WSUS

WSUS

Q. What is WSUS?

A. It is Microsoft Software Update Server, and it is designed to automate the process of distributing Windows operating system patches.

    It works by controlling the Automatic Updates applet already present on all Windows machines.  Instead of many machines at UVA all going to Microsoft's website to download updates, the SUS server downloads all updates to an ITC-owned server and workstations then look there for updates.

Q. What is the Minimum Free Disk Space required?

A.  Minimum of 6 GB free disk space is recommended to store the WSUS content.

  
Q. How WSUS Works?

A. WSUS is an update component of Windows Server and offers an effective and quick way to help keep systems up-to-date. WSUS provides a management infrastructure consisting of the following:

Microsoft Update: The Microsoft Web site to which WSUS components connect for updates of Microsoft products.

Windows Server Update Services server: The server component that is installed on a computer running a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4 (SP4) or Windows Server 2003 operating system inside the corporate firewall. WSUS server provides the features that administrators need to manage and distribute updates through a Web-based tool, which can be accessed from Internet Explorer on any Windows computer in the corporate network. In addition, a WSUS server can be the update source for other WSUS servers.

Automatic Updates: The client computer component built into Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 with SP3 operating systems. Automatic Updates enables both server and client computers to receive updates from Microsoft Update or from a server running WSUS.

Q. What are the basic requirements (Hardware/Software) to implement the Windows SUS server?

A.  Server Hardware Requirements:

     WSUS requires a single server for basic operation, although you can scale your WSUS implementation to larger numbers of servers if you wish. For a basic implementation of up to 500 users, hardware requirements, per Microsoft, are:

·       1GHz CPU

·       1GB RAM

You also need a network card, and around free disk space (described below)

 

Server Software Requirements:

You need the following software components:

·       A supported Windows Server operating system - Windows Server 2003 is the preferred OS, but Windows 2000 is also supported. WSUS is supported on all editions of Windows Server 2003, but there are some restrictions of you use the Web Edition (See [WUS Restrictions With2k3 Web].

·       IIS - WUS is operated via IIS, so your WUS Server needs to have IIS loaded. You need at least IIS 5.0.

·       .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 - get this 7.982MB download from the Microsoft download site. The .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 is delivered as a hot fix installation file (see KB article KB867460 for details). This expands to 55.6 MB (58,335,654 bytes) on disk prior to installation. The installation of this hot fix also stops IIS, and requires a reboot.

·       Background Intelligent Transfer Service 2.0 (BITS 2.0 English.zip) - this is a new version of BITS, at present only available to beta testers, or those on the OEP. This is a 1.34MB download.

·       WSUS Setup (WSUSSetup.exe) - Like BITS V2, this is available only to beta testers or members of the OEP at present. This is download is over 100mb.

·       SQL Database server. For Windows Server 2003 MSDE is installed during setup. For Windows 2000 it is not and MSDE or SQL server must be installed prior WUS setup.

 

Server Disk Space Requirements:

     WUS Server disk space requirements fall into three categories: the WUS service, WUS updates and the WUS data base.

     Microsoft recommends that you have at least 6GB free disk space to store WUS content. At present, typical usage is around 1-2GB/language, although this does depend on what updates you specify and is likely to grow over time. The WSUS service installs (by default) into C:\Program Files\Update Services\. This folder takes up 365MB (371MB on disk) after the initial installation.   The WSUS Database is managed by MDSE, and is installed by default into C:\WSUS\MSSQL$WSUS. This folder takes up 216 MB after the initial install, synchronize and with only 2 clients. The size of the DB grows as you add more computers, and as you manage more updates.

Q. What is TCP/IP port no. used for Windows SUS services?

A.  WSUS uses 8530 port.

Q. What is essential application used for WSUS database report?

A. WSUS database stores update information, event information about update actions on client computers, and WSUS server settings.

Administrators have the following options for the WSUS database:

1. The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE) database that WSUS can install during setup on Windows Server 2003

2. An existing Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 database

3. An existing Microsoft Data Engine 2000 (MSDE) with Service Pack 3 (SP3) or Later.

Q. What are essential settings required at the end of WSUS client?

A.  On the client side we have to enable Automatic update from security setting. Also we can enable automatic update from registry.

Registry Key: KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\
Type: Reg_DWORD

• 0 - Disabled.
• 1 - Enable the Automatic Update client to use the SUS Server specified by the "WUServer" value.

    If you have domain login on client, then we also enable auto update on client side through group policy.