Strange Patching behavior

john_quinn75013 · 11-04-2008, 03:23 PM

I have a question about the behavior of the Patch Management solution with reference to installing via Windows Update.

I have prepared all my 2008 patches in the solution and they are currently applied against my test collection.

I took a new machine and put my image on it. I then went into Windows Updates and applied ALL applicable patches available. The only the that was left was a Dell patch for the monitor it was attached to.

I then installed the NS Agent and after it went through its motions, it came back and reported that 2 patches were not installed (MS08-062 and KB953839). Of course the Agent did apply the patch as i would expect.

But my question is how did Altiris know of these patches and Windows update did not? I'm probably missing something very simple here, but any insight would be appreciated.

LordofthePatch · 11-08-2008, 10:24 AM

Hello John,

Currently there is a known issue with MS08-062. The patch should only be installed when IIS is configured on the machine, which is currently not taken into consideration. I believe the update still installs successfully, however, "technically" it is not needed. This will be fixed in next week's PMImport CAB file.

As for KB953839, I am not aware of any known issues. Do you know if it was one of the updates that you had previously installed via Windows Update?

john_quinn75013 · 11-10-2008, 10:13 AM

I appreciate the input about this. On MS08-062, yes it does install successfully, but does so even if IIS is not installed on the machine. Good to know the next PMImport will correct it. It will give me a chance to test it out before I fully deploy out.

On KB953839, I did not look specifically at everything that installed beforehand. What I did was take my image and after it was laid down, I still have about 18 patches through Windows Update to deploy and chose to install all. Then when the NS Agent checked in for patches, this one was there and installed.

It certainly was not one of the patches I did install because when I noticed it the first time I went through the install history and it was not there.

Very strange.