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ANU WSUS Server

The Division of Information now offers the campus a centrally supported instance of the Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). WSUS enables administrators to easily deploy critical updates and security updates to Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. WSUS is used by the Automatic Update Client component of Windows 2000 SP3+, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. WSUS does not contain a web interface like WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com.

The ANU WSUS server can be used in two ways.

1. Clients can be configured to directly auto-update from the ANU WSUS server instead of the Microsoft servers, thereby saving time and download costs.
2. Local areas can maintain their own WSUS server and synchronise it with the ANU WSUS server rather then downloading from Microsoft, saving time and download costs. Clients can then be configured to update from the local server.

In both cases the savings for the ANU will be significant. Most patches average about 1.5 MB in size. If thousands of PC's were to download these patches from Microsoft rather than a local server the cost over time would be substantial. The ANU WSUS server offers the same content as the Microsoft server and is synchronised daily with the Microsoft service.

The ANU WSUS server has ALL patches approved by default. This means that the client will attempt to install all required patches. If there is a need for an area to exclude some patches, they will need to implement a local instance of WSUS and synchronise it with the ANU WSUS server.

The ANU WSUS Server supports the following languages:

• English
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Japanese

Additional languages may be added in the future as increased server space becomes available.

How to direct clients to use the ANU WSUS Server using Active Directory Group Policy.

The WSUS Deployment guide from Microsoft contains information on configuring Automatic Update client settings using group policy. Clients should be configured to download from http://WindowsUpdate.anu.edu.au

How to direct clients to use the ANU WSUS Server by modifying the registry.

The WSUS Deployment guide from Microsoft contains information on configuring Automatic Update client settings using registry settings.

Sample registry files, containing comments, are available to

• Configure clients to use the ANU WSUS Server
• Remove ANU WSUS configuration settings

How to configure a local WSUS server to synchronise with the ANU WSUS Server.

Before you install WSUS you should read the deployment guide.

During the installation you will be prompted to select which server WSUS will synchronise content from. Instead of using the Microsoft Windows Server Update servers, enter the URL http://WindowsUpdate.anu.edu.au.

If you have already installed WSUS you can change the setting under "Options"- "Update Source and Proxy Server".

To save disk space on your server you should only select languages used in your area. These languages do not apply to language packs for windows or office, they are only required for foreign language versions of the operating system.