Author: athif

It’s been a long time. Actually, I have moved on to a different role and WSUS is not my bread & butter :-). I am focusing on Project Management; you can follow me on twitter – http://twitter.com/Athif. I wanted to share few lessons learned in patch management. Here we go… SIMPLE LESSONS LEARNED in Patch Management: 1. Test, Test and Test: It is important to test updates in your unique environment before the roll-out 2. Back-up before patch-up: I canNOT stress this anymore – Always folks Always perform a backup before you install any updates/patches/hotfix 3. Restart before and After: As … Continue reading SIMPLE Lessons Learned in Patch Management

I just downloaded Technet Magazine – January 2007 HTML help file and when I opened, I noticed the topics in the .chm file cannot be viewed and I realized that it was getting blocked and all I had to do is to unblock the file (see the procedure below) and this time I can see the contents happily:-) 1. Right-click the CHM file, and then click Properties. 2. Click Unblock. 3. Double-click the .chm file to open the file. More information is available in the KB article – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902225/EN-US/  

On Tuesday, November 28, 2006, Rights Management Services Client with Service Pack 2 (KB917275) was downloaded by WSUS Server as classified under Service Packs. According to Brian Lich [MSFT], “The RMS client should be not offered via WSUS because it is not considered a critical update.  We are investigating this.” The RMS client is offered on Windows Update and Microsoft Update to Windows 2000 and Windows XP computer as an Optional/Recommended update.  It’s also available on the Microsoft Download Center. I have approved this update for INSTALL and so far I haven’t seen any issue. Happy patching!  

A question was asked in the WSUS Mailing List (hosted by Shavlik Technologies on www.patchmanagement.org) –   I am using WSUS 2.0 and I was wondering if there was a way to extract the computer hardware information it collects?   Oh yes, this is possible.   You can extract computer hardware data in table ‘dbo.tbComputerTarget’ in SUS database (SUSDB). You can query for the following information;   TargetID        ComputerID    SID     LastSyncTime LastReportedStatusTime      LastReportedRebootTime          IPAddress      FullDomainName        OSMajorVersion        OSMinorVersion        OSBuildNumber          OSServicePackMajorNumber  OSServicePackMinorNumber  OSLocale       ComputerMake          ComputerModel         BiosVersion    BiosName       BiosReleaseDate       ProcessorArchitecture          ClientGuid      RequestedTargetGroupName IsRegistered   For instance, you can query it directly using SQL … Continue reading Extract computer hardware information from WSUS

Talkr.com allows you to listen to text-only blogs on your iPod. It’s a free service to convert the blog text into podcast (Podcasting your blog). Registration is very easy. Once registered, you can add your blog RSS Feed in Talkr Partners Account. This is for your information. Happy podcasting. More information is available on http://www.talkr.com. Listen to this article

Many a times folks in WSUS newsgroup want to know if – Is there a way to disable the SSL warning in the To-Do list in WSUSAdmin Console? To Do List   Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) WSUS has detected that you are not using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Microsoft recommends using SSL to secure administration and client to server communications for better security. For more information, see Using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).   I used to answer that as – “That is not documented anywhere!!. We will have to live with that”. But, thanks to Josh (poster in NG) for … Continue reading Disable the SSL warning in the To Do List

lf the logged in user is part of Local Administrators group, then he can use the custom install option to unselect the updates which will be eventually hidden. These updates will not be offered by the WUA at the next detection/scheduled installation time. Scripting Guru Torgeir Bakken has posted an excellent .vbs script to unhide those hidden updates. According to Torgeir Bakken (MVP) If you are afraid that some users will hide some updates using the custom install option, here is a counter-measure you can use if the computers are in an Active Directory domain. Use a script that unhides all … Continue reading Un-hide hidden updates

Steven Manross has created Windows Server Update Services add-ons in the form of an SQL stored procedure and .vbs / Perl scripts to determine if computers currently show as needing updates. The SQL stored procedure (spSRMCountComputersNeedingUpdates.sql) is used in conjunction with the WSUSReport.vbs or (WSUSReport.pl) scripts to automatically notify an admin via email that there are computers needing Windows Security-related updates. In step 1, let’s add the sql stored procedure on WSUS Database Server and in step 2 we will run the .vbs script scripts to automatically notify WSUS Administrator via email that there are computers needing updates. SAMPLE OUTPUT … Continue reading Windows Server Update Services add-ons — by Steven Manross

WSUS SP1 Readme is updated (on 21st June 2006) with known issues once you apply WSUS SP1. Readme for WSUS Service Pack 1: This document describes known issues affecting Windows Server Update Services Service Pack 1 (WSUS SP1). New Known Issues: Issue 6: If you are using a proxy server, the SP1 upgrade may clear the proxy configuration username and password Issue 7: How to recover from a failed upgrade to restore your WSUS server to a consistent state and then retry the upgrade. Issue 8: WSUS SP1 upgrade can fail in some cases when the WMSDE database has been migrated Issue … Continue reading WSUS SP1 Readme Updated!!