Although the Windows Update Services (WUS)/Windows Update client duo and
Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 both can provide organizations with a centralized
patch management system, SMS 2003 has many more capabilities. This chart highlights
some of the key similarities and differences.
| Criteria |
SMS 2003 |
WUS |
| Updates Microsoft OSs and applications |
Partial (not all applications supported now,
but will be supported eventually) |
Partial (not all applications supported now,
but will be supported eventually) |
| General software distribution |
Yes, can install any application that supports
a silent install either natively or through repackaging tools |
No (for distributing and installing updates only) |
| Hardware and software inventory |
Yes |
No |
| License and software use tracking |
Yes |
No |
| Status reporting |
Comprehensive and extensible; can be displayed
in Web reports viewable by non-administrators |
Primitive, no summary reports, reports from
child servers don’t roll up to parent servers |
| Targeting |
Can be hand selected or based on any criteria
in inventory database or in AD |
Through manually assigned membership in a
static group; however administrators can use group policy to map assignments to AD Sites
or Organizational Units (OUs) |
| Force rollbacks (if supported by software
update) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Roaming user support |
Yes, client finds a distribution server on the
local site or subnet (if available). Use BITS to download updates |
Partial: laptop uses same update source (WUS
server or Microsoft Update) no matter where it's connecting from on the network, but can
use binary delta compression and BITS to reduce download times and deal with intermittent
connectivity |
| Controllable reboot behavior |
Can be set by the administrator; can detect
servers and suppress automatic reboots on them |
Limited: users are warned that the computer is
about to shut down and restart; non-administrative users cannot defer the reboot |
| Software update distribution to remote
disconnected networks |
Yes, highly automated |
Yes, but requires manual steps or script |
| Hierarchical architecture |
Can build hierarchy according to network and
administrative needs; clients are assigned to SMS servers automatically based on network
address or AD site membership |
Requires manual configuration with Registry
edits or Group Policy to assign clients to the appropriate WUS servers in the hierarchy |
| Clients supported |
Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 SP6 (and later),
Windows 2000 Workstation and Server (and later) |
Windows 2000 SP4 and higher, 64-bit versions
also supported |
