Update Management Configuration

In Windows EBS, System Center Essentials is used to configure the settings for Microsoft Windows Server Update Services and to manage the distribution of updates from Microsoft Update to managed computers and servers in your network. The following table lists the recommended settings for update management in Windows EBS. These are best practice recommendations for businesses with up to 300 users or computers. These settings help keep your Microsoft products up-to-date with the latest software updates from Microsoft Update.

Note

To help protect your environment, it is strongly recommended that you apply the recommended settings to download updates from Microsoft Update on a regular schedule.

For more information about update management in System Center Essentials, see System Center Essentials Help: On the Management Server, in the System Center Essentials console, press F1.

Setting Default Value

Products

Synchronize updates for all Microsoft products, including products that you add in the future.

Note

You can configure the update management component to restrict updates to the specific software products that are used in your organization. If you do this, you should review your update management settings regularly to ensure that you are downloading all the required updates for your organization.

Classifications

Synchronize the following classifications of updates:

  • Critical updates

  • Definition updates

  • Security updates

  • Service packs

Languages

Download updates for the locale of the Management Server.

Note

A daily scheduled task automatically adds languages to synchronize if client computers with different languages are detected.

Synchronization schedule

Synchronize automatically (at least once a day).

Note

Manual synchronization is configured by default in Windows EBS because synchronization is very time and resource intensive. To protect your environment, it is strongly recommended that you configure automatic synchronization at least once a day to download updates. You can then apply those updates to managed computers in your Active Directory domain by using the Windows EBS Administration Console.

Important

To ensure that updates to anti-malware and anti-spam signature files are downloaded as soon as they are available, it is recommended that you schedule automatic synchronizations as frequently as 24 times a day.

Automatic approvals

Automatically approve the following update classifications for all managed computers:

  • Critical updates

  • Definition updates

  • Security updates

  • Service packs