What's New in ConfigMgr VNEXT - TP3 - SUP Model

Hey guys.  Its time for the second part of the series What's New in ConfigMgr VNEXT - TP3. read the first part here

http://delphintipz.blogspot.in/2015/09/whats-new-in-configmgr-vnext-tp3.html


 This time its about the SUP model in ConfigMgr vNext TP3. I was able to spend some time to work with SUP model and there are some interesting stuff. Those will eventually off load the engineers who do patching. The below are the changes / Enhancements I have noticed in vNext

1. WSUS cleanup can be done from within ConfigMgr console
2. Templates for ADR
3. ADR supports multiple deployments

1. WSUS cleanup
 In vNext,We have the option to schedule WSUS cleanup with a configured interval. This is actually kind of a good approach to deal with the Expired or orphaned content within WSUS and we all should be happy that Microsoft is at least trying to help us, But changing the way ConfigMgr client scans against the SUP would be the solution.

As seen in the screenshot, the option can be selected while installing the SUP and by default the interval at which the cleanup runs is 30 days.
The same can be seen in the wsyncmgr.log

Setting sync alert to active state on site DLP    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:38 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)
Sync time: 0d00h00m19s    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:38 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)
Skipping Delete Expired Update relations since this is not a scheduled sync.    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:38 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)
WSUS Cleanup wizard interval is : 30 days and time since last WSUS Clean wizard run is 16693 days. Calling WSUS Cleanup wizard.    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:38 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)
Successfully completed WSUS Cleanup wizard.    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:41 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)
Next scheduled sync is a retry sync at 9/15/2015 12:11:38 PM    SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER    9/15/2015 11:11:41 AM    3824 (0x0EF0)

 As this just is equivalent to launching the WSUS cleanup wizard from WSUS console, we need to take care of the superseded updates as we do in ConfigMgr 2012.

2. ADR Templates

Another interesting thing in vNext SUP model is that there are Pre-configured templates for ADR. This is not a quite a big improvement but we could see that Microsoft is trying to off load the engineers. We have 3 templates available by default, each one with different search criteria and custom schedule as the ADR rule.

1. Definition Updates
2. Patch Tuesday
3. CAMP Updates

Patch Tuesday

 Search Criteria : Update classification - Critical and Date revised
 Schedule           : Once in 30 days                                     

Definition Updates

Search Criteria : Definition updates for FEP / WIN Defeneder

Schedule           : Run the rule after any SUP synchronization

CAMP updates

Search Criteria : Critical updates for FEP

Schedule           : Once in a day

3. Multiple deployment in ADR

 In ConfigMgr 2012 we can have only one deployment for an ADR. If you want to differ in the deployment time or user notification etc.. for some clients, you actually need to create a new ADR.

But in vNext you don't have to create a new ADR. You can just keep on adding new deployments with different schedule, collection, user notification etc.. to an existing ADR. Cool isn't it ?.

The below screenshots illustrate how we can add multiple deployments for an ADR

With all these, there isn't a huge change in SUP model of Configmgr vNext yet, but there are things which can actually reduce some of the loads on the engineer..

Hope you enjoyed this !                                                                                               S A Delphin

Posted in: ConfigMgr