WSUS Server Specs

[jamin100]

I'm looking into setting up WSUS for the first time. I only have 2 servers as we are only a primary school The one server is the PDC and also holds all the home directories and profiles. The second is the admin server which handles CMIS and sophos etc..

Now, I don't really want to add wsus onto those servers as i think they are overloaded already and i know that ideally i shouldn't have user files on the same server as AD. So i want to know what spec server I need to handle WSUS.

I have read the MS documentation that says a server with a 750mhz processor and 1 GIG RAM would do but those specs seem a bit low. Could anyone point me in the right direction.


Also if you could recommend a cheap ish server to do the job then that would be great.

Thanks

More Info:

Server1 - Curriculum
Dual Xeon 3GHZ
2GB RAM
Windows Server 2003
RAID 5

Running
Active Directory
DHCP
DNS
Ghost
User Profiles
User Directories
Backup Exec - Tape Drive
All Printers
Print Manager Plus

Server 2 - Admin
Dual Xeon 3GHZ
2GB RAM
Windows Server 2003
RAID 1

Running
Sophos EM
CMIS & EPortal

[Pete10141748]

Ether of those 2 servers are more than capable of running the WSUS.

We have a similar server to your server #1, it runs DNS/DHCP/File storage and WSUS, all works perfectly.

You'll need around 50-100GB of your HDD memory free to do it though )

[jamin100]

Admin server 160GB Free
Curriculum Server 152GB Free

I might look into it over the holiday

[ricki]

Hi

I had a similar problem and I purchased a stone tower pc with a sata raid card and 4 drives.

I install wsus and sohos and it works a treat.

Give them a ring on 01785285648 and talk to them they will make one to your spec if you want, or have a look at something like a Dell PowerEdge™ SC440.

If all you want it for a a wsus box you dont have to have it sing and dance.

Remeber if you want it to do other things paying a bit more now could save you money in the long run.

[KarlGoddard]

we have wsus running on a Virtual machine!

if I remember right the reason was.... ages ago we used to have sus on a 'normal' server and sus started to encounter quite a few probs. The previous IT manager spent ages looking at fixes to sort the problem, ended up speaking to MS who told him - ohhh you'll have to reinstall 2003!!!!

Not something you really want to do on a live server at the best of times, so it went on a virtual machine and works pretty well for us!

Not to certain off the top of my head of the set up, but I can check and let you know if that's of any help

[cookie_monster]

Untill recently we had a 1Ghz box with 1Gb RAM running 2003 server, this was an intranet server, hosted 18 laser printers and was the WSUS server for 450 clients. It coped with that load no problem in fact i never noticed it running slow, it deployed updates for 2K, XP, 2003, Office 2003 and SQL Server and it used about 14 Gig disk space for all of that.

I should add that we didn't deploy OS SP's from it as our base build images were on the latest SP but we did have Office SP's.

Any server that you buy now will easily handle the load in fact you could put it on an old workstation, if it goes wrong you can just reinstall and it downloads updates again WSUS doesn't really hold any critical data.

[jamin100]

Ok, Thanks for that info guys.

So how easy is it to set up? Never had to install Windows server before. That'll go on easy enough.. do i then just join it to the domain like any other XP machine?

[timzim]

Never had to install Windows server before

...and once BSF comes along you'll never get the chance again...

[jamin100]

lol... yeh so i need some practice now . . . . .
Not heard anything about BSF for Primary's in Birmingham yet.. Well not at my school anyway.

[cookie_monster]

Windows server is pretty straight forward, WSUS is a bit more complicated i'd get a copy of the deployment guide and have a read.


You feeling the heat of BSF timzim?

[timzim]

London ICT Technicians Conference left me feeling a little cynical. I went to a bookshop straight after and bought a copy of Brave New World...

[jamin100]

Windows server is pretty straight forward, WSUS is a bit more complicated i'd get a copy of the deployment guide and have a read.

Reading it now

[Dos_Box]

I have mine running off Microsoft's Virtual Server from my SAN (the update store is on a separate virtual HD hosted in a different folder on the SAN). Works a treat and can be killed and brought in from backup at a moments notice if it ever goes belly up.

[powdarrmonkey]

You can get away with quite a modest machine, but don't compromise on the hard drive space. Whenever I set one up I add a seperate 160Gb drive to store the updates on. Then if (when) it fills up, it doesn't bring the rest of the machine down as well.

When you've installed Windows join it to the domain as a member server just as you would a workstation. WSUS setup is dead easy, just follow the prompts. Configure the clients to see it through Group Policy.

Unless they're critical, and they'll usually announce so, MS release updates on a Tuesday, so you don't need to have it check every day. If you're going to force users to install the updates ('Download and install at this time of day' I think in GP) I'd do so at lunchtime, because it often means a reboot. You'll hack off less people that way. If you set them to do it out of hours you'll probably find a lot are switched off.

Bon chance.

[mattx]

Quite a low spec my WSUS server - [ which is also running as a Domain Ctrl & Wildfire box ]

Old IBM netfinity server bought of E-bay for about £100 !!
Single P3 500, 2x32 Gig drives mirrored on a IBM Raidcard, 2 gig Ram

Bargin !!