Install > Preinstallation tasks > System requirements for installation > Download and install windows patch management files (optional)

Download and install Windows patch management files (optional)

The SA Windows Patch Management feature requires several files from the Microsoft software download repository. These files are installed during Core installation.

Note: If you do not plan to use SA to manage Windows servers, you can optionally choose not to install these files and successfully complete installation. However, if these files are not installed, no operations against Windows servers should be performed. These files are required for many Windows-based operations other than Windows patching.

Installing the required Windows patch management files on an existing Core

To perform Windows patching in the future, you will need to install the required Windows Patch Management files either by using the SA Client’s Import feature or the populate-opsware-update-library command line script as described in the SA Use section.

See Manually obtaining Windows patching utilities for more information about manually downloading the Windows Patching Utilities.

Requirements

Managed Servers must meet the following Windows patching requirements:

  • Windows Installer 3.1 must be installed
  • MSXML 3+ must be installed (MSXML is a general requirement for all Windows managed servers regardless of whether the managed server will or will not use the Windows patching feature).
  • The Windows Update Agent must be installed
  • The Windows (Automatic) Update service must not be disabled but must be set to never check for updates.
Note: As of Windows Server 2008, the Automatic Update service was renamed the Windows Update service.

Manually obtaining Windows patching utilities

If you did not install the Windows patch management files during core installation and your SA Core and SA Client do not have internet access, you can perform the following tasks from a machine with internet access to obtain the files and transfer them to the core:

  1. Obtain the following files from Microsoft:

    Note: The links to these files are provided as a convenience, however, Microsoft Corp. may change the links after the release of this document. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that these links will be valid when you use them and you may need to search the Microsoft Support website to find the correct files.
    • wsusscn2.cab

      The wsusscn2.cab file contains the Microsoft patch database. Download wsusscn2.cab from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=74689

    • WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe

      The WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe file is required when SA scans x86-based managed servers to determine which Windows patches/hotfixes are installed. Download the package containing WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=100334

      Note: After downloading, you must rename the file to "WindowsUpdateAgent-x86.exe".
      • WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe

        The WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe file is required when SA scans x64-based managed servers to determine which Windows patches/hotfixes are installed. Download the package containing WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=100335

        Note: After downloading, you must rename the file to "WindowsUpdateAgent-x64.exe".
      • WindowsUpdateAgent30-ia64.exe

        The WindowsUpdateAgent30-ia64.exe file is required when SA scans Itanium x64-based managed servers to determine which Windows patches/hotfixes are installed. Download the package containing WindowsUpdateAgent30-ia64.exefrom: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=100336

        Note: After downloading, you must rename the file to "WindowsUpdateAgent-ia64.exe".
  1. Copy the files you obtained in the preceding steps to a directory that will be accessible by the SA Installer during the Software Repository installation. For example, you might copy the files to the /opsw/win_util directory.
  2. Write down the name of the directory containing the Windows Update Agent files. You will need this location when you run the SA Installer and are prompted to provide the fully qualified directory path to the WUA files. You can also find the WUA file location by checking the SA parameter, windows_util_loc.

These patch management files will be copied to all Windows servers during SA Agent deployment. If you upload newer versions of the WUA files to the Software Repository later, they will be downloaded to all managed Windows servers during software registration. After the core is installed and running, you can upload new versions of these files with the Patch Settings window of the SA Client.

For more information on Windows Patch Management, see the SA 10.60 Use section.