How to use the new Software Bulletin Available automation policy?

The New Software Bulletin Available automation policy is useful for notifying administrators when new patches have been released and imported into Patch Management. The following instructions explain how to best configure the New Software Bulletin Available automation policy. The instructions assume that the Import Patch Data task (PMImport) is configured to run every day and that email settings have already been configured in Notification Server Settings.

1. In the Altiris/SMP console go to Manage>Automation Policies
2. Select the New Software Bulletin Available automation policy
3. Click Edit query
4. In the Data Source window find the line that starts with “select top 1” then delete “top 1”, this will allow the policy to show more than one bulletin/update when more than one bulletin/update is released on the same day (or copy the attached SQL query for Patch Management 8.0 and paste it over the original query)
5. Go to the Query Parameters tab, select the TimeValue row, and click the Pencil (Edit) button
6. In the Editing Parameter window change Default Value from 24 to 48 (there is not a perfect setting because it can occasionally take over two days (48 hours) for patches to be imported into Patch Management after they are released, however the longer the setting the more likely a patch will be reported in more-than-one email)
7. Change Test Value from 24 to 200 (this value doesn’t matter, pick a time long enough to capture some recent patches that were released)
8. Click OK to close the Editing Parameter window
9. Click OK to close the Data Source window
10. In the New Software Bulletin Available page change Evaluation Rule: from Run for each record to Run for non-empty data (this will prevent separate emails being sent for every individual update)
11. Change Run job/task from Send automated Patch report email to Send automation policy e-mail (this task will actually show data in the email rather than a link)
12. Click Edit input parameter
13. In the Edit Job/Task Input Parameters window set the To and CC Data Source fields to [Custom] then enter email addresses in the Custom Value fields (CC can be left blank)
14. Set the Subject Data Source field to Automation Policy Name
15. Set the Message Data Source field to [Custom] then enter “The following bulletins/updates were released in the last 48 hours:” in the Custom Value field
16. Set the Results Data Source field to Results as HTML
17. Click OK to close the Edit Job/Task Input Parameters window
18. In the New Software Bulletin Available page click Save changes
19. Click Test Automation Policy and confirm that an email is sent with a list of recent updates (remember this will use the 200-hour test value)

Creating or Modifying Message-Based Automation Policies