Once we are finished with the preparation, we will have a look at how we can use VCM to automatically populate specific machine groups so that they can be patched automatically on a schedule. As discussed in the introduction of the chapter, if you are using vRealize Automation and vRealize Orchestrator to deploy new VMs, you can use them to create a registry entry that will be captured by VCM during the initial data collection. Based on that registry entry, individual VMs will be placed in their respective machine groups, which will be used for automated patching.
If you are not using an automated deploy tool to create registry entries, you have to devise a way to manually populate the machine groups every time a new machine/server is deployed.