darlodge

A quick question,

We are running WSUS to update across multiple sites.

All our workstations turn on at 4am and then update and restart at 5am.

As our laptop users are not in the office at 5am, I enabled Reschedule Automatic Updates Scheduled Installations (with a maximum value of 30minutes) which means that any pc that missed the scheduled install time at 5am, will install the updates upto 30 minutes after the PC next reports back to the WSUS server which is triggered when a user logs into windows when on the domain.

I want to get the laptop users to automatically install the updates the same as the workstations but I cannot see any other way except creating another OU and placing all the laptop computer accounts into this and then assigning a new GPO with the Reschedule Automatic Updates Scheduled Installations value set.

How do you install updates for PC's that do not report regularly like a workstation? Manually is not an option.

Darren

Foot_Tapper

No idea how WSUS is configured..but wouldn't the updates just kick off next time the laptop was logged into , on the network ?

darlodge

That's basically what I am suggesting with the different GPO.

I'll give an example, workstation 1 has 6 updates to be installed, 3 are installed and the workstation is restarted at 5am. If the rescheduled installations value is enabled, the other 3 updates will be installed when someone logs in at say 9am.

The workstations will then shutdown within 30 minutes of the install starting. For laptops I don't mind this, however I can't have this happen on our call centre machines as they will all restart at the same time about roughtly 9:30.

I can't see anyother way of doing it?

Darren

Foot_Tapper

Just read the "No Auto-restart for scheduled updates installations"
(below Reschedule Automatic Updates Scheduled Installations)

its states that to complete a scheduled installation, auto updates will wait for the user who is logged on, to restart the machine.

if the status is set to "on", updates will not restart it if a user is logged in.

Does that mean that if a user is NOT logged in AND the status set to "ON", the restart would go ahead as normal ???

darlodge

I currently have No Auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations disabled as I kept read on the internet that it is bad practice to have the PC's pending a restart for hours as the system locks certain files as they have been updated.

Currently if an administrator is logged into Windows, nothing happens; they choose to install their update

If a normal users is logged in at 5am, the updates are installed silently, the user will then receive a pop up box to say you have 30 minutes to restart, if they ignore this (which they will as they are not there), the PC will automatically restart, without warning.

If no user is logged in, and windows is at the Alt-Ctrl-Del stage, the updates are installed silently again and then a restart is performed. When the user gets in at 8am, their PC has been updated and they are none the wiser.

This works fine and we do not have a problem with it at all, it’s just the laptop users who are not in the office at 5am. What's the best way to update them automatically?

Darren

Foot_Tapper

What about WSUS groups - can it schedule to install updates at certain times for subsets of machines ?

we used to use scripts here, for remote laptop users, but was fiddly,
oh and all in same ou.
At the end of the day they still had to restart at some stage, whichever way u look at it. Although the install was silent.

darlodge

All WSUS groups enable you to do is make it easier for WSUS to report on out of date computers and make it easier on the eye.

The way to get machines to install at a different times is via another ou and another GPO which is what it looks like I am going to have to do.

Thanks for the assistance

Darren

stiscooby

Im sorry I can't help with your issue but I have a question of my own regarding WSUS (sorry if im hijacking your thread a bit here)...

I have recently set this up and created a new OU and configured the policy within this OU for the Windows Updates (server the workstations point to etc etc) but when I move the relevant users into this OU and log one of these users in, their computer doesn't appear in the computers list in WSUS.

So it would seem that the policy from this OU isn't being applied, but..... if I change something else within this same policy i.e hide control panel, and log the same user on again it works (removes control panel).

The only way I can seem to get users computers to appear in the computer list in WSUS is to make the change to the default domain policy rather than the policy in the new OU. I put in the same settings for each policy.

Any ideas what the problem might be here???

darlodge

stiscooby,

WSUS settings should be set in a Computer Policy. Then move the Computer accounts, not users accounts into that OU.

To force detection at a cmd prompt type

Net stop wuauserv
Net start wuauserv

Darren

stiscooby

darlodge,

Many thanks for that, I will give it a try.