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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Batch Patch - WSUS Companion Tool


*Patch and reboot LOTS of computers, simultaneously, with just a few clicks
*Monitor status in real-time with progress indicators and integrated pinging
*DRAMATICALLY reduce the amount of time you spend deploying updates

Stop dreading Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday every month and finally take control of your patching process!  Whether you’re responsible for just 50 computers or more than 1000 computers,BatchPatch will save you a LOT of time! No more logging on to each computer to initiate the update installation.  No more manually rebooting each machine and dealing with numerous ping windows to keep track of the reboot process.  Finally, an app that lets you load a list of computers, and then kick off the WSUS installation and reboot process on ALL of them, SIMULTANEOUSLY!  Sit back, relax, and watch your computers update themselves.
Features
·         Initiate the download and / or installation of Windows updates on MANY remote computers simultaneously from a single console (works with your own WSUS server or Microsoft’s server)
·         Deploy standalone Microsoft or third-party patches such as Adobe or Java updates, as well as registry keys, scripts, and just about anything else to remote hosts: (.msi .msp .msu .exe .reg .vbs and more) See this remote installation tutorial
·         Reboot or shutdown remote hosts and monitor status in real-time with integrated pinging
·         No remote agent installation required!  Simply launch BatchPatch and start patching.
·         Integrated job queues:  You can create a set of actions to execute sequentially on remote hosts, which allows you to run scripts before and/or after reboot, or string together multiple patch and reboot cycles etc.
·         Execute your own custom scripts locally or remotely or add them to job queues for full automation flexibility
·         Integrated task scheduler:  Launch any task or job queue on a specific date and time
·         Retrieve the last boot time from remote hosts (very handy when rebooting computers)
·         Retrieve the used/free C: disk space from remote hosts (make sure the remote hosts have enough space available for patch installations)
·         Retrieve the list of services that are set to “Automatic” but not currently running on the remote hosts (diagnose bootup issues)
·         Wake on LAN
How it works
BatchPatch was designed to be simple and intuitive.  Special attention was given to keeping the app as slim as possible.  No installation necessary– just launch the EXE and you’re ready to go!  You start by loading a list of computer names, IP addresses or MAC addresses (MACs are required for Wake on LAN).  Then highlight one, some, or all rows in the grid to perform actions on just the selected hosts. Either right click on the currently selected rows or use the Actions menu to select an action to perform.  It doesn’t get much easier than that!
System Requirements
·         In order to use BatchPatch you must have the .NET Framework 4.0 or later installed on the computer you’re running it from.
·         For most actions, you’ll need to use an account that has local administrator access on the target remote hosts.
·         For WSUS installations, BatchPatch will display a progress bar for each remote host during the patch download and/or installation.  However, the progress bar relies on the remote hosts having .NET 3.5 or later installed.  Remote hosts that do NOT have at least .NET 3.5 will still work with BatchPatch, but there will simply be no progress bar visible for those hosts. If you don’t have .NET installed on your computers, don’t worry. You can use BatchPatch to deploy it: Using BatchPatch to push .NET to remote hosts
·         Microsoft’s Sysinternals PsExec must be saved to your Windows system path or in the directory that you launch BatchPatch from. If you’re unsure about modifying your system path, you can simply drop psexec.exe into C:\Windows and that should do the trick.  Launch psexec.exe one time to accept the license agreement.
Limitations
·         The installation of Windows Updates is performed by executing a script (using PsExec) on the remote machine(s). If you have specified alternate logon credentials (this means that you have disabled Integrated Security in BatchPatch for a specific host or set of hosts) when you choose a WSUS task from the actions menu, PsExec will send the specified credentials in clear text to the remote machine. However, if you enable Integrated Security (impersonates the currently logged on user) your credentials will not be passed in clear text. It is strongly recommended to always use Integrated Security whenever possible. It’s more secure and more reliable.
Notes
·         Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Download: BatchPatch

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