Overview
The Linux Firmware Update Policy manages how firmware updates are discovered and applied on enrolled Linux devices. It controls which firmware update providers the Swif agent uses when checking for and installing firmware updates.
This Linux policy can be used for both:
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Linux devices
Company-owned Linux devices
Supported platform:
Linux
What this policy does
When you configure the Linux Firmware Update Policy and assign it to devices:
The Swif agent on each Linux device reads the configured settings.
It uses the specified firmware providers to:
Check for available firmware updates.
Apply firmware updates according to what those providers support.
This provides a centralized way to standardize firmware update sources across your Linux fleet.
Policy settings
1. Firmware Providers (firmwareProviders)
Display name: Firmware Providers
Type: List (array) of strings
Required: Optional
Supported platform: Linux
Description
Specifies which firmware providers should be used by the agent when checking and applying firmware updates on Linux devices.
Each entry in this list is the name/identifier of a firmware provider that the Swif agent knows how to use. Multiple providers can be specified; the agent will use all configured providers when performing firmware checks and updates.
If no providers are configured, the agent may be unable to perform firmware update checks, depending on your environment and provider setup.
Example use cases
Standardize on one provider
Configure a single provider to ensure all Linux devices use the same update source for firmware.Layer multiple providers
Provide several providers to cover different types of hardware or different firmware ecosystems in your environment.
Ownership and applicability
Owners:
Company-managed devices
BYOD devices
Minimum system requirements:
Linux
This policy only applies to devices running Linux. It is safe to assign it to mixed-platform groups; non-Linux devices will ignore it.
Best practices
Start with a test group
Apply the policy to a small set of Linux devices to validate that firmware updates behave as expected with your chosen providers.Document provider usage
Keep an internal list of which firmware providers you configure and which hardware or distributions they are intended to support.Monitor after rollout
After enabling the policy for more devices, monitor:Firmware update success/failure rates
Any device stability issues that may correlate with new firmware being applied