Windows server update service and workstations

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Anything else you might want to know can be found here (great reference):

http://www.wsuswiki.com/

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ASKER

Is there a way to force the computers to reboot after an update is done. (i.e. have the systems reboot at 3am after the update when no one is using them?)

Thanks

The group policy does that.

Simon.

ASKER

But where in GPO, as I didn't see where to set the time for reboot...

You don't set the time for the reboot, but the time for the installation. So you would set the machines to install at 3am and then reboot.

There is a setting "No Auto Restart for scheduled Automatic Update Installations". If you disable that, then the machine will restart automatically 5 minutes after the installation is complete.

Simon.

ASKER

What is strange now, is I setup the auto update at 3am but there is no status report for that time.

The only time the last status was is when I logged in as administrator and not as the user.

The updates were flagged as detect only and not install, so I changed the updates to install.

But what rights does the user need to install the updates? (power user, standard user, administrator?)

Thanks

The user doesn't need any further rights. At 3am, the updates will install and the computer will reboot - but only if the user is logged off.

A normal user will not see any update shield in the tray and should not be aware of anything that happens.

There is a setting to allow a non-administrator to install updates. If you don't enable that, then they will not see anything.

Simon.

The danger to enabling this is that if they don't choose to do the update via the shield it doesn't happen.

I would leave the default behiour as it is.

ASKER

So if a user is logged in, the updates will happen but the system won't reboot?

Also on the wsus admin page on the server, it says detect only... Do I have to change every update from detect to install? (as there are over 600+ that say detect only)

Thanks

You need to change them to install to install.
You can select them in bulk and choose Install. It will take a while to tag them all, so leave it to get one with it.

With the correct group policy settings, the updates can install automatically no matter who is logged in. If it is a normal user they will get nagged at intervals. I usually set this to every 45 minutes, although if I need the update to be applied immediately I have set it to every 5 minutes and slowly turn it down to every minute - usually with associates email messages telling the users to reboot.

Simon.

ASKER

Will WSUS do Office updates too?

Thanks

It will. It does Office 2002 and Office 2003. It has just done some updates overnight for Excel.

Simon.

ASKER

Ok, there were some updates that were done and when I went into the WSUS admin screen some said a reboot is required. (I thought the PC's rebooted automatically after the updates were done?)

These systems are Windows 2000 Professional

Thanks