What is the difference between the Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) Group Update Provider (GUP) and LiveUpdate Administrator (LUA)?
Which update architecture is best for your environment?
Group Update Provider v/s Liveupdate Administrator
|
GUP |
LUA |
Extra software and potentially hardware needed. |
NO |
YES |
Average daily network transfer from remote sites |
10 mb +/- |
100mb +/- (600mb+ once per month) |
Max daily network transfer from remote sites |
100 mb +/- |
100mb +/- (600mb+ once per month) |
Distribute product updates/patches |
No |
Yes (if made available) |
Content update : Remote site from update server |
Pull from remote (on demand) |
Push from LUA, then pull (scheduled) |
Supported clients per distribution point |
10,000 (higher possible with higher spec) |
Unlimited (in theory) |
Bandwidth throttling : Remote site to SEPM |
Yes |
No (not for FTP, only for HTTP) |
Operating system per distribution point |
Windows System |
Any |
Resilience to WAN network issues |
High |
Medium |
Client to distribution point roaming and load balancing |
Yes |
No |
Provide incremental updates for out of date clients |
Yes (period configurable but typically 2--‐4 weeks) |
Yes (up to 1 year out of date) |
Note: The difference between a GUP and LUA 2.x. The GUP will only retrieve content as it is requested, and will retrieve it from the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM).
This means that it will always retrieve the smallest and most efficient package possible. It will not download any unnecessary content. An LUA is designed to apply updates generally to a mixed environment. It will update itself on a schedule, and will download all content available at that time. An LUA downloading 32-bit and 64-bit windows definitions only may download 4-6 GB of data per month. The equivalent GUP is likely to download less than 500 MB.
Any SEP client on a Windows system can become a GUP. The system to be used would be determined by the architecture, client count the GUP would service, etc.
LiveUpdate Administrator requires a Windows server for the application. A built in test/production web sites for content distribution could be used or any other web server on Windows/Linux/UNIX could be configured within LUA.
A GUP is a SEP client configured to become a surrogate content distribution point to the SEPM. It accomplishes this by storing local copies of deltas requested by clients talking to it. It does not actually create deltas, rather it proxies the request on behalf of a client and asks the SEPM for the delta/full content. It retains these files to provide to other clients thereby reducing the content processing load on the SEPM(s). It also provide granular bandwidth throttling capabilities which perhaps speak to one of its main use cases.
LiveUpdate Administrator is a full application that runs on Microsoft IIS. It automates the download and distribution of security and client updates to it's own distribution web sites, or any other web server chosen to configure. It can provide content updates for non Windows SEP clients (e.g. SAVFL, SEP for Mac, SMSMSE, etc).
Applies To
Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.x and 12.1
LiveUpdate Administrator