Greetings WSUS users,
Some of you might not know that Windows Server 2008 R2 has released an update that added new Best Practice Rules to various Server Manager roles, including one for Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). For more information on Best Practice Analyzer, please read this interesting blog from our Windows Server colleagues. What is BPA you ask? Well, you can use the Best Practices Analyzer to scan a server that is running WSUS. A BPA scan of WSUS can help you determine whether WSUS was properly installed and configured on your server. Scan results are displayed as a list of issues that you can sort by severity, and results include recommendations for fixing issues and links to instructions. No configuration changes are made by running the scan. Download the update and run it today!
If you have any questions about WSUS BPA usage or think about new rules to add, please share them with us in our TechNet forum.
Enjoy!
Cecilia Cole
WSUS Program Manager
A new product category called Windows Small Business Server 2008 Migration Preparation Tool will be added under the product family called Windows Small Business Server. The new category will include critical updates for Microsoft® Small Business Server 2008 Migration Preparation Tool. Updates offered through this category will apply only to computers running Migration Preparation Tool for Windows Small Business Server 2008. For additional information on Small Business Server product family, see http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/default.aspx
WSUS Admins – We would like to notify you of a change you will see starting next week. If your WSUS settings are configured to synchronize the “Drivers” update classification then your server will start syncing drivers designated as “Important.” Important drivers are ones known to address a critical issue. Typically they fix a reliability issue that impacts use of the device or stability of Windows. Important drivers are subject to additional scrutiny and testing, relative to drivers offered optionally through WU to unmanaged clients. For more information, refer to the Windows Logo Program criteria for Important driver updates. In the past, we heard feedback from the WSUS community that too many drivers for variants of similar hardware were crowding the admin consoles, because the drivers appeared identical in the admin console. Because of this feedback, we temporarily stopped targeting drivers to WSUS servers. We developed a solution to consolidate drivers that are applicable to multiple Plug and Play (PNP) IDs into a single driver update for you to manage and distribute. This drastically reduces the number of driver updates that need to be published, while ensuring you are receiving the latest driver updates that are proven to fix known issues. Even with this improvement, you will still see multiple driver updates for the same changes in some scenarios, but this should be less burdensome than before. As a reminder, you can import any driver update to your WSUS server using the “Import updates…” action in your admin console. http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/faq.aspx - WSUS team
WSUS Admins –
We would like to notify you of a change you will see starting next week. If your WSUS settings are configured to synchronize the “Drivers” update classification then your server will start syncing drivers designated as “Important.”
Important drivers are ones known to address a critical issue. Typically they fix a reliability issue that impacts use of the device or stability of Windows. Important drivers are subject to additional scrutiny and testing, relative to drivers offered optionally through WU to unmanaged clients. For more information, refer to the Windows Logo Program criteria for Important driver updates.
In the past, we heard feedback from the WSUS community that too many drivers for variants of similar hardware were crowding the admin consoles, because the drivers appeared identical in the admin console. Because of this feedback, we temporarily stopped targeting drivers to WSUS servers. We developed a solution to consolidate drivers that are applicable to multiple Plug and Play (PNP) IDs into a single driver update for you to manage and distribute. This drastically reduces the number of driver updates that need to be published, while ensuring you are receiving the latest driver updates that are proven to fix known issues. Even with this improvement, you will still see multiple driver updates for the same changes in some scenarios, but this should be less burdensome than before.
As a reminder, you can import any driver update to your WSUS server using the “Import updates…” action in your admin console. http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/faq.aspx
- WSUS team