SMS ITMU Deployment Guidance for October Security Releases

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This is just a quick article to let you know that all Microsoft security updates released for the month of October are detected and deployable using the new SMS Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) available for download at https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/tools/msupdates.mspx.

There is one interesting deployment scenario that I want to make SMS administrators aware of this month.

One update, Security Update for Windows XP (KB902400), is broken into to two distinctly deployable entities in the SMS Administrator Console. One of the updates targets XP SP1 with a severity rating of Critical. The other update targets XP SP2 with a severity rating of Moderate. When you select either one of these updates for approval, you will receive a message in the admin console that both of these uniquely deployable updates are intended to be deployed as a bundle. If you do not have one or the other service pack in your environment or just want to identify which is which, the following information should help you out:

Security Update for Windows XP (KB902400)

Unique Update ID: 8eed21a4-d10b-458d-b51a-1c2aab4ef14a
Deployable to Windows XP SP2 only

Unique Update ID: 1ede20f3-9cb8-4e3a-a93a-2d22bc76df59
Deployable to Windows XP SP1 only

ITMU introduces the concept of bundles. The DSUW or Administrator Console can provide you information about updates that are intended to be deployed together and what their individual unique update ID's are. You can find this information in the Software Updates node of the main console tree. In the DSUW's Add and Remove Updates screen, you can use the Information button for any bundled update to get extended property information (like the above unique update ID's).

For more information about bundle handling in ITMU, check out this great video tutorial: https://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/showmehow/082305.asx