We'll be at TechEd again this year with our demo packed sessions!  We'll also have a booth on the expo floor that you can drop by anytime to ask questions of the Essentials product team.

Check out our sessions and more at http://www.msteched.com!

A question came up in the Technet forums around content caching, and what variables exist to adjust it.   The footprint of cached content on the wSUS/SCE server take into consideration four variants:

• Products (XP/2K3 as examples)
• Classifications (Seciruty / Critical / Service packs)
• Languages (EN, DE, JA, etc..)
• Choosing to utilize Express files ( I will explain this one in more detail below)

SCE default configuration will bring in nearly 8GB of content; provided your needs stay within one language. 

...Now about Express files..

There are two ways that a package can install on your managed systems; Stand-alone, or Express.  For stand-alone, all the possible changes which can happen during that installation are contained in the package.  Let's say Foo.Dll is revising to 1.2, and Bar.Exe is revising to 1.3.  In this case, the old Foo.Dll and Bar.exe would be removed from the system, and the new ones applied.  This is the safest, and most common way patching happens.  However, it means that the entire package travels across the LAN/WAN when installation is necessary.

In the Express scenario, it may be that Workstation1 already had Foo.dll version 1.2, but not the latest version of Bar.dll.  It's neighbor, Workstation2 had just the opposite.  If the EXPRESS files were present, Workstation1 and 2 would ask the SCE/WSUS server for only the binary ranges it needed, and the acutal bytes which went across your LAN/WAN would be very close in footprint to the bytes which were needed to simply replace the specific files targeted. 

So, Express seems to be the winner here (almost).  In order to provide this optimization, the Update Services infrastructure needs to have fault tolerance.  Express packages will not work for 100% of the systems in need of patching.  Therefore, enabling express option means that the system will download the standalone version of an update as well as the Express version of that update.  Should it need to fall-back due to failure, the standalone version will be locally available.  Also, the express files are 2-4 times as large as the standalone packages. 

The tradeoff question is:  Should the optimization target ingress to the WSUS server at the cost of more LAN/WAN traffic, or the converse? 

Over the past six months, many within the System Center Essentials community provided feedback on the inability of SCE to show which updates and software are needed by managed systems.  Workarounds exist today for Microsoft Update content, but when it comes to locally-published content, or driver content obtained from a partner catalog the question remains unanswered. 

It is possible to call into the WSUS 3.0 APIs and obtain this information through the use of Powershell scripting using the steps below.

1. Install PowerShell on your SCE server, or workstation running the SCE remote management console. 
2. Copy the attached script, and save it as 'NeededContent.ps1'
3. Launch the powershell console window 
4. Sign the file, or set script execution to 'unrestricted' by running the following command:  Set-ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted  !! Note - It is important to understand the possible risks of running unsigned scripts.  More details at:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc137728.aspx 
5. Call the file from the powershell console window.  If it was located at d:\myscripts\ , the command would read:  PS > D:\myscripts\NeededContent.ps1

Additional notes -

• You will need to execute the script in the context of a WSUS administrator, or WSUS reporter role. 
• The script allows for the display of Microsoft Update content as well, but it will take considerably longer to execute due to the large volume of updates. 
• The script will filter out packages which are declined.

Hope this helps! 
/Ty

If you're attending the Microsoft Management Summit this week in Las Vegas, be sure to stop by the Essentials booth on expo floor, or catch us at one of the many sessions we are hosting this week.

 http://www.mms-2008.com

If you are receiving alerts “Performance Module could not find a performance counter” in the Essentials Console, please perform thefollowing steps to disable the rule via override.

1.       Navigate to the Authoring Space in the Console.

2.       Select “Rules” under “Management Pack Objects”.

3.       Type “Performance Data Source Module” in the “Look for:” box and click “Find Now”.  Be sure a Scope is not set or filtering the “Health Service” Target.

4.       Find the rule, “Performance Data Source Module could not find a performance counter” under “Type: Health Service (2)”, right-click, select “Overrides”, “Disable the Rule”, “For all objects of type:  Health Service”.

5.       When prompted, “Are you sure you want to disable this rule for Health Service?” click “Yes”.

Microsoft is working on the long-term solution to address this problem.

Thanks, Dustin Jones