Hello,

I'm looking into using SCCM for WSUS and had a rookie question. Let's assume that everything is setup and I have updates synced and ready for me to pick and chose for deployment and I have two Device Collections, Servers and Workstations with workstations being anywhere from WXP to WIN8. Also let's assume I take all the critical updates for WXP to WIN8 and put them all into one package and deploy it out to my Workstation Collection. Will the client only take the updates that are applicable to OS in question or will my deployment fail because the client on a WXP machine sees an update for a win8 device?

They will only download the SU that they need.

Will the client only take the updates that are applicable to OS in question or will my deployment fail because the client on a WXP machine sees an update for a win8 device?

Software Updates in ConfigMgr use the WUAgent to scan/detect, and then install/apply the relevant updates, so any updates that are "available" will not be deemed "required" unless WUAgent finds the product (and doesn't find the update is present).

It's the same "do I have it, do I need it" logic that is used for WSUS and windowsupdate.com.

You need to be aware that there are performance penalties on the client and the infrastructure, if you advertise/deploy vast amounts of stuff to vast amounts of clients.
There are also limitations on the maximum number of updates in a package, etc.

Thank you, folks!

Another very important point is that you do not deploy update packages to clients; update packages simply make update binaries available to clients that need them. You deploy individual updates or software update groups.