Associate
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2007
- Posts
- 795
Our Windows server estate is getting to a size and complexity that manually updating via WSUS is becoming unwieldy.
Once updates are approved for our servers we remote to each one download and install updates via the yellow shield (or update 'blob' on 2k8), then reboot if necessary - which it usually is.
On our critical servers, I see no reason to change this. The hands on approach with confirmation from sysadmins that servers are back up afterwards is important enough to take the time.
However, for our less critical systems I'd like to automate things and would like to know how others manage updates for their servers?
Creating additional group policies for these servers is doable, but wonder if there is something with a bit more 'intelligence'.
For example, we have DHCP redundancy setup so either server can be rebooted, but having both down at the same time would be unpleasant - something that would check that both servers are up before rebooting one would be great.
Also, where there are server dependencies these would make sense to be rebooted at roughly the same time, but would want the SQL server to be available again before the dependant web server was also rebooted.
It feels like this is a simple set of requirements, but I've learned from bitter experience that this doesn't necessarily mean a simple solution.
Any advice or software recommendations are gratefully received.
Little_Crow
Once updates are approved for our servers we remote to each one download and install updates via the yellow shield (or update 'blob' on 2k8), then reboot if necessary - which it usually is.
On our critical servers, I see no reason to change this. The hands on approach with confirmation from sysadmins that servers are back up afterwards is important enough to take the time.
However, for our less critical systems I'd like to automate things and would like to know how others manage updates for their servers?
Creating additional group policies for these servers is doable, but wonder if there is something with a bit more 'intelligence'.
For example, we have DHCP redundancy setup so either server can be rebooted, but having both down at the same time would be unpleasant - something that would check that both servers are up before rebooting one would be great.
Also, where there are server dependencies these would make sense to be rebooted at roughly the same time, but would want the SQL server to be available again before the dependant web server was also rebooted.
It feels like this is a simple set of requirements, but I've learned from bitter experience that this doesn't necessarily mean a simple solution.
Any advice or software recommendations are gratefully received.
Little_Crow
