WSUS approving updates

[bondbill2k2]

I have setup a WSUS server for our network and need to ask how do I go about approving updates, I know I can click and approve per group, all groups or inherit but I have over 5500 updates to approve, should I approve a few at a time? If so which ones? Can I delete any update which says this update is superseded?...Where do I start?

A large amount of these updates are already on machines or from vista or s2008r2 which we do not use.

 

Thanks!

[SYNACK]

I just approve the ones that are needed by computers, there is a filter bit that lets you distil it doen to needed and unapproved then you can just download the ones that you need. Users are going to be itrritated however many you release at once unless you use schedled tasks or something to apply them overnight.

[3s-gtech]

First task is boil them down. Itanium? Unlikely you'll have any, so do a search for Itanium, then select all and Decline. You can do this for others, but be wary of doing it for Vista as you'll lose some updates for XP and S2008 that way. Plus, don't decline the 200R2 ones as you'll surely end up with that sooner or later.

[elsiegee40]

Make sure you are only selecting the products you actually need to update using WSUS and then shorten the list using the "Needed" filter rather than all updates.

 

Only approve the needed ones!

[SYNACK]

Yea as above, you can filter it down (the catalogue that is updated) by CPU, Language, product, patch type. Set all of those to your preffered values and then use the needed method I meantioned above.

[FN-GM]

Filter it out to the needed and unproved. Ideally then apply these to a select few machines for testing for a week or so. If all goes well then deploy out to the rest.

[bondbill2k2]

Thanks for the advice guys, Ive changed the products and classification to just the OS's we use, crit updates, security updates, updates and service packs. Auto approval is on default for critical and security updates. Looking at the search filters 5200 of the updates are installed or not applicable to the test room of 10 computers so I will approve all of those for any future computers and others I will be adding, only a few to filter out now

 

My main concern is how deployment will effect users, all machines are set to update at 10:00 as the computers are on then, will I get long load times after setup? I havn't experienced anything bad wit hthe test machines so far

Edited December 6, 2011 by bondbill2k2

[Kaz77]

I do all my updates overnight. The pcs are capable of Wake on LAN, so as long as the sockets haven't been switched off all the updates are done without anyone being aware of it.