Desktop Patch Management

[Jenny]

We have a requirement to maintain all patches on all
desktops, for high risk patch fixes within 30 days after
they are released by microsoft.

We are looking at 2500 nodes, and it really doesn't
matter if the patch crashes the system, as long as it is
applied.

Very odd, but this is what I am faced with. We looked at
SUS Server, but it just doesn't fit our needs because we
lock the desktops down, and elevated privlages are
needed. Also, we are running an NT 4 enviorment.

we are currently looking at Shavlik, has anyone used this
or had any experiences with it or can recommend a better
patch managemnet system with a similar price?

Thanks.

 

[Karl Levinson [x y] mvp]

Elevated privileges are needed for SUS? I don't believe that is true. SUS
can install patches regardless of the permissions of the logged in user.

The advantage to SUS is that it's free and the client software is already
installed on the clients it supports. SUS 2.0 will probably be out in the
first half of this year and will have a lot of new features that fix many of
the shortcomings of SUS 1.x You're right that SUS won't update Windows NT
clients and can't be run from an NT server.

 

[Guest]

Patchlink is an agent based patch managment solution, patches are generally ready for deployment in four hours. As an agent based PMS the agent is considered an administrator on that machine. Preventing you from having to grant privledges everytime you want to do a deployment. If you are interested in more information contact me at craigt@(remove this)iis.com