27 replies to this topic

[jmwills]

WSUS is free. The only strict EULA on WHS I know of is the 10 client limit.

[mrossco]

The role is available on the server. From my perspective, if it wasn't ok, then the role shouldn't be available. I don't see the AD roles or many of the other roles available in Standard/Enterprise edition of Windows Server...

I went through the install last night, and it doesn't look like its changed much. I've been meaning to do this for a while as I am constantly building new machines and its nice to not have to re-download updates directly from microsoft.com every time. Thanks for the post!

[jmwills]

You wouldn't see that AD role until you ran the dcpromo command, I think.

[Diceis]

Out of curiousity, where does one stand from a licence agreement point of view.
Is it legal to install WSUS on WHS2011?

Well, personally I dont think its an issue, but out of curiosity I asked around and had this reply from a MVP


Well, if the ROLE is present in Server Manager -- that begs a very interesting question. (I guess I'm going to have to do a test install of WHS.)
Officially, according to published documentation that lists supported deployment environments, WHS is not listed as a supported OS installation platform.
This makes sense, though. WHS is designed for the consumer market; WSUS is, fundamentally, designed for the enterprise. But, fundamentally,
WHS is simply a Windows Server system - and a Server OS with IIS is the only thing needed to run WSUS.

There's nothing "illegal" about installing WSUS on a WHS system -- provided you use it only to patch your home machines -- it just hasn't been tested (to my knowledge),
so you may run into unforseen and unresolvable issues. Please note that "supported" has absolutely nothing to do with "licensed" or "legal".
It's certainly possible to install a legally licensed instance of WSUS into an unsupported environment, just as you could install WSUS into a fully supported environment,
but use it in a manner that is not permitted in the licensing.
"Supported" merely means that it has been tested, is known to work as designed, and if you need Microsoft assistance resolving an issue --
they'll actually talk to you about it. In an "unsupported" environment, typically what you'll get is "Please install the product into a supported environment,
and if the issue continues to exist, feel free to call us back."

I've been meaning to do this for a while as I am constantly building new machines and its nice to not have to re-download updates directly from microsoft.com every time

My thoughts exactly!!

[fredp1]

Thanks for the replies. Since we use whs 2011 and we have licensed clients to deploy updates, then I would think it would be fine to install WSUS. I just wanted to get second opinion.

I'll look at adding WSUS to my server shortly.

[jmwills]

In a recent post, Yodafelt, revealed he has DNS and DHCP enabled on his 2011 box.

[msawyer91]

When you install WSUS make sure you select only the languages you want as well. It is very easy to select a LOT of unwanted updates. You can pick top-level categories, or you can get more granular if you want to fine-tune what you download. For example you should be able to exclude Office 2007 updates if you only have Office 2010. If you don't run any versions of SQL Server, you can skip SQL updates altogether.

Once you've downloaded an update, it's going to live on your drive forever--that is, until you explicitly exclude that update class from the filter AND you decline the update(s) in question. My experience is that an update that has been "approved" won't get purged by the cleanup task. You have to decline it to get rid of it. But, if you forget to exclude it via the filter, it'll probably get sucked down again. So make sure you 1) exclude unwanted updates, 2) decline unwanted updates that are already downloaded and 3) run the cleanup to get rid of unwanted updates permanently.

[Diceis]

Thanks for your help everyone!!!!