KACE Product Support

  One of the features of managed installs is keeping the same content on the machine no matter what the user does.  This can have both good and bad results.  If the software inventory item looks for a specific version, it will try and correct if it finds it no longer has that version.

  We don't need this feature, so we usually remove machines from the managed install list once they are complete.  You can otherwise get around the issue by either using a custom inventory rule that allows the version number to be greater than or equal to the target, or you can put the patches in the update folder in your install package and redetect the result to ensure your managed install matches the current content.

I use a mixed approach - a smart label using a regex to detect machines running older versions of apps (i.e. old-java) and a "manual" label to target machines I want via the managed install (i.e. inst-java7u4).  What I do is pull up the machines that match the first label, select the ones I want, apply the second label, and then specify the second label in the managed install.  Once the managed install completes, I remove the machines from the second label.  There are some sensitive machines that I absolutely cannot bring up to current versions of software due to compatibility issues with other apps, so this lets me get the benefits of the smart labels without the drawbacks.

The main "maintenance" item is updating the regex statement as new versions are released, but even if you don't do so immediately, it won't cause issues since you aren't using the smart label (i.e. first label) for the managed install. 

In case you need help on making a smart label using a regex for the version number (i.e. find all machines with a version of Java below 7.0.40), I wrote a blog that should help.  If you need help beyond that, just let me know.

http://www.itninja.com/blog/view/using-regex-in-smart-labels-to-find-lower-versioned-software-w-java-example

John

I use smart labels to drop machines out of the list once the software product is installed.SO if a machine has Microsoft Office 2010 then label removes it from the group and a machine checks in without it automatically gets office 2010.