Hi Guys,

I'm quite new to Debian and made an FTP Server for our companies use, its been doing well till now (about 6 months - very stable, thats why i've learned to love Linux), lately we've been trying to update critical patches of our Windows based pc thru internet and sometimes it takes time. Is there a possibility to use a Debian server to provide updates for the Windows based PC's?

i think because of the amount of patch checking done by the windows update service i dont think it is possible to run patches through FTP, there is however

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...s/default.mspx

is a good alternative... the server downloads the patches the machines look to the server to download the updates... worked well at our site.

The other alternative, is that MS does provide DL versions of their updates for IT organizations, you could DL them to a directory on the linux server and then use Samba to access the share with th DL in them and run the updates from there.

Microsofts WSUS is nice because it is free.



A paid alternative that I use is Shavliks HFNetChkPro. Shavliks product will do a scan of all the machines on the network, determine what patches are needed (even a thorough scan to File level and version if necessary) It will then download the patches locally and push them out to the workstations / Servers. It also patches Sun Java, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Acrobat reader and several other third party products.

Yeah it's a paid solution but it is reasonably priced and what it will save you in terms of time Frustration and bandwidth, far outweigh the cost of the product. Download Trial avail http://www.shavlik.com/hfnetchkpro.aspx



If it absolutely must run on Linux then you are talking about Novells Zenworks solution. Also a commercial product.. http://www.novell.com/products/zenwo.../overview.html

This wsus seems to required windows server to run it....
I happen to have a 5 seats win2k3 sbs with me. For 30 computer in my office, do i must have 30 licenses or i can let 5 machine do it a time? Also , do i need active directory for that?

Doubt you need seat licenses for it. perhaps the implementation guides can answer your questions.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en