Enterprise Support - Symantec Corp. - Testing Updates in LiveUpdate Administrator 2.x (LUA 2

Testing Updates in LiveUpdateAdministrator 2.x (LUA 2.x)

Article:TECH92584 | Created:

2009-01-25 | Updated:2010-11-30 |

Article URLhttp://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH92584 (http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH92584)

Article TypeTechnical Solution

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Problem

To ensure there are no unforseen issues, our organization wishes to apply allupdates in a test environment before rolling them out to the production network.Where can more information be found about the capability to test sets ofdefinitions that have been downloaded by LiveUpdate Administrator 2.x?

Solution

page 10 in Symantec LiveUpdate™ Administrator 2.2 User's Guide:

Symantec updates are downloaded from an external Symantec site to an internalSymantec LiveUpdate Administrator server. From there, the updates can either besent immediately to a production distribution center to be downloaded byLiveUpdate clients, or sent to a testing center, so that the updates can be tested.Once the updates have passed your testing requirements, they are sent to theproduction center, on a schedule you determine.

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Please note: testing updates is an optional activity. If company policy dictates thecontent updates must be tested prior to being placed into the productionenvironment, a Testing Distribution Center must be configured and downloadsconfigured to be tested. When updates have been tested, they can be then bemarked as "passed" and then sent to the production distribution center.

page 48-51 in Symantec LiveUpdate™ Administrator 2.2 User's Guide:

Testing updates

When you create a download schedule or run a manual download request, youmust set the testing status of the updates that you download. Updates can bemarked as either Skip Test or Must Test. Updates that do not have to be testedcan be sent directly to a production distribution center and are available forimmediate downloading.

Each downloaded update has an associated testing state. The testing state letsyou know whether the update has been tested and what stage the update is in.There are six possible testing states:

Untested The update has not been tested, but must be tested before it can be distributed to a production distributioncenter. This content has not yet been placed to a testing distribution server.

Passed The update has been successfully tested and is ready to be sent to a production distribution center.

Failed The update has failed testing. This update cannot be distributed to a production distribution center.

Test Not Required The update does not require testing prior to being distributed to a production distribution center.

Faulty The update initially passed testing, and was distributed to a production distribution center, but was later found to


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have problems.

Retest The update that has been found to be faulty, or has failed testing, and you would like to retest it.

You can view the test status of downloaded updates in Manage Updates. Updatesthat have been marked Untested can be sent to a testing distribution center,where they can then be distributed for further testing. After you've completedtesting the updates, you can then mark them as Passed or Failed. Passedupdates can then be sent to production distribution centers. Failed updated canbe resent to the testing distribution center for further testing and the statuschanged to Retest.

Updates that you distribute to production distribution centers are either marked asSkip Test or Passed. If you find any issues with the updates after they've beendistributed to a production center, you can mark them as Faulty and send themback to a testing center for further testing (the status is changed to Retest).

Only updates that are marked as Passed or Skip Test can be sent to a productiondistribution center. The Symantec LiveUpdate Administrator will not allow updatesmarked Test Failed or Faulty to be sent to any production distribution center.

Updates that are marked Untested will not be automatically sent to a productiondistribution center, but you can send them to a testing distribution center.

Note: Some update components are shared between products. If you havespecified that updates for a particular product must be tested, any sharedcomponent updates will automatically be set to Must Test, and will display astatus of Untested when they are downloaded.

Figure 5-1 shows a testing flow with the possible outcomes.


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If you set the status of an update to Must Test, but have not yet tested it, theLiveUpdate Administrator sets the testing state to Untested. Otherwise, the statusis set to Testing Not Required.

If the update state is Untested, the LiveUpdate Administrator will send the updateto the appropriate testing distribution center. This can happen automatically,based upon a schedule that you determine, or you can distribute the update fortesting manually.

Once you have completed testing the update, you set the status to Test Passed orTest Failed. Updates marked as Test Passed will then be available to productiondistribution centers. If the update has failed, you can retest the update, delete theupdate, or simply leave it in the Manage Updates folder.

If you have distributed an update to a production distribution center, and laterdetermine that it is problematic, you can mark the update Test Faulty. This willprevent future operations from distributing the update to production distributioncenters.

Please note: testing product updates and virus definitions is a manualprocedure. It is not an automated function by which LiveUpdate Administrator 2.xtests the integrity of materials which have been downloaded: checks of this natureare already built in to the product. Testing the definitions generally involvescreating a client settings host file which directs the test clients to download thedefintions from a URL such as http://<LUA server IP>:7070/clu-test. Once thetest clients have reported their findings back to the administrator, the Test Statuscan be updated in LUA 2.x accordingly. Passed updates can then be sent toproduction distribution centers.


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Details in full can be found in the Symantec LiveUpdate™ Administrator 2.2User's Guide.

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Enterprise Support - Symantec Corp. - Testing Updates in LiveUpdate Administrator 2.x (LUA 2