Patch Connect Plus – Third-party applications patching

This post talks about an interesting tool called Patch Connect Plus. Patch Connect Plus is a tool that helps deploy patches to over 250 third-party applications.

I get many queries on how to keep third-party apps updated. Many organizations today use SCCM to deploy Windows updates. However, one of the limitations of SCCM is its inability to patch non Microsoft applications.

Imagine an organization has got around 50 different third-party applications deployed. How would the IT ensure all the third-party applications are patched?

Patching third-party apps becomes inconvenience for IT admins in such cases. One has to look for other tools in addition to SCCM for deploying third-party applications. This is not only time-consuming but becomes more tedious as the list of applications grows.

Well, if you are in similar situation, this post will help you out. Patch Connect Plus integrates very well with Microsoft SCCM server. It allows you to patch third-party applications.

You can customize your deployment and view the complete SCCM deployment data. Furthermore, Patch Connect Plus also provides an option to publish patches via SCUP catalog.

Using the SCCM plugin, users now can access and deploy the entirety of third-party applications supported by Patch Connect Plus directly from the SCCM Console.

This tool helps deploy patches for applications such as Adobe, Java and WinRAR using your existing SCCM server. These are some of the basic apps that are used in most of the organizations.

You get a 30-day trial copy with all the features enabled. Of course before you set up the tool, check the hardware requirements and other prerequisites.

Patch Connect Plus is available in two variants. Patch Connect Plus for Microsoft SCCM and Patch Connect Plus for Microsoft SCUP.

Patch Connect Plus – Top features of Patch Connect Plus

We have talked about what is Patch Connect Plus and what it does. In this section we will see some top notch features of this tool.

Easy Installation and Setup

First of all installing and setting up patch connect plus tool is effortless. You install the tool on a member server and the wizard takes you through configuration.

Integrating SCCM, connecting to WSUS and assigning certs are the major steps. Most of all the configuration part is simple and doesn’t take much time to set up this up. Post setup using wizard you can configure following things.

• Model Select – Can be either SCUP catalog or SCCM infrastructure.
• Proxy Settings.
• WSUS Configuration.
• Certificate Settings.
• Select Applications.
• SCCM Settings.

Broadest third party patches database

ManageEngine maintains a huge database of third party updates. The database can be synchronized manually or can be scheduled. Updating the applications in a big organization is more time consuming. The tool supports patching for more than 300+ non-Microsoft apps. All this can be done using your SCCM server.

Deployment Customization

The usual way of deploying an application is package the app and then deploy. You can customize the deployment of 3rd party patches by creating deployment templates with ease. Once these templates are created, you can retain the templates and map them to different deployments.

These are a few examples of customization available.

• Skip the deployment if the application is already running.
• Uninstall recent old updates before deploying the new updates.
• Don’t display application icon in start menu after successful patch deployment.
• Do not add application task bar icon after successful patch deployment.
• Do not add application shortcut on the desktop after successful patch deployment.

Easy SCCM Integration

You can easily integrate the tool with Configuration Manager. The wizard requires basic SCCM server info and connects to SCCM. After integration, you can deploy third-party applications supported by Patch Connect Plus directly from the SCCM Console.

Deployment data report

The report offers insights on:

• All the missing patches in a system.
• All the systems in which a particular patch is missing.
• Missing system/Failed system/Installed system details.

Always stay ahead of third party updates

If you are using SCUP to deploy third-party updates, you need not worry here. Because synchronization with ManageEngine’s central patch repository happens every day. Hence, new updates are readily available for your systems.