One of the challenges that comes with running a network is keeping your operating systems patched and secure. In response to this problem, Microsoft has released Windows Server Update Service 3.0 SP2 as a means to centrally download updates and control how they are deployed to the computers throughout your network. Additionally, WSUS provides extensive reporting features to quickly give you a snapshot of your computers’ status. If your network is big enough to have a server and use Active Directory, it’s big enough to benefit from using WSUS.

Despite the relative sophistication of Windows Server Update Service, it’s fairly easy to get a basic installation up and running. The prerequisites are a server running Windows Server 2003 SP1 or greater, IIS 6.0 or greater, .NET 2.0 framework, and Report Viewer 2008 Redistributable 2008. If you run SQL server 2005 SP2 or greater, you can use that. Otherwise the Windows Internal Database will be installed automatically. It’s worth taking a look at the WSUS 3.0 SP2 release notes for more detailed requirements.