Re: Automated Patching and Updates?

["Craig W. Drake" <c-drake () NEIU EDU>]

We are using SUS server here with NO DOMAIN.  It works well.  The only
problem is getting the initial configuration of the SUS client out to
all of the workstations.  Since we have no domain, we can't use Group
Policy for that.  What we have done is use our Novell logon scripts to
push a .reg file to all of the users which log on to our NDS directory.
Not all of our users log in, so this is not a complete solution, but it
did work for a large number of our systems. 

-Craig


Craig W. Drake
Windows NT/2000 Server Administrator
Networking and Distributed Services
Northeastern Illinois University




-----Original Message-----
From: Howell, Paul [mailto:grue () UMICH EDU] 
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 7:42 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Automated Patching and Updates?


Hi,

Are all of your workstations in the same domain as the SUS server?

Have you tried to update workstations in a different domain?

Thanks,

< paul


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Parker [mailto:rparker () BRAZOSPORT EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 8:36 AM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Automated Patching and Updates?
>
>
> In answer to your questions below:
>
> 1) We're using Microsoft's Software Update Service (SUS) to push 
> patches out to our XP desktops from our own update server. This is 
> just a glorified version of the Windows update service built into XP
> but it lets
> us have some control over what gets pushed and when. We use a
> group policy
> to force the patch installation and a reboot if necessary.
> Unfortunately,
> a large part of our campus is still on Windows 98 so this
> doesn't help us
> as much it could. We are accelerating our push to convert
> completely to
> XP. This also doesn't work in our labs where we use Deep
> Freeze to revert
> the machines back to their initial state when they reboot.
>
> 2) We aren't really looking at anything else at the moment.
>
> 3) The above solution works for XP and Windows 2000 but not Windows 
> 98.
>
> --
> Ron Parker, Director of Information Technology, Brazosport College
> Voice: (979) 230-3480             FAX: (979) 230-3111
> http://www.brazosport.edu
>
>
> On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, Sadler, Connie wrote:
>
> > Given all of the recent worm activity, etc., it seems
> timely to gather
> > some information from you folks regarding what you are
> already doing -
> > or planning to do - in terms of pushing updates and patches
> out to your
> > user communities in a way that is not too "intrusive". We
> all work in
> > diverse environments where many of our users are also sensitive to 
> > having someone else "touch" their machines. Yet it seems a
> losing battle
> > to continue to manually update workstations in some areas
> when they are
> > being automatically attacked in very sophisticated ways.
> >
> > Can you folks please share with us:
> >
> > 1)  What you are already doing now - in terms of pushing or
> automating
> > patching or updates?
> >
> > 2)  What you are evaluating or looking at for doing this
> kind of thing -
> > and in what areas of your environment?
> >
> > 3)  What technologies you are familiar with and what platforms the 
> > solutions support?
> >
> > Thanks much! I am willing to summarize the input I receive if I get 
> > enough good feedback...
> >
> > Connie J. Sadler, CM, CISSP, CISM
> > Director, IT Security, Brown University
> > Box 1885, Providence, RI 02912
> > Connie_Sadler () Brown edu
> > PGP Fingerprint: 452A C178 1450 9CE1 3AC1  CC12 956F 2C55 DB94 A9C7
> > Office: 401-863-7266
> >
> > **********
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http://www.educause.edu/cg/.
>

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