SCCM SCUP – Manage SCUP software update catalogs

This post details the steps to manage SCUP software update catalogs. In my previous post, we saw the steps to install and configure SCUP. SCUP is a stand-alone tool to manage third party updates. Furthermore when you integrate with SCCM, updates can be managed very efficiently. When you install and launch SCUP tool, you basically see four options.

1. Updates Workspace.
2. Publications Workspace.
3. Rules Workspace.
4. Catalogs Workspace.

We will be discussing more about Catalogs Workspace in this post. First of all let’s understand what is catalogs workspace. To manage software update catalogs we use the Catalogs Workspace. In the same workspace we can add new catalogs. After adding new catalogs we can managing existing catalog subscriptions. We can also import info about these updates from a catalog to SCUP repository.

SCCM SCUP – Manage SCUP software update catalogs

In the section we will see how to manage SCUP software update catalog. This includes adding catalogs, importing them and publishing the updates. We call an update as third party update that has not come from Microsoft. A lot of organizations such as Dell, HP have got updates too. Therefore to deliver the updates, these vendors register their catalogs with Microsoft. Registered catalogs from software vendors are called partner catalogs. Catalogs that you create, and that aren’t registered with Microsoft, are called user catalogs.

Manage SCUP software update catalogs – Add Catalogs in SCUP

As a first step we will add catalogs in SCUP. Click Catalog Workspace. Next click Add Catalogs button.

Select the partner catalog and click Add. When you click any catalog, at the bottom you find some useful info. This includes Download URL, Support URL, Description.

You will now see catalog added under Selected Partner Catalogs. In addition you can also select more catalogs and add them to the list.

Manage SCUP software update catalogs – Import Catalogs in SCUP

To import updates in SCUP, click Catalogs Workspace. On the top ribbon click Import.

Select the catalogs that you have added. These catalogs will be imported. Click Next.

[su_note note_color=”#f2dede” text_color=”#a94442″ radius=”0″] Note – If you choose to always accept catalogs from a publisher, that publisher is added to the trusted publishers list.[/su_note]

The import catalog step is complete. We can see that 41 updates were processed and imported.

To see the imported updates, click Updates Workspace. Under All Software Updates expand the folders. You will see list of updates here.

Manage SCUP software update catalogs – Publish Updates in SCUP

In the above steps, we saw the steps to import and add catalogs to SCUP. We will now see how to publish the updates. The steps are simple. Select any of the update that you want to publish. Right click and select Publish.

Specify Publish Options :- There are 3 options that you see here. They are almost self explanatory. However read this before you select the publish option.

1. Automatic – Select this option if SCUP and ConfigMgr are integrated. This option determines whether selected software updates are published with either full content or only metadata.
2. Full Content – Choose this option to deploy software updates using SCCM. After selecting this option, SCUP publishes binary and metadata of software update.
3. Metadata Only – Select this option to collect only compliance information for selected updates. Because we have selected only Metadata, software binaries aren’t published.

Since I have configured SCUP and SCCM integration, I will select Full Content and click Next.

This is just the confirmation page. Click Next.

The updates are now in the process of publishing.

Publishing updates is now complete. Click Close.