Should I upgrade the solutions I currently have installed on the SMP to the same version as the SMP?
ITMS 7.x, 8.x
Your installed solutions must be the same version as your SMP server. Solutions with older versions than the SMP server may introduce unexpected behaviors. For example, if you upgrade your SMP server from 8.6 RU3 to 8.7.1, you must upgrade your solutions to the same version as the SMP server.
All solution components must also be the version of their suite. For example, if you install Inventory and Asset Solutions they need to be from the same suite version. You should not install Inventory 8.6 RU1 with Asset 8.6 RU3--they should either both be 8.6 RU1 or 8.6 RU3.
The Symantec Installation Manager (SIM) will not allow you to upgrade solutions to a version newer than the SMP. There is a dependency check in the SIM that will prompt you to upgrade the SMP server if the selected solutions have a newer version than the currently installed the SMP server.