Trying to get my head around how SUPs work

Hi fellas,
Completely new to SCCM (well, I've had some training, but still quite green). I had some general questions about Software Update Points and best practices.
1. When creating a SUP, would it be wise to select all classifications for all necessary products to synchronize, and then just use filters to select what you actually want to download and deploy? It seems to me that if you can filter according
to product, classification, and many other criteria, then for synchronization you should cast as wide a net as possible since you're just syncing, not downloading. Anybody agree with that? Or does this unnecessarily tax the SQL Server?
2. When using a GPO to point clients to the SUP as its designated Windows Update source, what happens when a user manually searches for updates using his Windows Update agent? Is there a recommended Group Policy setting for the WUA on all clients,
such as completely disabling the user's ability to use it?
3. When you deploy a deployment package of updates to a specified collection of clients, what happens to an offline client when it comes back online? I would assume it picks up the deployed content on its next Software Updates Deployment Evaluation
Cycle. Is that correct?
4. I'm not sure I understand compliance. I understand that it shows a percentage of clients that have the update installed, but which clients is it talking about? All machines that have the ConfigMgr client installed within the boundary
group assigned to the server hosting the SUP? Secondly, how can you find out
which clients are non-compliant?
5. Am I correct in this? When you right-click an un-downloaded software update group and hit Download, it just downloads the updates to the distribution point. When you right-click an un-downloaded software update group and hit Deploy,
it downloads the updates to the DP AND deploys it to a specified collection. Right?
6. Scenario: You deploy a group of updates to a collection. They don't install. What log can you look at to troubleshoot this?
I appreciate your help. We are working with SCCM 2012 R2, incidentally.

1. When creating a SUP, would it be wise to select all classifications for all necessary products to synchronize, and then just use filters to select what you actually want to download and deploy?
Generally, yes. But do NOT select the "Drivers" update classification!
It seems to me that if you can filter according to product, classification, and many other criteria, then for synchronization you should cast as wide a net as possible since you're just syncing, not downloading.
Absolutely correct. Furthermore, you can only get compliance state information on updates that are actually synchronized to the SUP. If you intentionally exclude classifications, then it would be impossible to know whether those updates were needed/installed
or neither.
2. When using a GPO to point clients to the SUP as its designated Windows Update source
The CMAgent takes care of pointing the clients to the SUP via LOCAL policy. Generally the only thing you'll want to do in the GPO (and there are differing opinions on this, so today I'm respecting the forum that I'm actually posting in) is to disable the automatic
updates checks that the WUAgent would do autonomously. (The CM SUAgent will trigger the WUA to do Software Update Scans according to the policy you configure on the Site Server.)
what happens when a user manually searches for updates using his Windows Update agent?
Possibly a lot of havoc. You should also block the ability of users to use those features via that GPO.
Is there a recommended Group Policy setting for the WUA on all clients, such as completely disabling the user's ability to use it?
Yes, in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication Settings, enable the policy
Turn off access to all Windows Update features.
3. When you deploy a deployment package of updates to a specified collection of clients, what happens to an offline client when it comes back online? I would assume it picks up the deployed content on its next Software Updates Deployment Evaluation
Cycle. Is that correct?
Yes. And I'll defer to the CM MVPs to answer the rest of your questions.
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCSA, MCITP:EA, MCDBA
SolarWinds Head Geek
Microsoft MVP - Software Packaging, Deployment & Servicing (2005-2014)
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/mvp/Lawrence%20R%20Garvin-32101
http://www.solarwinds.com/gotmicrosoft
The views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of SolarWinds.

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The customer is expecting the resulting table to contain rows even if no people (in Cognos) table have the age for the bucket (in tblContract), This is not happening. No rows are output in this case. I'm confused as to the effect of the DISTINCT and GROUP
BY and how this works combined with the ON and WHERE. As I understand it, the ON does the join and the WHERE filters the joined tables. But when does the DISTINCT and GROUP BY come into effect? Can anyone clarify this?
SELECT DISTINCT tblContractAge.Seq AS [order], tblContractAge.Seq, tblContractAge.CMS, Cognos.Primary_Ahcccs_Id AS [Primary Ahcccs Id], Cognos.Title, tblContractAge.Age_range, tblContractAge.Service_Delivery, IIf([cognos].[title]='Title XXI',0,IIf([FPL_Percent]='0
- 100',1,0)) AS [0-100], IIf([cognos].[title]='Title XXI',1,IIf([FPL_Percent]='101 - 200',1,0)) AS [101-200], 1 AS Ever_Enrolled, Cognos.New9 AS New, Cognos.Disenrolled, IIf([Disenrolled]=1,0,1) AS EligAtEnd, Cognos.Member_Months, Cognos.Sex, Cognos.Race,
Cognos.Ethnicity INTO mtblDistribute
FROM tblContractAge LEFT JOIN Cognos ON (tblContractAge.[Contract Type] = Cognos.[Contract_Type]) AND (tblContractAge.Title = Cognos.Title)
WHERE (((IIf([cognos].[age]-Fix([cognos].[age])>0.999,Round([cognos].[age],0),Fix([cognos].[age])))=[tblContractAge].[age])) OR ((Cognos.Title='Title XXI adult'))
GROUP BY tblContractAge.Seq, tblContractAge.CMS, Cognos.Primary_Ahcccs_Id, Cognos.Title, tblContractAge.Age_range, tblContractAge.Service_Delivery, IIf([cognos].[title]='Title XXI',0,IIf([FPL_Percent]='0 - 100',1,0)), IIf([cognos].[title]='Title
XXI',1,IIf([FPL_Percent]='101 - 200',1,0)), 1, Cognos.New9, Cognos.Disenrolled, IIf([Disenrolled]=1,0,1), Cognos.Member_Months, Cognos.Sex, Cognos.Race, Cognos.Ethnicity, tblContractAge.Seq;

As I understand it, the ON does the join and the WHERE filters the joined tables. But when does the DISTINCT and GROUP BY come into effect? Can anyone clarify this?
DISTINCT is to output a single record when there are multiple identical ones.
GROUP BY is the roll up level when doing SUM, MIN, MAX, AVG, COUNT, etc.
I do not understand what you are doing with the [Cognos].[age] in the WHERE. Do you have decimal ages?
Build a little, test a little

Trying to get a Trigger and Alert to work

So im trying to get a trigger to work with an alert and the Alert seems to be right and the trigger complies which seems right to me, however the instruction that I have in my book does not produce the same output that I get from my Update.
Here is the deal. I am to log into sql * with a default account as well as login as "SYSTEM"
the trigger should invoke the Alert and output a message to re-order some more product and the status should = 0 since there is no wait time. However I don't get a "Message" from the Alert and the status = 1 which indicates timeout. So if you can take a look at my code and let me know what I did wrong or how to "Connect" the two that would be great.
Trigger I created.
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER order_replace_trg
AFtER UPDATE OF stock on bb_product
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (OLD.stock = 24 AND NEW.stock = -2)
DECLARE
stock NUMBER(5,1);
idproduct NUMBER(2);
lv_msg_txt VARCHAR2(25);
lv_status_num NUMBER(1);
reorder NUMBER(3);
BEGIN
IF stock <> 24 AND reorder = 25 THEN
lv_msg_txt := 'Product 4 Reorder Time!';
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(lv_msg_txt);
ELSE
lv_status_num := 0;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(lv_status_num);
END IF;
END;
The Alert:
BEGIN
DBMS_ALERT.REGISTER('reorder');
END;
DECLARE
lv_msg_txt VARCHAR2(25);
lv_status_num NUMBER(1);
BEGIN
DBMS_ALERT.WAITONE('reorder', lv_msg_txt, lv_status_num, 120);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Alert: ' ||lv_msg_txt);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Status: ' ||lv_status_num);
END;
Here is the block I need to run to test the trigger and alert.
UPDATE bb_product
SET stock = stock -2
WHERE idproduct = 4;
COMMIT;
The message I should get is:
Alert: Product 4 Reorder Time!
Status: 0
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
This is what I get.
SQL> /
Alert:
Status: 1
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Thanks for your help!
Mac

Right. Register says "I'm interested in getting alerted to some particular event", Waitone says "I'm waiting until some event happens". Signal is the key thing that indicates that a particular event happened.
As for your trigger, a couple of issues
- I don't know why you're calling DBMS_OUTPUT. I'm guessing that you probably want to send a message along with your alert that the receiver gets and displays, not that you want to print a message to the window from inside the trigger.
- You're using the local variables stock and reorder in your IF statement but you never initialize them. I'm guessing that you would want to eliminate those local variables and just use :new.stock and :new.reorder (assuming that REORDER is a column in the table).
- Your WHEN clause doesn't seem to make sense. It's telling the trigger to fire only if you update stock from 24 to -2, which doesn't make sense. I'm not sure you would even need a WHEN clause here.
Justin

Trying to get my head around how SUPs work

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