Applying a patch to Server Core

Well, I managed to miss posting last week. Perhaps I'll make this an every other week thing, it is tough to post something every week. Again, I’m open to suggestions for topics to discuss.

 

This week I want to discuss how to apply a patch on Server Core. A few patches have been released for Beta 2, not all of which are required on Server Core. However, if you do need one of the applicable patches, the command line tool for installing the patch is wusa.exe. On Server Core you need to use the /quiet switch or wusa will fail in Beta 2. For example:

Wusa.exe <patchname>.msu /quiet

You can also include the /norestart switch with the /quiet switch to prevent wusa.exe from automatically restarting the server. Note that the /norestart switch can only be used with /quiet, it can’t be used on its own.

 

You will need to download the patch on another box and expand it so that you can copy the .msu file to the Server Core box.

 

Of course, you can also turn on the Windows Update client, using the scregedit.wsf script if you don’t want to manually patch the box.

 

Andrew

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2006
  Is .MSU a new file extension? I always thought .MSP are patches...?
  
  Christian
• Anonymous
  August 11, 2006
  Yes, .MSU is a new patch extension in Vista/LH.
  
  I believe .MSPs are patches to MSIs.