SCHEDULED: Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) client upgrade, 10/26-11/6

The Information Technologies & Services (ITS) Department will be performing an upgrade of the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) client to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) during the following window:

Start: Monday, October 26, 2009
Finish: Friday, November 6, 2009
Time: Nightly, After 7PM

During this upgrade window, the upgraded client will be deployed seamlessly and will only affect users with ITS-supported Windows machines. For these users, please leave your computers on to receive the remote client upgrade.

The Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is an industry standard software deployment system that ITS has implemented to improve desktop security by automatically installing security patches and software updates to workstations. The previous SMS client automatically installed the security updates and provided users one week to restart their machines for the updates to take effect. With the new SCCM client, users can choose to either install the updates and restart their machines once they receive the notification or schedule it for a more convenient time.

Please be advised that ITS releases the monthly security updates during the second week of every month. From this time, users have one week to install the updates and restart their machines before the Sunday deadline. If the updates are not installed, the updates will be automatically installed on the third Sunday of the month after 5PM. Users then have 24 hours to restart their machines for the updates to take effect before your system is automatically restarted.

For more information on SCCM, please visit the ITS Automated Security Patching service page.

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