Approve Updates

  • Article

Update Services is designed to automatically approve the most important types of updates. Using the Update Services Settings dialog, you can enable automatic approval of the following types of updates:

  • Security updates
  • Critical updates
  • Service packs

Because administrators often want to manage updates for computers on the network based on the role of the computer, you can use Update Services to manage updates for server computers differently than for client computers. You can set a specific update level for each group.

Update Level

When you install Update Services, Setup configures a default update level for automatic approval of updates for the Server Computers group and the Client Computers group. The update level is the level of automatic approval that you want for a computer group. The available update levels for the Server Computers group and the Client Computers group are:

Update level Action

High
  • Approve all security and critical updates and all service packs for installation.
  • Default setting for the Client Computers group.

Medium
  • Approve all security and critical updates for installation.
  • Default setting for the Server Computers group.

Low
  • Approve all security updates for installation.

None
  • Do not automatically approve updates.

You can change the update level for the Server Computers Group or the Client Computers group by using the Update Services Settings dialog. For instructions about how to change the update level for Computer Groups, see Getting Started with Update Services.

Automatic Approval

If you have set an update level higher than None, Update Services automatically approves updates that match that update level. This means that you do not need to manually approve each update that matches the update level.

For example, the default update level setting for the Server Computers group is Medium, which includes security and critical updates. With this setting, all security and critical updates that apply to the Server Computers group are approved and downloaded automatically.

Important

Updates that have an End-user License Agreement (EULA) must be manually approved. To manually approve an update that contains a EULA:

  1. On the Updates Waiting for Review page, click the update that contains a EULA.
  2. Click the View Details link.
  3. Click Approve for Selected Groups. The EULA appears.

Note

Update Services checks every 60 minutes to see if there are updates that are waiting to be automatically approved. During this check, if an update is available that requires automatic approval, Update Services approves it. There may be instances where updates that require automatic approval appear in Waiting for Review as not approved. This can happen if the update appears between the 60 minute intervals when Update Services checks for updates that need automatic approval. The update will be approved at the next 60-minute interval, when Update Services automatically approves updates.

Manual approval

Update classes other than security, critical, and service packs must be manually approved. For example, an update might be released for a device driver, or a new feature pack might be released. You can approve these types of updates for one or both of the computer groups.

To manually approve an update

  1. Click Start, and then click Server Management.

  2. In the console pane of the Server Management console, click Update Services.

  3. On the Update Services home page, click Review Pending Updates.

  4. On the Updates Waiting for Review page, click the update that you want to approve, and then click View Details and Approve. Alternatively, you can right-click the update that you want to approve, and then click View Details and Approve from the pop-up menu. The Update Details dialog appears.

  5. Read the details for the update in Details.

  6. Under Approve this update for these groups, select the Group Name of the Computer Group that this update applies to.

  7. Click Approve for selected groups. If there is an End-User License Agreement (EULA) associated with the update, it appears and you must accept it to continue approval of the update. The Update Approval Progress dialog appears.

  8. Click Close to finish approving the update and to close the Update Details dialog.

After an update is approved, it moves to the Installation Status node and displays a status of Scheduled until it is installed on the computer(s) that requires it.

See Also

Concepts

Managing Update Services
Overview
Update Services Home Page
Review Updates
Decline Updates
Monitor Update Services
Troubleshooting