What are Bundles and Detectoids?

Bundles and detectoids are two different update types that are supported by Configuration Manager. While not rare, they are not used within every update catalog. For example, they are not currently contained within the primary Ivanti catalog, but they may apply to certain third-party catalogs.

Bundles

A bundle is a collection of one or more updates. A bundle consists only of the metadata used to reference the updates that are included in the bundle. The bundle does not contain actual content or binary data.

A common use of a bundle is to group together related updates. For example, a bundle might contain all of the updates for the drivers that are associated with a particular machine type. To publish the updates for the machine type you simply publish the bundle, rather than locating and publishing each individual update. Another advantage of a bundle is that, when publishing, you only need approval for a single item (the bundle) rather than for each update contained in the bundle.

When you publish a bundle, Patch for Configuration Manager will publish all the updates in the bundle that have not already been published. Bundles can get quite large and may consist of dozens of different updates, so the publishing process is typically longer for a bundle.

For information on how to work with bundles in Patch for Configuration Manager, see Working with Bundles.

Detectoids

A detectoid is a unique form of an update. It does not contain a payload, but it does contain a single "Installed" rule that verifies a particular condition. Detectoids are used as prerequisite checks for other updates. For example, one detectoid might specify the operating system that is required to install an update on a target machine, and a second detectoid might specify the computer architecture that is required by the update. An update may have many prerequisite detectoids, and a detectoid may have other prerequisite detectoids.

If a detectoid is required in order to publish an update, Patch for Configuration Manager will publish the detectoid automatically. This is true for all update catalogs that contain detectoids.

For information on how to work with detectoids in Patch for Configuration Manager, see Working with Detectoids.