In late April 2007 Microsoft has released Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) version 3.0. WSUS enables IT administrators to deploy the latest Microsoft product updates to computers running the Windows operating system. By using WSUS, administrators can fully manage the distribution of updates that are released through Microsoft Update to computers in their network. You can read more about the requirements and download links for WSUS 3.0 on my “Microsoft WSUS 3.0 is Finally Released” article.
WSUS 3.0 is supported on Windows SBS 2003 with Server Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows SBS 2003 R2. This guide will outline the steps you need to take in order to install WSUS 3.0 on SBS SP1 or SBS R2.
Before you begin using this document, complete the following:
After performing the previous steps you now need to download and install WSUS 3.0 on the server.
Download WSUS 3.0 (74.9mb – 81.8mb)
Important note #1: After you install WSUS 3.0, the Windows Server Update Services Configuration Wizard launches automatically. At this point, stop following the instructions in “Deploying Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0.” Instead, click Cancel to close the Windows Server Update Services Configuration Wizard. Important note #2: If you run the WSUS Configuration Wizard, on the Configure Sync Schedule page, you must keep the default setting Synchronize automatically. If you change this setting to Synchronize manually, Windows SBS Update Services cannot run.
You should configure WSUS 3.0 in the same manner you would on a regular Windows Server 2003 machine. To read more about it please read my other WSUS articles and/or read the Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Operations Guide.
However, there are some “considerations” or “challenges” as Microsoft sales people like to call them:
If you want to upgrade Windows SBS 2003 with SP1 to Windows SBS 2003 R2, and your server already uses WSUS 3.0 to manage updates, you will need to first uninstall WSUS 3.0. Use the following procedure:
This sounds silly, but it turns out that you cannot reinstall Windows SBS 2003 R2 components if the Setup program detects that you have WSUS 3.0 installed on the server. Therefore, in order to reinstall Windows SBS 2003 R2 components on your server, you must do the following: