Managing SUS Servers: Policy or Profile?

[dstranathan]

I see that SUS server catalog URLs can be managed via both JAMF Policies as well as Profiles.

What are your opinions of the two approaches? Pros and cons of the two methods?

[hkabik]

I run policies based on IP ranges since we have so many offices, each with it's own SUS. I have a once a day policy to set the catalog url, depending on which office the user is in (and they travel often) it grabs the appropriate url and applies it.

[bentoms]

@dstranathan what @hkabik said. Via policy will set the Catalog URL to that which is defined in the Macs network segment.

[dstranathan]

All my Macs are on the same physical/geographic location. All Macs point to a single SUS server (located in my DMZ). the URL rarely (if ever) changes. Split DNS sends the Mac clients to the correct SUS host regardless if they are on my internal LAN or on the public Internet (i.e.; laptops).

[hkabik]

In that circumstance I see no reason why a single configuration profile wouldn't work for you.

[mm2270]

Agreed with @hkabik Just use a single Config profile to set the SUS for clients. One advantage of a profile (if you consider it one) is that it sets it kind of permanently. It can't be overridden that easily without actually removing the profile, or making the profile a once setting, which you can't do when doing it through Casper, though you can if you use something like MCXtoProfile.