RE: [Unattended] Windows auto update how to?

[Jeff B. <je...@ha...>]

> Ok, this is a bit of a premature announcement, but since it came up...
> 
> My team is working on an open source alternative to SUS. That is, an
> open source client/server package that will automatically download
> Windows updates from Microsoft and allow clients to pull those updates
> from the server.


If these are the only requirements then it seems squid does a VERY good 
job of this already. If you need to FILTER the hotfixes / updates then 
squid may or may not work in your situation. I have never downloaded a
ms update twice, its cached locally after the 1st workstation downloads 
it, even months later another workstation just pulls that same update from
the squid cache. In my case it's a squid transparent cache so the client 
isn't even aware that it is using squid....

> 
> I should note that this effort shares certain philosophical points with
> Unattended and I believe it will complement Unattended very well.
> However, it is not being created as a plugin or extension to Unattended.
> Specifically, we are looking for a controlled and open-source solution
> to distribute critical updates to our Win boxes without using IIS (which
> is required by SUS) or, in general, a Win server to host those updates.
> And so we need something that will work beyond install-time for Windows.
> It will be very possible to couple this or perhaps include it in
> Unattended (that's not a request, just a musing), but it is being
> created as a stand-alone project.

Will you be attempting to use the MS Windows Update v4 (5?) ActiveX Control 
or will you have your own solution to pick/install updates on the client side?

Something that could be used transparently to filter the updates would be $

> 
> There are already some other free (as in beer) alternatives to SUS
> available but I haven't found one yet that suits our needs. If anyone
> has any solutions or works-in-progress you think we should take into
> account, I welcome the feedback. Also, I don't intend for this project
> to derail or replace any ongoing efforts to potentially improve Windows
> update mechanisms with Unattended, I just thought it was relevant enough
> that I should mention it.
> 
> You can expect an alpha announcement within a month.
> 
> Thanks,
> Matt Disney
> IT Administrator
> Electrical and Computer Engineering
> University of Tennessee