Need advice - best way to manage updates and such for many workstations in an office?

[Mizugori]

Suppose there are 30 workstations in an office, on a domain with a server behind a firewall. All the workstations are running xp pro, the server win2k3. Rather than going around to each workstation and manually doing microsoft updates, is there a way to have all workstations on a domain receive updates together? Can they be pushed by the server or something to that effect? If so, what would happen if some workstations were off when the updates were pushed; would the server know when they came back online and automatically push the missed updates out to them then?

 

[brokenarrow03]

We use a product called "Patchlink" on our network, works very well for managing updates on our 250+ pc's

LINK

You can also use it to manage other softwares updates ex: firefox, quicktime, adobe

 

[slowbiznatch]

Or you can use something free that comes with Server 2003... Look into WSUS:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/default.aspx

Setup a GPO to force updates from the WSUS server on a weekly basis and you're good to go.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

30x workstations and an existing 2K3 server?

WSUS!

*edit*....nice timing with above reply!

 

[QHalo]

WSUS would work.

*edit* bastards!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

ROFL 3x posts for WSUS all at same time...1241....lol.

 

[LittleMe]

LOL, guess I'm too late to say WSUS as well.

 

[shabazkilla]

WSUS like everyone else said. Then use a GPO to point the workstations to the WSUS server.

 

[Mizugori]

can someone explain simply how to do this? i have wsus 3.0 on the server but i dont have it setup correctly quite yet and what do i need to do in group policy?

 

[Vito_Corleone]

WSUS like everyone else said. Then use a GPO to point the workstations to the WSUS server.

Yep, 'tis the way I've always done it.

 

[Vito_Corleone]

can someone explain simply how to do this? i have wsus 3.0 on the server but i dont have it setup correctly quite yet and what do i need to do in group policy?

http://www.google.com/search?q=wsus+tutorial

Good stuff in the top few links.

 

[Mizugori]

the top couple ones all just point indirectly to the microsoft documentation... which is pretty dense... i did search around before i posted here asking about it

 

[Vito_Corleone]

Bottom of the page on that Google search:

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/yanivf/archive/2007/09/23/install-wsus-3-0-step-by-step.aspx

Those are step by step instructions. Not sure what more you want.

 

[gimp]

the link Vito_Corleone is perfect.

I actually just setup a Win2k3 Enterprise Server with AD at home, to play around with. I also got my WSUS all setup, twice, since the pre-installed version is old, and everything had to be updated after I synched the first time

but those screenshots are spot-on with everything I went through to get it setup.