Owner's Manual

Software Updates 153
When Tom clicks Finish, IT Assistant does the following:
• Synchronizes with ftp.dell.com as per the schedule he set in step 4.
IT Assistant maintains the current (n) and the immediate predecessor (n-
1) versions of the catalog in the repository. IT Assistant downloads the
catalog and compares the last-known catalog (n-1) present in the IT
Assistant Repository. Tom can view the comparison between the two
versions in the
Online Repository Comparison tab in the user interface. A
report can also be included in the e-mail if Tom selected the option.
• Extracts the latest contents from the catalog.
• Deletes packages for which the MD5 hash has changed.
NOTE: IT Assistant checks if two packages are the same using the algorithm
supplied by the Product Development Kit (PDK), as well as the MD5 hash of
the package. Only if both criteria match, IT Assistant confirms that the
packages are same.
Comparing the Update Packages in the Repositories With Those On the
Dell Website
Tom wants to compare the update packages in cache with the update
packages in the repositories.
Tom can compare the update packages by:
• Comparing two repositories
• Comparing the contents of two catalogs
Comparing Two Repositories
Tom performs the following steps:
1
From the Software Update Repositories tree, Tom selects Online
Repository
.
2 In the right-hand side pane, he selects the Repository Comparison tab.
3 In the Select Target Repository field, he can select the IT Assistant
Repository or click
Open New Repository to open the Server Updates
media to view the available update packages.
4 He clicks Compare .
IT Assistant compares the two selected repositories and provides status
and version information as a result of the comparison.