Friday, November 2, 2018

3rd Party Updates in CM 1806 - Dell BIOS updates


A word of caution: The BIOS update for Dell will NOT suspend BitLocker so you should either use a Task Sequence to suspend it before updating.  This is not necessary if you have it during an OS deployment.


There are many articles are how to setup the 3rd party updates. This will cover specifically the Dell
Bios updates, how to select and deploy them.


For how to configure CM for 3rd Party updates:
http://www.scconfigmgr.com/2018/07/31/configure-and-deploy-third-party-software-updates-with-configmgr/


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/sum/deploy-use/third-party-software-updates


Before a machine can scan for the BIOS and Driver updates necessary, you will need to deploy the "Dell OpenManage Inventory Agent (for Dell Business Client Systems)"  This can be found in the Dell catalog in your CM Console.  Approve, download and deploy this update so your machines will scan and report.






When the Dell Catalog syncs you will notice that the icon indicates that it is not available


You will need to select and update and you can right click then select "Publish Third-Party Software Update Content"



Be aware that this will not change until after the next CM/WSUS Sync. 


If you try to download before publishing it you will see this error



Once published you will see the Publish content is now greyed out..



At this point you simply deploy it like any other Software Update





If you watch the scan data on the client you will see the update appear



Here is where their could be a problem.  You should download and deploy the update.  If you choose to deploy it without downloading, which you can with other updates, you could encounter an error if you don't have your server setup to push content from the WSUS folder.  The machine will want to pull it from the CAS or Primary, even when you are connected to Secondary Server











Take Aways:
1. Be sure to download and distribute the update like most updates so you can use Peer Cache and avoid pulling from the Primary WSUS box.
2. Use a Task Sequence to deploy to clients in the field, this is necessary to suspend BitLocker before the BIOS update installs.