Moving from WSUS to SCCM12, users experiencing a lot of problems

Question

I just have to ask:
Is Microsoft Security Software Updates from Windows Update installed the EXACT same way when it comes from SCCM12 compared to downloaded from WSUS servers?
In my experience, it does not seem so. I have now ran this for 2 months and we have
experienced a LOT of problems. The problems are: Office updates seem to stop Microsoft Outlook from contacting server, and Software Center shows that the computer is waiting for a restart or updates seemingly to be stuck on 0% and other
problems.
This solution was set up in cooperation with an experienced CM-consultant from Microsoft.
I have never ever seen that Microsoft updates break Outlook, even SP1-upgrades when they come from the Windows update service. I wonder if updates are installed differently when using CM12?

Answer 1

With ConfigMgr, WSUS is only responsible for providing the update catalog (and EULAs) to the managed systems. Actual updates (the binaries) are delivered using the ConfigMgr infrastructure.
As explicitly stated by Torsten above, the Windows Update Agent (WUA) on managed systems performs the update applicability scan against the update catalog and installs the updates that ConfigMgr delivers to the managed system. Also note that the binaries
that ConfigMgr delivers are downloaded from the exact same place that WSUS would download them so these are the same also just delivered using a slightly different mechanism. Thus, from the managed system's perspective, there is no difference whatsoever except
in when the process happens.
The GPO you speak of isn't pointing the WUA to your ConfigMgr server, it's pointing it to the WSUS instance controlled by the SUP role in ConfigMgr. In its default state/configuration, the ConfigMgr agent sets a local group policy for this. Using a domain
group policy would simply overwrite this but it is still controlling where the WUA points to get the update catalog regardless of which policy is enforced.
Thus, once again, it's the same thing as far as the managed system is concerned.
Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | @jasonsandys