Group Update Providers- Part 1

Group Update Provider Overview
The Group Update Provider was a feature request to support designating a particular client to serve as a computer that will get content updates and publish them. This is designed to provide functionality vaguely similar to configuring a legacy Symantec AntiVirus client as a secondary server.
The computer that is downloading and publishing the content is referred to as the “Group Update Provider.” The computers in the client group will use the designated “Group Update Provider” as a local proxy for content updates

When a client becomes the GUP

• The mini HTTP server code will be a DLL extension to the SMC Agent. The design has the GUP running independently of the internal content handling. GUP is loaded by the SMC Agent when configured. When it starts up, it begins to listen on the configured port. It continues to listen until it is shut down.
• All of the clients in the group receive the same proxy policy configuration. The one that matches the proxy address or hostname is the proxy and will load the micro web server.
• The computer that is designated as the GUP will create a directory if it does not already exist at the following location:
  C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\SharedUpdates

  The "SharedUpdates" folder will cache all proxied files. For the first round of implementation this will only be managed LU content. No other communication or content will be proxied. Getting index files and profiles, posting state and logs, etc. will be done directly with server.

• The "SharedUpdates" directory will be populated when the GUP receives a request to see if the requested files are present in the local cache. If the file is present, it responds to the request with the file. If it is not present then the GUP holds the pending request, and re-issues the same "GetLUFile SyLink" request to the server. When that file arrives, it is added to the GUP cache.

The GUP code can only get content updates from Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager. As far as the GUP is concerned, it does not know about the client it resides on. Even if the client were to be updated through alternative means such as: Intelligent Updater or Symantec Internal Liveupdate, the GUP would not be able to use those updates to proxy for other clients.

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groupupdateprovider_1_scu.mp4