Best way to update 80+ laptops?

shorty28898

HI,
I have over 80 netbooks that occasionally need to have windows updates applied to them. The current process is hooking them up individually to the internet and doing a windows update.. usually doing several netbooks at the same time. However, this can become a lengthy process, especially when you have to restart, apply update, and restart again. Is there anyway to update one netbook, put that OS on a usb stick, plug the USB stick into another netbook and have it apply all of the same updates? (so instead of using the bandwidth of updating them all, i can just simply plug the usb stick in and be done)

midga

What OS? How's your network structured? Is a domain server out of the question?

AlexDeGruven

If they're netbooks, then they're probably running Win7 Basic or Starter, neither of which really have the capability for much, if any, centralized management. No domain membership, no WSUS, etc.

mertesn

Any particular reason this can't be done over WiFi?

PirateNinja

The only way is to find out what updates each one needs (assuming they all need the same), download the individual patches/hotfixes from microsoft, throw them all in a folder, write a batch script or use autoit to make a quicky program that executes each hotfix in the folder (usb drive) 1 by 1.
Otherwise you can't avoid some network reliance and/or connection to a domain controller (assuming they have Windows Pro, which like @AlexDeGruven said they probably don't).

shorty28898

OS: Windows 7 starter. They are netbooks that just get sent out with people who need them on business trips. Wifi could be used, but the ethernet would be quicker, thats why i do it. I am just looking for a way to make it easier and quicker. Every netbook could be wiped clean, as they are not personal netbooks. So for example, i update 1 to the latest windows/java/whatever updates and then replicate that installation on al other machines.
Or would it just be better to do what i am doing, hooking them up individually, and updating them until they are all up to date?

RyanMM

Are they identical make and models?

BlueTattoo

You could update one, record all the updates made, download each msi or exe file, copy to USB memory, and write a script to install all the updates. Run on each identical (hardware, OS and installed software) machine. Update each month. It’s a pain and you’ll miss something.

If they can’t be updated from a domain but can be connected to the Internet, you can reduce your time at each unit by scripting the update. It’s one line in PowerShell to do the update. You can run it from a batch file on the computer. Just log on and start the script. Have it shutdown at the end. Since they are loaners, just do the updates as they are needed, and keep a few ready to go.

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Get-WindowsUpdatesps1-7c82c1f4

If you want to get fancy, you can create a script to do them all remotely, as long as they are on your network and turned on. That would work with Windows 7 or XP, but I don’t know about starter. I’m not great with scripting, but there are lots of examples on the Internet. If I need anything complicated, a quick search will usually produce something that can be modified.

RootWyrm

Ah, the joy of automating Windows. By which I mean "epic sorrow." Long story short it's gonna go a little something like this:

Yes, you could in theory script it, but you need the MSUs which is a huge pain in the neck. You could just update an unattended WIM set - but you'd still be behind because Microsoft doesn't really provide the updates in an easy to bulk download format. Oh, and those may not work because Starter actually has a bunch of internal differences that are really annoying.

So it's going to be a nightmare any way you try to do it. What you really need is GPO (Group Policy) and to have them on a domain so you can force/refuse updates as necessary. To do that means you need Enterprise, Pro or Ultimate. And no, PowerShell is not availble on starter.

My advice? Either upgrade the OS or just let the buggers automatically update any time they can get a signal.

shorty28898

RyanMM said:

Are they identical make and models?

Yes, all the same exact netbook. They are not on the domain, people may use them if they are going on a business trip and need to write a doc or whatever. They are not always used, for example right now, 40 are in house (in the process of updating them that's why i started this thread) and all of the others are out in the field.
So the answer i feel like i'm reaching is to just continue with the way i'm doing it. Take it out of the box we keep them in, plug it in, hook up Ethernet, update, repeat. jah?

BlueTattoo

@RootWyrm, what I suggested falls short of automating Windows, but over the years, I have written hundreds of scripts of just a few lines that let me run a process and not have to keep returning at each step. That can really speed up a one-time update or installation. I haven’t seen anything that said PowerShell was missing from Starter and I don’t have a Starter PC to check. If it has it, it is the 32-bit version, and it should be here:
C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

ardichoke

It's been a while since I've done work in a Windows domain, last I checked you could download individual installers for the patches straight from the Microsoft support site. Once you had them, they all had the same syntax to run from the command line. At one point, I actually automated the entire patching process of a fresh Windows install by downloading all the patches and writing a batch file that grabbed them from a fileserver and ran them all. Shouldn't be too hard to do the same thing from an external hard drive of some sort.

midga

You should be able to just keep an updated image and use Casper or somesuch to re-image them when they come back in or whenever else feels appropriate. That way you wouldn't need to worry about anything your users do to them (as long as you keep one safe and in-house that's only used for making the images), and you wouldn't need to leave them plugged in all the time and risk premature battery deterioration. If you know about how many tend to be out at a time, you wouldn't even need to keep them all up-to-date all the time, just enough to satisfy that need, and then rotate them through. Keep a buffer of ten or so, image another each time one is taken out, and image them when they come back in as well.

ardichoke

The problem with that is licensing. If you're using a volume license, imaging them all isn't a problem. I don't think they do volume licensing for Starter though. If you dump an image and install it to all systems, it's likely going to get the license key used flagged as having been pirated. Could cause more headaches than it is worth.

midga

ardichoke said:

The problem with that is licensing. If you're using a volume license, imaging them all isn't a problem. I don't think they do volume licensing for Starter though. If you dump an image and install it to all systems, it's likely going to get the license key used flagged as having been pirated. Could cause more headaches than it is worth.

Good point.

shorty28898

That's another thing i was not sure about, licensing. If the uploads can be downloaded as an installer that actually would appear to be the best bet.

RootWyrm

shorty28898 said:

That's another thing i was not sure about, licensing. If the uploads can be downloaded as an installer that actually would appear to be the best bet.

Actually, that's sort of possible. You'd be looking for the MSU bundles. The problem is that Microsoft does NOT provide these directly any more, period. Which is why it's such a damn pain. If you could get the MSU bundles, it would be trivial to throw them onto a USB drive and autorun. But, again, you can't. They're now delivered exclusively through Windows Update and AD GPO.

And no, Starter does not have a VLK; it's strictly OEM keyed. Forgot about that part. Which also means, yeah, you need the OEM image and all that.