Windows 2012 – How to Install and Configure WSUS Server

Griffon

Hello World,

Today, we will be speaking about WSUS or Windows Server Update Service. WSUS helps administrators to deploy hotfixes and updates to your IT infrastructure. By using WSUS server and configuring your group policies accordingly, you can protect and keep all the computer presented on your network  up to date.  You can also decide which updates or hotfix you want to deploy within your infrastructure.  Microsoft offers other options to keep your infrastructure up to date (i.e. SCCM 2012) but this one come at no cost.

This post will focus on WSUS 4.0 which come as a Windows 2012 Server role and not anymore as a separate downloadable package.  WSUS 4.0 is not a revolution but more an evolution of the existing product.  The principle and concepts have not really changed. However, WSUS 4.0 provides some nice improvements compared to the previous version WSUS 3.2.  One of the best thing is that you will be able to use powershell to automate your patch management process.   Another nice thing (not directly related to WSUS) is the new Cluster aware update feature provided by Windows 2012 Server which ease the update process for cluster.

In this post, we will see how to perform a basic installation of the windows Update server role.  In the future (I do not know when), we will explain how you can perform a migration from WSUS 3.2 to version WSUS 4.0.  The migration process will be based on a side by side migration strategy. Finally, we will have a look at how the Cluster Aware Update Feature works and how you can use it in your environment.

But for the moment, let’s focus on the installation process of the new and fresh WSUS 4.0 server roles; Let’s go !

 

Installing the Server Role

Since Windows 2008, the Wsus server is defined as a Server role and can be installed directly from the server Manager console.  If you open your Server Manager Console, Click on the Add/remove Server Roles, this will start the wizard.

In the before you begin page, Press Next

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In the Select installation type page, select the role based installation option and press Next

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In the Select a destination server page, select the appropriate server and press Next

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In the Select Server role, tick the option Windows Server Update Services.  If you are missing some components, you might see the Add Roles and features dialog box popping up.  Select Add Features if this is the case

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In the Select features Page, Simply press Next

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In the Web Server Role page, Press Next

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In the Role Services Page, accept the default and Press Next 

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In the Windows Server Update Services Page, Press Next 

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In the Select Role Services, we will select the 2 first options. In our deployment, we will be using the Windows Internal database option. If you do not want to use this WID database, you can select the Database option.  If this option is selected, you will be able to use a local or remote database in conjunction with WSUS.

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In the Content location page, specify the path where the update files will be stored and Press Next.  Best practices is to use a dedicated partition for that (and not the operating system partition) 

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In the Confirmation page, Review your settings and Press the Install Button
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You can monitor the installation progress
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When the installation is completed, do not close yet the server role Wizard. If you look at the screen, you will see a small option that can be used to perform post installation tasks.  Click on it
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You can again see that the Wizard is configuring some additional settings on your server.  Wait for completion
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At the end of the process, you should see in the wizard page, a small comment stating that the installation is complete.  You can close the Server role Wizard.

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Initial WSUS Configuration

If you open your server manager console, you will see that an additional link has been added on the left side menu.  Click on the WSUS link.  In the WSUS Server manager page, right-click on the WSUS server object and select Windows Server Update Services.  This will open the Initial Configuration Wizard for WSUS.

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In the Before you Begin page of the WSUS Wizard, Press Next

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In the Join Improvement Program Page, select the appropriate option and Press Next

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In the Choose Upstream Server, Select the appropriate Option (This will depends on your deployment scenario)

 

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In the Specify a Proxy Server Page, Select the appropriate option based on your network and Press Next

 

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In the Connect to Upstrean Server, Click on the Start Connecting. Wait for completion

 

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In the Choose Language Page, Select the language you need and Press Next.  In my environment, everything is set to english

 

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In the Choose Product Page, select categories of products you want to patch using WSUS. This can be Windows OS as well as Exchange Products.  When your selection is complete, Press Next.

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In Classification Page, Select which type of update you want to deploy using WSUS. When your selection is done, Press Next 

 

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In the Set Sync Schedule, adjust your options and Press Next

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In the Finished Page, Accept default and Press Next

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In the What’s Next Page, You can see the additional steps you need to perform in order to have a fully functional WSUS infrastructure.

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Note : Here, We have been using the Wizard.  You can perform the same configuration by opening the WSUS console and start specifying your configuration stetings.

 

 

Overview WSUS MMC Console

The WSUS option is available since Windows 2003 and this version has not changed dramatically. If you are used to work with WSUS server, you will see that this version does not change much from the version available in Windows 2008 R2.

In the following screenshot, you can see how the WSUS console look like.

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In order to configure your WSUS server settings, on the left pane, you can click on the Options link and you will see the following console. All the options you have selected using the Configuration Wizard can be set/changed  through this page as well.

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As you can see from the screenshot, you can configure a bunch of stuff.  You can

  • start the configuration Wizard
  • Configure schedule sync
  • Configure Languages
  • Configure Classifications
  • Configure Products
  • Configure Computers
  • Configure Automatic Approval
  • Perform a Server Cleanup (using the Server Wizard Cleanup)
  • ….

We will have a look at these configuration options in another post (if I have time : -p).

During the configuration wizard, we did not start the synch process. From the left pane, if you click on the Synchronization node, you will be able to manually start your download.

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Finally, If you click on the reports node, you will see that you can generate a bunch of reports related.  However, before being able to generate them, do not forget (like I did) to install the MS Report Viewer component first.

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When the component is installed, you will be able to generate some nice reports.

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Final Notes

 Voila ! That’s it for this post ! The installation process has changed a little bit compared to the previous version but as you have seen the way of working and the MMC console have not really changed.   With this post, we have performed an installation from scratch of WSUS.  We have seen also how to perform the initial configuration.  Because there is a lot of people out there using WSUS 3.2, the next post might be more useful as we will be describing the migration process from WSUS 3.2 to WSUS 4.0

Till next time

See ya

For more information, please have a look at  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852340.aspx

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