The WSUS Product Team just released RC1 on Microsoft Connect. Current Beta 2 participants should already have access. If you are new to the program, head on over to the main WSUS page for instructions on how to join. Here's a quick overview of what's new since Beta 2.
Note: Don't forget to check out my two previous WSUS 3.0 reviews (First Impressions: WSUS 3.0 & Upgrading to WSUS 3.0). They are still relevant even though they're based on Beta 2.
Performance Improvements
After spending a little time with RC1 it's obvious that Microsoft focused on improving performance. The UI seems very responsive and reports generate more quickly. Although the Deployment Guide lists 1GB as the minimum RAM requirement, you can easily get away with 512MB in a very small test lab (<25 machines). In fact, if you don't have an extra server lying around for testing you can use Virtual PC, Virtual Server, or VMware Server to take 3.0 RC1 for a spin. If you take this approach I recommend against storing updates locally to save disk space and improve guest performance.
Customizable To-Do List
A frequent complaint about WSUS 2.0 is the lack of UI customization - specifically on the Home page To-Do List. For example, even if you had no intention of using SSL, the server would continually display a warning that SSL was not configured. Crafty WSUS gurus came up with a way to hack the Home page to remove this warning... but we all know the caveats and potential issues with such back-door solutions. Fortunately, WSUS 3.0 offers a fully-supported method for controlling all To-Do List content. The screen shot below will give you an idea of all the possible To-Do List tweaks:
UI Improvement - Last Status Report
Let's face it... the 3.0 Beta 2 UI was light years ahead of the web-based 2.0 interface. However, Beta 2 left out one important feature that garnered quite a bit of negative feedback - detailed 'Last Status Report' information. Instead of giving us the date and time like we're used to, Beta 2 only offered the date, which made troubleshooting more difficult. Thankfully this feature has been added back in RC1. See the screen shot below if you aren't familiar with this little gem.
UI Improvement - New Superseded Icons
One of the most confusing aspects of WSUS (and patch management in general) is the concept of update supersedence. For example, when Microsoft releases a new update for IE, it usually replaces a previous one. The old update is said to have been superseded by the new update. Pretty simple, right? Well, not always. Sometimes an update supersedes an old update AND is superseded by a newer one. The WSUS 3.0 UI offers a new icon to represent such a scenario.
This icon represents an update that supersedes an older one
This icon represents an update that is superseded by a new one
This *new* icon represents an update that supersedes an older one, AND is superseded by a newer one
Part 2: UI Walk-Thru
I used Camtasia to produce the screen recordings in this section. These videos should give you a better idea of the new UI and functionality in WSUS 3.0. I'll update this section with more walk-thru videos as time permits.
- Installing WSUS 3.0 RC1: This quick video highlights the install process of a single WSUS server, including the post-setup configuration wizard. The video runs 3 minutes and is approximately 3MB (no audio).
- Working with the February, 2007 Updates: What better way to show off the new UI than to approve some February updates. Includes footage of the new reporting engine - including export functionality to Excel and Acrobat. Runtime is 6m:22s and the download is approximately 5.2MB (no audio).
- Additional Videos with Commentary: Coming soon!