SUS and Patch Dependancies

[RP]

Question regarding SUS and how Patch Dependancies are
handled.

I have and W2K Server environment that we're currently
preparing to implement SUS for. Up to now our 300 +
servers have been patched either manually or thru
packaged distribution. We've standardized on x number of
patches, however I'm taking the worse case thought that
in our environment there are going to be a large number
of servers that have the majority of our standard patches
but still missing a few.

The struggle I'm having is with the intial deployment,
since many of the MS security hotfixes have dependancies
of a previous hotfix before they can be installed or
required reboots . I want to avoid multiple reboots if
possible since it is a production server environment and
we want to ensure end user disruption is minimal.

Scenario
- All standard updates and hotfixes are approved on SUS
Admin Server
- SUS Client server connects to admin server and
downloads missing patches (A, B, C, D,E )and schedules
the install for x day at x time
- Patch C, D, and E all require a reboot and Patch C is
dependant on Patch A

My questions -
Will Patch A thru E install properly and only require a
single reboot regardless of dependancies since SUS will
perform the installations sequentially? or will I be
required to shedule multiple reboots for each patch that
requires a reboot before additional ones can be installed?

If multiple reboots are required, does anyone know of a
good site to easily identify patch dependancies so I can
plan for a staggered approach for my initial SUS
deployment?

Any guidance is appreciated and thanks in advance

 

[Steven L Umbach]

I believe [not 100 percent sure for all cases] that you will not have to do
multiple reboots, particularly if service pack 3 is being used. However I
suggest you also post in the newsgroup for SUS which would be
Microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs . The link below may be helpful. ---
Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=296861

Note QChain.exe functionality is included in all Windows Server 2003,
Windows XP, and Windows 2000 product updates that use Update.exe and that
were released since May 18, 2001. However, an issue exists in product
updates that were released before December 2002 that may apply the wrong
binary on your computer in some circumstances. In March 2003, Microsoft
released an updated version of QChain.exe to resolve this issue. For
additional information about this issue or to obtain the updated Qchain.exe
tool, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base: