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Managing monthly updates in SCCM

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Introduction

 

In this guide I will show you one way of updating your monthly updates released from Microsoft on the second Tuesday of every Month. Many different scenarios can be followed to deploy software updates. In this example, we will use a Software Updates Deployment Package called All Windows XP Updates to store the updates we want made available to our XP machines. We will create a new Deployment Management Task to deploy the new updates, and we will clean up our previous Deployment Management Tasks and remove any expired updates referenced in it by deleting them. As we are not using Update Lists in this guide we will not be concerned with reporting, but if you want to report on the status of your Updates, you should use Update Lists as Part of your Process.

 

 

all_windows_xp_updates_deployment_package.jpg

 

This Deployment Package had been created earlier when setting up the Software Update Point, but you can create a new one if you need to.

 

We will use a Deployment Management task to start the deployment called All XP Updates.

 

all_xp_updates_deployment_management_task.jpg

 

and as you can see from the screenshot above it contains some updates which are expired and this is noticeable because of the Grey Icon.

 

icon_meanings.jpg

 

We will also use our Windows XP All Updates search folder which is created with the following Search Folder Criteria

 

search_folders.jpg

 

Step 1. Run a Synchronisation.

 

Expand your Software Updates node in configmgr, right click on Update Repository and choose Run Synchronisation. Answer Yes when prompted. You can verify that the synchronisation process has completed in the Site Status, Component Status, SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER log. Look for Message ID 6702 which is SMS WSUS Synchronization Done.

 

sync done.jpg

 

 

Step 2. Check our Deployment Package

 

To start off the monthly update process we need to first see what updates we currently have in our Deployment Package and remove any expired or superseded updates contained within.

 

Expand your Software Updates node in configmgr, expand the Deployment Packages node and highlight the All Windows XP Updates Deployment Package. Expand the Software Updates node within so that you can see what updates we have, click on the Bulletin ID heading to sort our updates.

 

bulletin_id.jpg

 

Take note of the Expired or Superseded updates and highlight them and once done right click and choose Delete. You can press CTRL while selecting these updates and don't forget to scroll so you see all updates.

 

delete_grey.jpg

 

We only want Green updates in our Deployment Package.

 

Click ok when prompted about the Delete process

 

the_selected_updates_will_be_removed_from_the_package.jpg

 

click ok if prompted about Deployment can fail process, this is ok as we will be updating the Deployment Management Task.

 

deployment_to_fail.jpg

 

At this point we now have removed all the expired updates so only green 'good' updates are left, sort the updates by BulletinID again and take note of the most recent one, in our case that is MS09-026

 

all green.jpg

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easy, just create two packages for XP,

 

one called Windows XP Security Updates (which includes the BulletID) and another called Windows XP All Updates, which does not include BulletinID and therefore shows all XP updates

 

like in this screenshot

 

post-1-1248891781.jpg

 

or are you trying to do something else ?

 

cheers

niall

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Looking at it some more, I think peopleu usually initially want to categorize everything on a month by month basis. Possible for any updates with MS0X bulletin IDs because you can specify "MS09" and "Date Released within 1 month", for example, but not possible for updates without Bulletin IDs. However I guess what you should just do is look at a larger collection of updates in a search folder, just arrange by Date Released and create Update Lists based on your results.

 

Those screenshots intrigue me though - what do you have under the Hotfixes and Applications subfolders...? :)

 

Cheers,

Mark.

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its my home lab which i don't have access to from work, but if i remember correctly applications is sccm 2007/sms 2003/sql server 2005 and sql server 2008/office 2003/office xp and office 2007, and the hotfixes search folder probably links to some hotfixes..., i'll take a look this evening and if anything cool in there i'll post it here

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Hello again!

 

Configuring Software Updates is going nicely, hopefully I'll be able to go live with it this month. One quick question though:

 

Am I right in thinking that by right clicking on a selection of updates listed in a Search Folder, choosing Download Updates and then selecting a pre-existing Deployment Package which is currently 'live' so to speak, that these new updates will be added and distributed to targeted machines right away, along with the existing updates within the chosen Deployment Package?

 

Cheers!

Mark.

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Thanks in part to the great articles and support here, my SCCM powered WSUS updates are flowing smooth like butter kept in the pantry. Many thanks!

 

So the last principal I'm getting my head around is the actual deployment. I have search folders, templates, lists, deployment packages, shares configured, etc.

 

Is there a way to reuse the same deployment? I ask because it seems it would be easier than having to delete the old deployments. Do you have any insights or strategies into managing the deployment themselves? I would imagine over time there would be many and that at any time you can delete any deployment and within minutes have new deployments created based on "dialed-in" templates and source packages. But if I could just re-use them by adding the new updates and updating my distro points...that would be even sexier.

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well i'll give you some ideas hopefully or maybe make you more confused hehe

 

if you are familiar with the way you normally advertise applications in SCCM then think of SUP kind of the same way,

 

* a deployment management task is the equivalent of an Advertisement

* a deployment package is the equivalent of a package

* a software update within a deployment package is similar to a program within a package

 

so... what does that tell us, well it kind of reminds us that advertisements are generally one time wonders

 

you can re-use the deployment package many times in your SUP and that's what I do, every month I add new updates and remove superseded or expired updates from the package, in addition the same thing is done to any deployment management task currently pointing at that package, lastly you create a new deployment management task (advertisement) for the new udpdates....

 

I will be doing a new post soon covering the use of Update Lists, watch this space...

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