Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Managing software updates includes determining what software updates to deploy, deploy-
ing the updates to client devices, and then monitoring the results of the software updates
deployment. To improve efficiency and consistency of software updates management, you
can use software update groups.
Software update groups
A software update group is a logical collection of software updates that can be deployed as a
single unit.
Using a software update group has many advantages, including the following:
■
Ensuring ease of management when you deploy multiple updates
You can use
a software update group to organize multiple software updates into a single object
that a deployment can reference for targeted collections. You can run the Download
Software Updates Wizard based on a software update group and then create a deploy-
ment package. This package references specific software-update installation files and
then distributes the files to distribution points. You also can use the Deploy Software
Updates Wizard for a software update group to deploy the updates within that soft-
ware update group to a targeted collection.
■
Providing easy tracking capabilities for the compliance status for multiple
updates
A software update group includes only the software updates that you add.
You can use the software update group to monitor the compliance status for target
systems. In addition, when you use software update groups to create deployment
packages, you can use reports such as the Compliance 1 - Overall Compliance and the
Compliance 3 - Update Group (per update) to obtain status for each software update
within the group.
■
Enabling the delegation of software update administration
Using a software
update group enables you to delegate the administration of software updates. For
each software update group, you can set one or more security scopes, which you then
can reference when you add an administrative user to whom you assign the Software
Update Manager security role.
To create a software update group, select one or more updates and then, on the ribbon,
click Create Software Update Group. In the Create Software Update Group dialog box, you
can set options for a group name and description.
You can add software updates to an existing software update group by selecting the
update and then clicking the Edit Membership button on the Home tab on the ribbon. This
displays a list of available software update groups that you can then select as required.
