WSUS Best Practices for New System Admins

by | Last updated 2023.07.25 | Published on 2019.03.27 | Blog

New system administrators will have a varying degree of familiarity with WSUS. Some might have helped with Windows server admin tasks in previous roles while others might be learning everything on the job. When it comes to WSUS best practices, there is nothing more important than maintenance and regularly scheduling cleanups.

Talk to anyone familiar with WSUS and the first thing they’ll usually advise is to spend time ensuring the server and database are clean. WSUS servers can quickly slow down because of bloated content stores and it’s important to purge and clean databases on a set schedule to prevent problems.

Proper WSUS maintenance involves a number of steps including backing up the database, re-indexing the WSUS database, declining superseded updates and finally running the WSUS Server Cleanup Wizard (SCW). Usually, somewhere in that process, you’ll run into problems and errors that require troubleshooting, which can quickly eat up your time.

WSUS maintenance is important, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend all your time monitoring and manually cleaning up the server and database. With WSUS Automated Maintenance (WAM) software, you can keep everything running smoothly without a lot of work. Our software will automatically index databases, remove drivers, decline updates, clean synchronization logs, delete obsolete updates and more. It will also email a detailed report so that you can review all the actions that were taken.

As a new system administrator, you might move into an environment where the WSUS server has been running for years without maintenance and you’ll receive advice that the best way forward is to reinstall WSUS; however, there are very few instances where a reinstall is actually necessary. WAM has the ability to fix almost any problem, all you have to do is install the software and let it run in the background while you work on other tasks. The bulk of installs take less than 72 hours to complete the -FirstRun.  

WAM is an affordable and user-friendly option for automated WSUS cleanup.

Purchase WAM today for automated maintenance.

If you’re looking for more information on how to set up, manage and maintain WSUS, we’ve put together an eight-part comprehensive series that explains the strategy for setting up and properly maintaining Windows Server Update Services. Start the guide with Part 1 – Choosing Your Server OS.

WSUS Automated Maintenance (WAM) system was developed by AJ Tek and is used by system administrators worldwide—from Australia to Antarctica. With over 50,000 unique downloads, it’s the preferred method of WSUS maintenance worldwide.

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