Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Windows Sofware Update Services 3.0 Beta 2

For those of you out there that are using the Current WSUS 2 be warned that 3.0 is coming your way. The good news is that you want this version. If you are still (god forbid) running SUS you will be happy to know that Microsoft has extended it's life until July 10th 2007. You can read more about the extension here.

The feature that I am most exited about in WSUS 3 is seperate metadata and content channels. This means that I can sync my downstream server with the master server in headquarters and download the actual patches from Microsoft. Why might I want to do this? Because we only have a T-1 line to the net in HQ but our branch office has a Cable connection with 5 mbps down. It will be way faster for the branch office to download from Microsoft than from HQ.

Also the API allows for support of "Optional Installations" so I can approve IE7 for my users and those that want it can install it and those that dont want it or cannot use it don't have to worry about it.

The single biggest change in WSUS 3 over WSUS 2 is that instead of a web interface (which also requires IIS to be installed) you can use a MMC to control the WSUS server. The MMC must also be Version 3 on the server and on the client if you want to remotly administer WSUS.

You can read more about WSUS 3.0 here or you can download it here. (After registering for the beta, which ends on January 19th 2007.) Also note that there are two prerequesets for WSUS 3. You will need to have MMC 3.0 installed on your Windows 2003 Server and Microsoft Report Viewer.

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