Updates Publisher 2011

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, System Center Essentials 2010

System Center Updates Publisher 2011 is a stand-alone tool that enables independent software vendors or line-of-business application developers to import software updates from external catalogs, create and modify software update definitions, export software updates to external catalogs, and publish software updates to a configured update server. By using Updates Publisher 2011 to manage software updates and publish them to the update server, administrators can begin detecting and deploying published updates to client and server computers when using System Center Configuration Manager and System Center Essentials.

Updates Publisher 2011 supports software updates that have dependencies, such as drivers and update bundles. Catalogs that contain these types of updates can be imported for publication to an update server, as well as exported to an external catalog.

Updates Publisher 2011 enables administrators to do the following:

  • Import catalogs created by non-Microsoft organizations or created from within the administrator's organization.

  • Create applicability and deployment metadata for software updates.

  • Export software update catalogs so that they can be imported by Updates Publisher 2011 at another location, or export a test catalog to verify that the rules for the updates work as expected. (Software updates that have dependencies cannot be exported for testing.)

  • Manage software updates information.

For more information about Updates Publisher, see System Center Updates Publisher.

In This Section

The following sections provide information to install and use Updates Publisher 2011.

  • Configuring System Center Updates Publisher 2011
    Provides procedures for setting configuration options that define how Updates Publisher 2011 manages software updates, such as Update Server options, Configuration Manager options, trusted publisher options, proxy setting options, and more.
  • Managing Software Updates Catalogs
    Describes the Catalogs workspace and procedures to subscribe to software updates catalogs (including partner catalogs), to edit catalog subscriptions, and to import software updates from catalogs into the Updates Publisher 2011 repository. After the software updates are imported into the repository, you can publish or export them to an external catalog.
  • Managing Software Updates
    Describes the Updates workspace and procedures to create software updates and software update bundles, to publish a software update, to assign a software update or bundle to a publication, and more.
  • Managing Publications
    Describes the Publications workspace and procedures to publish a publication, export a publication, and to remove software updates from a publication.
  • Managing Applicability Rules
    Describes the Rules workspace and procedures to create rule sets, and to create, edit, save, and delete individual rules in a rule set.
  • Managing Security for System Center Updates Publisher 2011
    Provides procedures for configuring a self-signing certificate on the client computer, for configuring the certificate store on the update server, and for configuring Group Policy to allow Windows Update Agent 3.0 on computers to scan for published updates.