SBS 2003 BSA, SUS and Patching West Memphis AR

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

In the world of biotech, a double-blind test is often run to validate research results. While I’m not going to suggest you go out and get a grant from the Springer Spaniels Limited Medical Research Foundation to accomplish this, I am going to suggest you take another update step to cover your backside as an SBSer.

While I’m a big fan of the Automatic Update capability in SBS 2003, I still sleep better when I also download, install, and run the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). This tool is similar to Automatic Update in that you analyze and apply suggested updates. You can download MBSA from www.microsoft.com/security (a file titled mbsasetup.msi as of this writing). Note you might be asked to install Microsoft XML Parser 3.0 Service Pack 2.5 which can be obtained from www.microsoft.com/msdn.

Software Update Service

A lot of noise is being made in the infrastructure community about Software Update Service (SUS). As of this writing, many of us in the SBS community have been “playing” with the first release and learning it along the way. I’ve found success in using it to update SBS server machines, but neither Burl (a gentleman who works for me) nor I have found out how to efficiently use SUS to support a wide and diverse range of workstations on a network. This is where the promise of SUS version 2.0 resides (and unfortunately was not available at press time for testing).

Notes:

 Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

But back up just a second. What is SUS? The SUS experience is shown in Figure 5-7 and described step-wise below.

Figure 5-7

A well-worn Microsoft presentation slide has been recast and is shown in an SBS scenario.

The SUS / SBS process is as follows.

Step #1: Microsoft develops and releases security updates, security rollups, and service packs to its Windows Update site. Step #2: The SBS 2003 server machine you’ve configured with SUS rings the Windows Update site to receive these updates. Step #3: You approve selected updates and apply them on your mothership SBS 2003 server machine.

Step #4: Your customers’ sites have SBS server mach...