Which Updates Supersede Which Updates in Patch Management.

Products

• Patch Management Solution for Windows

Issue/Introduction

The Windows Superseded Bulletins report (Reports > All Reports > Software >  Patch Management > Software Bulletins) can be used to view which bulletins are superseded and by which bulletins.

The report is not detailed enough to track individual updates within the bulletins, so the following instructions describe how to create and use a custom report that shows every individual update and which updates supersede it.

Resolution

1. Create the Custom Report

• In the Symantec Management Console go to Manage > Reports
• Right-click on any desired folder and select New > Report > SQL Report
• In the new SQL Report delete any existing text paste the following SQL query in the Parameterized Query box (replace the default query)

SELECT update1.Name [Update],
bull1.Name [Bulletin],
update2.Name [Superseded By],
bull2.Name [Superseding Bulletin]
FROM vSoftwareUpdate update1
LEFT JOIN ResourceAssociation update2bull
  ON update2bull.ChildResourceGuid = update1.Guid
  AND update2bull.ResourceAssociationTypeGuid = '7EEAB03A-839C-458D-9AF2-55DB6B173293' --Bulletin to Update
LEFT JOIN vRM_Software_Bulletin_Item bull1
  ON bull1.Guid = update2bull.ParentResourceGuid
LEFT JOIN ResourceAssociation super
  ON super.ChildResourceGuid = update1.Guid
  AND super.ResourceAssociationTypeGuid = '644A995E-211A-4D94-AA8A-788413B7BE5D'--Update Supersedes Update
LEFT JOIN vSoftwareUpdate update2
  ON update2.Guid = super.ParentResourceGuid
LEFT JOIN ResourceAssociation update2bull2
  ON update2bull2.ChildResourceGuid = update2.Guid
  AND update2bull2.ResourceAssociationTypeGuid = '7EEAB03A-839C-458D-9AF2-55DB6B173293' --Bulletin to Update
LEFT JOIN vRM_Software_Bulletin_Item bull2
  ON bull2.Guid = update2bull2.ParentResourceGuid
ORDER BY bull1.Name DESC, update1.Name ASC

• Name the report something appropriate, such as "Superseded Updates"
• Finally click Save Changes.

2. Use the Custom Report

• Use the search bar in the upper left corner to search for an update by its KB number; for example, “KB2910910”
• Confirm that the results are filtered down and a row for the desired update appears in the Update column
• Look in the Superseded By column to find what update (if any) supersedes that update; for example, KB2910910 was superseded by KB2956086
• Write down the superseding update and then search for it in the search bar to find out if it too is superseded; for example, KB2956086 was superseded by KB2965304
• Repeat this process to follow the chain of superseded updates until the newest (non-superseded) update is found

Please note that Symantec Support does not support custom reports, so any further modifications must be made by the user.