WSUS 3.0 - Service Pack 2 released to web

  • Article

WSUS 3.0 SP2 delivers important customer-requested management, stability, and performance improvements. Some of the features and improvements include the following:

  • Integration with Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Support for the BranchCache feature in Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 clients.
  • Compliance Report
  • Windows Update Agent (WUA) offers a collection of performance enhancements, user experience improvements, and bug fixes software updates.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 can be installed alone, or as an upgrade of WSUS 3.0 SP1.
This package installs both the WSUS 3.0 SP2 Server, WSUS 3.0 SP2 Administration Console components and WUA client for down-level operating system. You must install the server components on a computer that is running on Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later versions. You may install the Administration Console on a remote computer that is running one of the supported operating systems, see below the Supported Operating Systems section.
WSUS 3.0 SP2 Server Installation on Windows Small Business Server 2003
If you are installing the WSUS 3.0 SP2 product on Windows Small Business Server 2003, follow the instructions in Installing Windows Server Update Services 3.0 on Windows Small Business Server 2003.

The download is available here - https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=a206ae20-2695-436c-9578-3403a7d46e40&displaylang=en.

Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Features and Fixes

This document highlights the feature improvements and important software updates provided in the Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 (WSUS 3.0 SP2) release.

New Windows Server and Client Version Support

  • Integration with Windows Server® 2008 R2
  • Support for the BranchCache feature on Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Support for Windows 7 clients

WSUS Feature Improvements

Auto-Approval Rules
  • Auto-approval rules now include the ability to specify the approval deadline date and time for all computers or specific computer groups.
Update Files and Languages
  • Improved handling of language selection for downstream servers includes a new warning dialog that appears when you decide to download updates only for specified languages.
Easy Upgrade
  • WSUS 3.0 SP2 can be installed as an in-place upgrade from earlier versions of WSUS and will preserve all of your settings and approvals. The user interface is compatible between WSUS 3.0 SP1 and SP2 on the client and the server.
Reports
  • New Update and Computer Status reports provide the ability to filter on updates approved for installation. You can run these reports from the WSUS console or use the API to incorporate this functionality into your own reports.

Software Updates

  • Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses greater than 40 characters.
  • The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.
  • Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.
  • A new release of Windows Update Agent is included with WSUS 3.0 SP2 that provides improvements and fixes, such as support for APIs called by non-local system callers in a non-interactive session.

For more information about this release see the WSUS 3.0 SP2 Release Notes at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139840.

System Requirements

  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows Vista Service Pack 2; Windows XP Service Pack 3
  • Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 SP1 or later versions, Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later versions, Windows Small Business Server 2008, Windows Small Business Server 2003 and Windows XP SP3
  • WSUS 3.0 SP2 Server Software Prerequisites:
  • Notice that additional prerequisites apply for Windows Small Business Server. See the “Windows Small Business Server Prerequisites” section for more information.
  • Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 or later versions
  • The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or later versions
  • Server component cannot be installed on Windows client OS
  • You must have one of the following supported databases installed:
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express, Standard, or Enterprise Edition SQL Server 2005 SP2
    • Windows Internal Database
    • If one of the supported versions of SQL Server is not installed, the WSUS 3.0 SP2 Setup Wizard will install Windows Internal Database.
  • Microsoft Management Console 3.0
  • Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 requires WSUS 3.0 SP2. If you use Windows Server 2008 R2, then you should install WSUS 3.0 SP2. Do not install WSUS 3.0 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • WSUS 3.0 SP2 is not supported for use with Terminal Services on the front-end server in a remote SQL configuration.
  • WSUS 3.0 SP2 WUA client will not update Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 clients.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 Administration Console Software Prerequisites:

  • Administration Console-only installation can be installed on supported operating systems.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or later versions.
  • Microsoft Management Console 3.0 or later versions.
  • Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008.

Nick.