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When you install UpdateEXPERT (using an account with administrative rights to the Windows 2000/2003 machine), there are several simple tasks that will make using UpdateEXPERT in your iPrism environment easy.
Identify your iPrism unit,
in UpdateEXPERT, as the Web Proxy server
Download the latest UpdateEXPERT Database
Query your UpdateEXPERT machine to inventory installed vs. not-installed
patches
Download some not-installed patches and validate their length
Apply an iPrism Hotfix as specified below
The steps above are explained below in more detail, with links to other articles where needed.
UpdateEXPERT contacts St. Bernard Software & Microsoft using URLs. Most users authenticate to iPrism with the NTLM/Auto-Login feature, meaning that their network login credentials will be used to authenticate themselves to iPrism when making a URL request. UpdateEXPERT needs to authenticate itself to iPrism just like a user does, and so must identify the iPrism by IP address, and pass it the proper credentials.
Using the menus, navigate to "File > Agent > Settings > Internet" and identify iPrism as your web proxy server. It is best to enter the information for the "Global Agent". The Global Agent represents default settings applied automatically to all Agents. The Global Agent settings will apply to your Master-Agent for example, and any Leaf-Agents you may deploy later. For an example, see "How do I configure UpdateEXPERT to download files via Proxy Server?"
Use Help > About to view your build and database. Now do Help > Update Database Now and wait at least a minute for a dialogue box to come up asking if you want to update your database, as shown below. Click Yes to update (actually replace) the existing database files with new database files immediately, or simply wait for the countdown timer to expire
When the database update (replacement) starts, the UpdateEXPERT screen will close, the database files will be replaced with newer versions in the background, then UpdateEXPERT will be launched again when the database replacement is finished (a couple minutes or less typically). Help > About should now show a newer database number. Confirm you have the latest database and build by looking for "Current UpdateEXPERT Database:" on the database Information web page maintained by St. Bernard Software. This information is updated frequently, informing the UpdateEXPERT community about recently added patches to the UpdateEXPERT database. Being able to update the database means you are able to successfully contact St. Bernard Software, which means your proxy information is correct. If your proxy information is not correct, you will likely get the message "Unable to request update information from St. Bernard Software".
Enumerate your network (expand the "Microsoft Windows Network") to see your domains, and open the domain with your UpdateEXPERT machine. Select (highlight) your UpdateEXPERT machine, right-click and do Manage Selected. The machine name will bold and means the machine is eligible for querying and patch deployment. Right-click and do Query to get an inventory of patches (the inventory will be accurate because of the database update you just performed). If you are logged in with administrative credentials, this query should succeed (you'll see patches listed). Note that later, when you wish to query other machines, you will want to select a domain, or one or more machines, right-click, and use "Set Credentials" to specify a domain or local machine administrative account that will allow you to query the machine(s).
When the query results are displayed, click on the OS Tab. Green Balloons represent installed patches. Grey Balloons represent available (uninstalled) patches. See "Icons" quick reference for information on all UpdateEXPERT icons.
Select (highlight) a couple of the uninstalled patches, and use the UpdateEXPERT web research frame at the bottom to note the patch file length (1234 KB in the screen shot below). This information is easily found by clicking on the patch to download it, at which time you will typically get specific information.
When ready, right-click each patch and Download it. The diskettes will be blue with a red arrow while downloading, and will turn solid blue when successfully downloaded. The diskettes will turn orange if the download fails for a network related reason (couldn't contact Microsoft) or if UpdateEXPERT detects that it is receiving an HTML file instead of a patch via iPrism (or some other intermediate device). iPrism HTML files are typically authentication errors generated by incorrect or non-existent UpdateEXPERT proxy credentials. Please continue to resolve this issue.
By default, patches, or possibly iPrism HTML files, will have been downloaded (with unique UpdateEXPERT names for security) to:
C:\WINDOWS\UEAgent\Download or C:\WINNT\UEAgent\Download
If you have blue diskettes, the lengths of the patch files should be correct. Do this initial patch length check just to ensure that you are downloading valid patches. If ok, it means your iPrism authentication credentials are valid, and that iPrism is not returning an authentication error message file, and that no other error files are being returned (ie., from some other intermediate device). Error files are typically easy to recognize, since they are often 3KB or 4KB, much smaller than a typical patch. If you have attempted to download 5 patches, and you find 5 small files of 3KB each you are simply getting the same error for every download attempt. Your proxy credentials are probably invalid. Delete these small files to clear the download directory, fix your credentials, and try again. Contact Technical Support if the downloading issue persists (see link at top of article).
Note: You can cross-reference UpdateEXPERT vs. Microsoft patch names easily using the Name and Repository ID columns in the UpdateEXPERT interface.
Certain downloaded patches, like Office SR1A for example, are actually small installer files that are deployed to target machines, and when executed on the target machines, they attempt to get files from Microsoft via the Internet to update the target. To allow internet access for these installer files, manually apply the appropriate hotfix for your iPrism:
2-204 for iPrism Model 1100/1200 systems running 3.5xx
2-214 for iPrism Model 3000 systems running 3.6xx
Note that OS patches typically do NOT use small installer files, and therefore don't require Internet access, but that large applications like Office, Outlook, or IE may.
