt that is presented once you change the repository location.

Regardless of which storage location you use, the storage you will need varies quite a lot, depending on the different kinds of Operating Systems in use and what kinds of patches you scan for.

For example, when only scanning for Microsoft Windows updates (possible by creating a new custom scanning profile) a system with 500 Server 2019 machines will actually take up less storage than a system with 5 machines, one Server 2019, one Server 2016, one Server 2012 R2, one Windows 10, and one Windows 11. This is because LanGuard would need only 1 type of patch for the former system which it would then push out to 500 machines as opposed to the latter system where it needs 5 different types of patches each patch Tuesday.

The actual space you dedicate to the patches is completely up to your discretion and use case as explained above. Note that you can also choose to check the "Remove patches that have not been used for" box in the same window here you configure the repository location. This simply means that if a patch has not been pushed to any system for X amount of time (regardless of when the patch was actually published) it will be deleted from the repository. So if you have a patch from 2014 that you deployed on your Server 2012 R2 VM yesterday, it will not be deleted even if you selected the option to remove patches that have not been used for 6 months. It will be deleted 6 months later if you do not deploy that patch to any other system via LanGuard.

For more cleanup tips, refer to Cleaning Up and Adjusting Configuration for Patch Repository Folder Filling up the Hard Drive.