Patch Management

[Bomber]

Hi all,

we have about 50 PC's on our network and 3 Servers. What would you recommend
as the easiest way to manage these, as far as patch management and critical
updates go ?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,

Adam

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

we have about 50 PC's on our network and 3 Servers. What would you recommend
as the easiest way to manage these, as far as patch management and critical
updates go ?

Hi

You could consider implementing SUS (free) or something similar (links to some
3rd party products further down) for security patches.

Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sus/default.mspx

Patch Management Using Microsoft Software Update Services - Operations Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/msm/swdist/pmsusog.asp

Note that the current version will only install critical updates and security
rollup packages (SRPs), as well as SP4 for Win2k and SP1 for WinXP.

A new version is in the works:
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

SUS needs to be installed on a IIS server. Supports Win2k, WinXP and Win2k3
clients only. SP1 for WinXP and SP3/4 for Win2k installs the WU/SUS client as
default.


There is a separate newsgroup for SUS:
microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs

URL to the group softwareupdatesvcs for those who uses the Web
interface to access the newsgroups:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsser...t.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.softwareupdatesvcs




A Web site about SUS with a FAQ and a SUS forum:

SUSserver.com
http://www.susserver.com/

More Web sites about SUS
http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/sus/faq.html
http://www.faqshop.com/sus/default.htm
http://computing.fusion13.com/SUS/Microsoft-Software-Update-Services-SUS.shtml


When evaluating hotfix administration methods/programs,
there are also 3rd party solutions available that will
give a lot more than what SUS offer, but of course, they
are not free. It is as always a cost/benefit analyze that
needs to be done.

Below is links to a 3rd party product example that does
not need a server to run and no IIS is needed (it supports
NT4 clients as well). You can deploy mostly all types of
hotfixes and service packs from an ordinary workstation
if you want.


UpdateEXPERT from Sunbelt
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/product.cfm?id=357

UpdateEXPERT reseller with a price list
http://www.softwareshelf.com/products/display.asp?p=71


Shavlik's HFNetChkPro/HFNetChkLT
If 10 computers or less htfnetchkLT is free (http://www.shavlik.com), it can
scan and push patches. It also finds patches needed for Office as well, and it
gives a really nice graphical analysis of the patch from truesecure.

Here is a third party product that supports Win9x and WinME as well:

PatchLink's Update
http://www.patchlink.com