WSUS Requirements

WSUS is installed on a server such as Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2. To support Windows 7 clients, you'll need at least WSUS 3.0 with SP2 or later.

Other requirements are as follows:

Server roles WSUS requires both the Application Server and the Web Server (IIS) roles installed. Internet Information Services (IIS) is Microsoft's web server product, and it is installed when the Web Server (IIS) role is installed. These roles should be added prior to adding WSUS. IIS 6.0 or later is required.

Disk space You should have at least 8 GB of available disk space. WSUS will need at least 6 GB to store updates downloaded from the Microsoft Update site. If you're short of disk space, it is possible to store the updates on the Microsoft Update site, but the overall performance will be slower. An additional 2 GB of disk space is need to house the Windows Internal Database that will be used to store the WSUS data, but it's also possible to use an existing SQL Server and store the database on that server.

Downloaded files You'll need to download the following two files: WSUS 3.0 and the Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008. Both are available as free downloads from Microsoft's download site (www.microsoft.com/downloads). Search for "WSUS 3" and "Report Viewer Redistributable 2008" to locate each item.

Both x86 and x64 versions are available for WSUS, so download the version you need based on where you'll install it. For example, if you're installing it on a 64-bit server, download the x64 version. The Report Viewer has only a single edition that works on both x86 and x64 servers.