Windows Update management tool

[Dave Slinn]

We are running WSUS on our network (about 100 PCs, 15 physical servers and
about 20-30 virtual ones). We have group policy set to push windows
updates and auto install them every thursday at 3:00a for the PCs. However,
for the servers, they are simply downloaded and right now, it is a manual
process for the sysadmins to log onto each server, click Install and then
reboot. This is usually done from a central PC using Remote Desktop and
done late in the evening on the weekend to avoid business disruption. When
we first started doing this, there were only about 8 physical servers (no
virtual ones), so it wasn't really a big deal. However, with the number of
server instances we have to manage - 35-45, this is becoming a bit of a
pain.

Is there any tool out there where all the servers can be managed from a
central console where all the servers can be viewed at once, instead of
having to remote into each and every one? This would greatly improve the
process of rolling out windows updates to all the servers. Is this a
feature of any of the System Center products or is there a power tool
available from MS that does this?

And for the record, I'm just not comfortable in letting windows
automatically install updates and reboot the servers like we do with the
PCs, but if anyone else is rolling out updates to their servers with this
method, I would love to here about their experience with it.

[jtr...@catt.com]

Dave-

Check out EminentWare's WSUS Extension Pack. It's pretty reasonably
priced ($1295 for 100 servers), and I think it will do just what you
need. We'll be using it in our environment just for managing a few
dozen Windows servers and ensuring they get patched: http://www.eminentware.com/

I found out about it on the WSUS team blog, and they are a partner
company to MS.

Cheers-

John