Some of you may run into a known issue with what type of command lines for MSI/MSP based updates you can now use in the new System Center Updates Publisher 2011.  In previous version of Updates Publisher we have left the command line unrestricted, meaning you could put pretty much anything in there.  This caused a lot of problems due to invalid command line parameters (see here for more details) such as /qn or /q for MSI and MSP based updates. 

With Updates Publisher 2011 we decided to put validation on the field to force a name=value format, the only format allowed per WSUS/WUA.  In doing so we inadvertently put a restriction on the use of the dash “-“, meaning that if you have a command line parameter that includes the product key such as PID=1234-1234-1234-1234-1234 will be invalid. Another example is if you have a computer name with a dash in it (i.e. server=jason-pc) will also not work.  You will not be able to import or create such an update in Updates Publisher 2011.  This is a known issue with no current workaround.  We will look at addressing it in a future release.

Now that Updates Publisher 2011 has released, you may ask yourself what do I need to do to install and configure.  Here is a high level to do list to help you get started.

1. Download Updates Publisher 2011 from here.  Note that Updates Publisher 2011 supports both ConfigMgr 2007 and ConfigMgr 2012 Beta2.
2. Download the required WSUS 3.0 SP2 hotfix here.
3. Install the WSUS 3.0 SP2 hotfix on all WSUS servers in your ConfigMgr hierarchy as well as your SCUP console computer
4. Install Updates Publisher 2011.  Updates Publisher 2011 does not upgrade from SCUP 4.5, but you can run them side-by-side.
1. Also note that SCUP requires administrator rights to install and will not prompt to elevate privileges.  The best way is to launch a command (cmd) prompt with “Run as Administrator” option then run the SystemCenterUpdatesPublisher.msi
5. Migrate all of your updates by exporting all of your updates from SCUP 4.5 and importing them into Updates Publisher 2011.
6. Open options dialog (upper right hand corner in blue) and enable checkbox for “Enable publishing to an update server”
1. Provide the same WSUS server you used with SCUP 4.5. 
2. The certificate used with SCUP 4.5 is still valid and if you install Updates Publisher 2011 on the same machine as SCUP 4.5 then you are done.
3. If SCUP 4.5 is installed on a different machine as Updates Publisher 2011 then you will need to add the signing certificate trust to the new machine as well.
7. Now everything is pretty much setup as before.
8. (Optional) Uninstall SCUP 4.5 after you are conformable with Updates Publisher 2011 and have all your updates migrated.

I hope this get everybody started, look for screencasts coming soon covering the entire product.

I’m happy to announce that we have released System Center Updates Publisher 2011 to the web today.  This release was primarily driven by customer feedback over the past year.  It all started last year at MMS (2010) where we got a lot of great feedback regarding the existing product.  Out of that feedback a plan was created to greatly improve the product for both customers and partners.  Updates Publisher 2011 is packed full of new features and additions with just a few of them listed below.

New in System Center Updates Publisher 2011

• Simpler setup with no database installation
• An improved user interface that allows better control of managing software updates
• Improved applicability rule authoring experience
• Improved performance when importing and managing software updates
• The ability to create software update bundles
• The ability to define prerequisite and superseded updates as part of a software update definition
• A new “Automatic” publication type with which Updates Publisher 2011 can query Configuration Manager to determine whether the selected software updates should be published with full content or only metadata
• A new Software Update Cleanup Wizard that you can use to expire software updates that exist on the update server, but are not in the Updates Publisher 2011 repository

To download and learn more about SCUP from TechCenter visit here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/systemcenter/bb741049.aspx

Over the next few weeks come back to the blog for a series of screencast cover all aspects of Updates Publisher 2011.