Re: DNS change to switch WSUS servers

[Chris Green <cmgreen () UAB EDU>]

Gary Flynn wrote:
> We've got two WSUS servers. An old one running
> 2.0 and a new one running 3.1sp1.
[ snip ]
> Can I just change the DNS record for the old
> server to point at the new one? Has anyone done
> this?

I did that exact scenario.  WSUS is one of those strang MS services that
just works off DNS

0) Installed new WSUS on new server with WSUS in default site.  IF you
don't do the default site, you'll have to muddle IIS to take on the new
CNAME from Step 3.
1) Setup synchronizations
2) Manually migrated approvals
3) Retired old server;  Pointed CNAME for OLDWSUS.ad -> NEWWSUS.SUS
4) Watched all clients migrate over next day.

Caution points:

WSUS 3.x is *much* different approval than WSUS 2.0 if you have
operational experience with it.

- "DetectOnly" got renamed "NotApproved".  This really mucked with some
of my reporting tools I'd done with WSUS API
- Approvals if you have client side targets got annoyingly confusing.
This led to me accidentally approving an IE7.0 upgrade to the wrong
group of folks.  Probably the worst IT day I ever had ;-)

Cheers,
Chris