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Integrate Patch Manager with existing SCCM

jluckey

Our organization is looking to integrate PM with our existing WSUS and SCCM environment.

Our current environment has PM 1.85 and SCCM 2007 R3

We currently only use PM to patch our servers and we'd like to start using it to patch our desktops.

Are there any "gotchas" or things we should look out for?

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LGarvin

Generally, no, but a few points need to be clarified before that answer can be authoritative.

You note that you're currently using PM v1.85 and CM2007R3 to patch only the servers, but that statement is somewhat contradictory. When used with Configuration Manager, Patch Manager does not actually deploy patches, it only provides third-party updates to Configuration Manager. It is Configuration Manager that actually deploys the patches. Also, typically, third-party updates do not apply to servers, so we don't actually see this particular scenario very often.

From this comes two questions:

Are you using Configuration Manager (with a Software Update Point) to deploy updates to your servers?
Or, are you using a standalone WSUS with Patch Manager to deploy updates, and Configuration Manager is totally irrelevant to the patch management scenario?

As for adding desktops into that mix, then, the specific answer to your question heavily depends on what you're actually doing now. :-)

jluckey

Actually, I probably didn't word my concerns correctly.

I'm mainly talking about using PM to enhance our ability to push updates to the desktops in our environment.

We currently use PM to push updates to servers and SCCM/WSUS to push updates to desktops.

I'd like to find a way to combine the two.

We are fully licensed for 8000 seats and we're just using approx 350 seats.

LGarvin

Generally speaking, if you're using Configuration Manager (with a Software Update Point) to deploy updates then Patch Manager is not really a tool that provides functionality in that environment.

There are a couple of special-case scenarios that Patch Manager can contribute to an SCCM/WSUS scenario, and these blog posts discuss them.

Reporting: Using Patch Manager Reporting for Update Compliance in Configuration Manager
On-Demand Update Deployment: Deploy Microsoft Updates to Configuration Manager Clients Without Building Deployment Packages

If you're already using Patch Manager to deploy updates to servers, then I must assume you're doing that with a standalone WSUS server, not as a function of Configuration Manager.

Combining the two would first require a decision as to which patch management methodology to use:

Either patch everything using a standalone WSUS with Patch Manager as the deployment tool.
Or patch everything using Configuration Manager Software Updates with WSUS configured as the SCCM Software Update Point (and Patch Manager is merely a content provider for 3rd party updates)