Windows Update
Corporate Edition

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Today, corporations have to frequently check the Windows Update site or the Microsoft Security Web site for patches. Then they have to manually download patches that have been made available since they last visited the site, test the patches, and then distribute the patches manually or by using their traditional software-distribution tools. Windows Update Corporate Edition solves these problems.

Windows Update Corporate Edition provides dynamic notification of critical updates to Windows computers whether or not they have Internet access. Additionally, this technology provides a simple and automatic solution for distributing those updates to your corporate Windows desktops and servers.

The Windows Update Corporate Edition solution addresses the need for critical patch-management within corporations by providing:

An administrator-controlled content synchronization service within the intranet

The synchronization service is a server-side component that retrieves the latest critical updates from the public Windows Update service. As new updates are added to the Windows Update service, they are downloaded automatically based on the administrator-defined schedule.

An intranet-hosted Windows Update server

This easy-to-use server acts as the virtual Windows Update server for client computers. It contains the synchronization service and administrative tools for managing updates.

Administrator control over updates

The administrator controls which updates from the public Windows Update service are approved for deployment (after internal testing, if required) and when the set of approved updates are deployed. The administrator also controls which computers on the network are allowed to download and install updates from a particular Windows Update corporate server.

An intelligent client-side agent on computers (desktops or servers)

The client-side agent checks the intranet-hosted Windows Update server to automatically determine which updates are needed, download administrator-approved updates in the background, and auto-install updates if a schedule has been set by the administrator.

The Windows Update Corporate Edition solution consists of both client-side and server-side components to provide a basic solution to critical patch management.

Client-side features

The client is based on the Windows Update Automatic Updates technology. Automatic Updates is a proactive pull service that enables users with administrative privileges to automatically download and install Windows updates such as critical operating-system fixes and Windows security patches.

The features include:

Built-in security
Just-in-time validation
Background downloads
Chained installation
Multi-user awareness
Manageability
Multi-language support

Supported Platforms:

The Automatic Updates Client runs on Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server (all running Service Pack 2 or later) and it also runs on Windows XP Professional.

Server-sidefeatures

Windows Update Corporate Edition is based on the same back-end technology used on the public Windows Update site that has been servicing Windows customers since mid-1998.

The features include:

Built-in security
Selective content approval
Content synchronization
Update package hosting flexibility
Content import/export
Multi-language support
Remote administration via HTTP
Update status logging
Server status

Supported Platforms:

Windows Update Corporate Edition runs on Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 2 or later, and on the Windows .NET Server family. Internet Information Services (IIS) must be enabled on the server.

Administrative requirements

The four main administrative tasks for Windows Update Corporate Edition are:

Server configuration after initial installation
Synchronization (manual and automatic) of content between the public Windows Update service and the Windows Update corporate server
Selection and approval of synchronized content to be published to computers running the Automatic Updates client
Monitoring of server status and logs

Reviewing server actions and server health

Because most Windows Update Corporate Edition tasks involve the synchronization and approval of updates, two logs (synchronization and approval) are provided to the administrator. These logs are stored in XML files in an administrator-accessible folder on the server. New information is always appended to these files, so they will need to be cleaned up manually by the administrator.

A server-monitoring page is provided for the administrator to view the status of updates for target computers, because these are stored in RAM and might occasionally need to be refreshed.

Synchronization log

This log contains the following synchronization information:

Time that the last synchronization was performed
Time of the next sync if scheduled synchronization is enabled
The update packages that have been downloaded and/or updated since the last synchronization
The update packages that failed synchronization

The log can be accessed from the left navigation pane of the administrator's Windows Update Corporate Edition UI.

Approval log

This log contains the following information:

A record of each time the list of approved packages was changed
The list of items that changed
The new list of approved items
A record of who made this change; that is, the server administrator or the synchronization service

The log can be accessed from the left navigation pane in the administrative UI.

Server health

The health of the Windows Update corporate server, with respect to providing updates to client computers, can be reviewed through the Monitor Server page accessible via the left navigation pane in the administrative UI.

E-mail notification

An e-mail notification service is provided to notify Windows Update Corporate Edition server administrators of new updates, revised previous updates, and so on.

For more information, see the following resources:

Availability

This product is not yet available. It will be available in the 2nd half of 2002.