Best Scenerio WSUS Test Machines Setup

win2k8

Hey guys,

What kind of setups do you have to test your WSUS patches before deploying to production machines on the network? I was thinking of using combination of virtual machines that have an image of a current XP and current Vista computer on the network, is a good idea? Only downside would be some downtime for the users chosen for the test during the image process. Also not sure how to test this for our Windows Server 2003 production environment? Any feedback or advice would be appreciated. Not sure

Thanks,

win2k8

dynamik

I think a lot of it depends on what your environment looks like. There are a lot of small businesses that only use Office applications and a web browser, so I just set them up to be completely automatic. There are other ones that use custom software that has had known problems with updates, so they do have test setups.

win2k8

Dynamik,

Thank you for your reply. Do you think it is a good idea to set atleast the Security Updates to automatic install? Since, security updates are important, atleast I do no thtink they impact applications that much if any at all.

Thanks,

win2k8

dynamik

They can actually impact apps quite a bit; some action an application was performing may no longer be allowed. Like I said, it really depends on what apps you're running. You're pretty much guaranteed to not have any problems with other MS apps, such as Office. However, if you're using some custom/proprietary app, you'd be in a totally different situation.

win2k8

We are an all Microsoft shop pretty much. Office 2007, 2003, xp, vista, server 2003, etc..

So i am guessing its okay to automatically install rather than test first. I mean i've heard some people say some patch in microsoft messed up their machines i'm talking about at home though not in the office, so I am kind of worried.

Thanks,

win2k8