Update Administration

[TekSolutions]

The company I work for has multiple locations. I would like to use something like WSUS or other like program to administer Windows Updates.

Will WSUS work for multiple locations, with one central server? If not what are some other options?

 

[goombawaho]

WSUS would work over multiple locations, but it's not a good idea in terms of bandwidth - all those machines pulling updates over the WAN links between offices and the central server.

 

[TekSolutions]

I thought about the band width issue. I have never used WSUS before. How does it work? Would I be able to schedule each location to update on a different day / night?

 

[goombawaho]

You can schedule the updates at the workstation level. If different locations are requesting updates at different times, it would lessen the load on the WAN link, but all the computers would still be hitting the update server across the WAN at the same time unless you manually set all the computers in each location to be offset.

Go UP a few levels in this document for a general overview.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc708536(WS.10).aspx

Basically, one of your server becomes a repository for MS updates that gets periodically updated. Then clients contact your server for updates needed. You get to approve updates before they are allowed to be rolled out. Your clients need to be set either by Group Policy or manual registry editing with the options you want.

Be careful that you understand the options. You have to get the right combination of installing updates and automatically rebooting the computer or NOT - depending on time of day. And whether the automatic update would nag the user to reboot.