Putting It All Together—A Quick-Start Example
Getting
started with Software Updates can definitely be a bit confusing at
first. The following example steps you through the initial
configuration for a pilot group of workstations:
1. | Create a collection for the pilot systems (called Pilot Systems in this example). Add the identified systems to the collection using direct rules.
|
2. | Create a deployment template to store the settings for deployments targeted to this collection. Use the following settings:
- Template Name— Pilot Systems Deployment Template
- Collection— Pilot Systems
- Display/Time Settings— Allow display notification on clients; Client local time; 2-week duration
- Restart Settings— None selected
- Event Generation— None
- Download Settings— Do not install software updates; Download software updates from unprotected distribution point and install
- SMS 2003 Settings— None
|
3. | Create a search folder to list all the updates for Windows with the following parameters:
- Superseded— No
- Expired— No
- Products— Windows XP, Windows Vista
- Search all folders under this feature— Yes
- Name— All Current Windows XP and Vista Updates
|
4. | Select
the search folder you just created in the console tree under Search
Folders. The updates meeting the criteria just specified appear in the
Details pane on the right. Select the updates, right-click, and choose
Update List. The resulting Update List Wizard creates an update list
and a deployment package then downloads the updates for you. Use the
following settings for the Update List Wizard:
On the first page of the wizard, create a new update list and name it All Windows XP and Vista Updates List. Select the Download the files associated with the selected software updates check box at the bottom of the page. On the next page of the wizard, choose to create a new package and name it All Windows XP and Vista Updates.
Fill in the location to create the package. Note that this location
should be empty, the current user must have write access to the
location, and ConfigMgr creates the folders if they do not currently
exist. Choose which distribution points to copy the package to. Choose Download updates from the Internet. Verify the languages selected and correct them if necessary.
|
5. | After
the downloads complete (which in this case may take more than an hour),
right-click the update list All Windows XP and Vista Updates List that
you just created and choose Deploy Software Updates. Use the following
settings for the Deploy Software Updates Wizard:
- Name— All Windows XP and Vista Updates to Pilot Systems
- Deployment Template— Pilot Systems Deployment Template
- Schedule—
Choose As soon as possible for availability and then adjust the
deadline to your liking. Note that this deadline is exactly 2 weeks (to
the minute) from the time you launched the wizard because the
deployment template specified a 2-week deadline.
|
That’s
it. The patches you selected and put into the All Windows XP and Vista
updates list are now queued for delivery to your pilot systems and are
automatically deployed at the time you specified for the deadline.
Going
forward, every time Microsoft releases new updates, start at step 3 of
this process, creating or using a new search folder to identify the new
patches. You can use the search folder shown later in Figure 3 and described in the “Update Repository”
section as a model, creating a search folder that shows only the newest
updates each month or by whatever timeframe you choose.
