"NickF" <> wrote in message
news:5FA41C5C-63B3-4653-9460-...
>I am fairly new to WSUS. I have scheduled my XP machine to download and
> install (option 4) at 18:00 everyday.
You should be aware that this scheduled event is only an *installation*
event. The downloads will occur around the clock, concurrent with the
completion of a detection that discovered new updates are available, which
by default occurs every 17-22 hours.
> At around 15:00 I authorised 10 updates to be installed, when it got to
> 18:00 the log says no installs so nothing happened.
Correct. First those 10 updates have to be *detected* by the system. If you
approved them at 3pm and your installation is scheduled for 6pm, then first
the computer would have to actually execute a detection between 3pm and 6pm,
the odds of that happening are about 15%. Then, the client would have to
download those 10 updates. Depending on when the detection occurred, some or
all of them might be successfully downloaded by 6pm. If they were, then
they'd be installed.
> When I switched my PC on
> the next day, it does the downloads and tell me they will be installed at
> the
> next update (i.e. 18:00).
Yep.... when you switched the PC on the next day, the *MISSED* detection
event that was scheduled to occur while your PC was powered off was then
performed at power-on. The updates were detected, downloaded, and scheduled
for installation at the Next Available installation event.
> Ideally what I would like to do when I roll this out to the user base
> (around 500 PCs), would be to automatically download and install the
> updates
> on Sunday when the WOL kicks in so scheduled virus scans etc. are
> performed.
So, the first thing to understand is the architecture and design of
Automatic Updates -- which has existed for almost ten years. WSUS is simply
a "local copy" of Microsoft's Automatic Updates functionality, and really
works no different, except that you get to choose which update are installed
by the AU client. I pretty much described that above:
1. The AU client executes a detection every 22 hours (minus a random offset
of 1-20%), effectively causing it to occur every 17.5-22 hours from the last
detection event.
2. If a detection event is missed because the machine is powered off, the
Automatic Updates Service will perform a detection when the machine is
powered back on.
3. Once an update is detected as available and needed, the AU client
initiates the download of the update content.
4. Once the update content is downloaded successfully, it is scheduled for
installation at the next available installation date/time.
Bottom line: In order to successfully perform installations at the desired
date/time, you must ensure the machine is continually powered on from the
time you approve the updates until the installation event. A powered-off
machine cannot detect/download content.
> If I were to authorise my updates on Friday afternoon, would the clients
> pull the updates when the WOL kicks in Sunday so I could then schedule an
> install late on Sunday?
Nope.
> Any advice how this scenario could be achieved?
With the native WSUS environment, you need to leave machines powered on.
Alternately, you may find this third party product to be of some interest,
as it will allow you to explicitly schedule the download and the
installation.
http://www.eminentware.com
--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)
My Blog:
http://onsitechsolutions.spaces.live.com
Microsoft WSUS Website:
http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My MVP Profile:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin
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