There are three basic steps to selecting updates:
- First, make sure you are downloading all of the updates you care about
- Changes in your environment may require adding products such as a new version of Windows or SQL, so you should review this every month
- Second, review the newly available updates
- Review all categories you have selected, not just security updates or critical updates
- Compare to reports of installed products or other material to decide which are relevant to your environment
- Third, decide how you will deploy the updates
- Separate deployments for workstations and servers are normal, so separate Update Lists would make that easier
- Separate deployments for selected groups of machines may be needed to reduce the impact on network and DPs
- Some non-security updates may require separate deployments because of testing and change management requirements
- The goal is to minimize the chance of mistakes
Each of those basic steps are described in greater detail below.
First, make sure you are downloading all of the updates you care about
- These settings are in the console go to Site Settings, Component Configuration, Software Update Point Component Properties
- The Classifications tab selects broad categories of updates
- Include all categories you might want to know about, not only security updates
- The Products tab lists all products that have been identified to Config Manager
- Select all that exist in your environment
- Keep in mind that products installed and products listed may be changed without notice
- Your Test Lab may include products that are not in production yet
- The Languages tab lists all languages that may be available
- By default only English is selected
- Include any other languages installed on any products in your environment
====Second, review the newly available updates====
- Create a search folder under Computer Management, Software Updates, Update Repository, Search Folders that will display all recent updates
- Steve Pruitt likes to use 2 months since Date Revised - this should show everything since and including last month's deployments, in case anything came out or was revised after the last deployment
- Garth Jones uses Date Released = Last 1 month, and Date Revised = Last 1 Month
- Chris Stauffer added expired = no and Superceded = no for the year search
- Decide which updates are appropriate in your environment
- You may want to create another Search Folder containing just the selected items, if the two-month list contains so many items that a targeted list will make the following steps easier
- Such a folder would be used only during the deployment process, and deleted the following month
====Third, decide how you will deploy the updates====
- All decisions are specific to your environment, deployment strategies, policies, organization, etc -- decide what's best for your environment, not someone else's
- Separate deployments for workstations and servers are normal
- Separate deployments for selected groups of machines may be needed to reduce the impact on network and DPs
- Some non-security updates may require separate deployments because of testing and change management requirements