WSUS: Migrating approvals during an update from WSUS 2.0 to WSUS 3.0 SP1

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Well, looks like I'll be first to jump in on our new WSUS Support Team blog with a little tip on how to migrate your existing approvals during an upgrade from WSUS 2.0 to WSUS 3.0 (including WSUS SP1).  I actually got this question the other day and figure that if one person is asking then there are at least ten more needing the same information.

There are three possible approaches to upgrading a Windows Server Update Services version 2.0 server to a new server running Windows Server Update Services 3.0 or 3.0 Service Pack 1:

1. Upgrade your existing 2.0 Server to 3.0. Install 3.0 on the new server and set it to be a replica of the old upgraded server.  Since 3.0 can not replicate from a 2.0 Server the upgrade is needed. You could also just copy the Database over from the old server and replace the Database on the new server but this approach is not as clean in my opinion.  Once all replication is complete, point the new server to Microsoft and configure the Group Policy to point to the new server.

2. Install your new server as a WSUS 2.0 Server and make it a replica of the existing 2.0 Server. Once replication is complete, upgrade the new server to 3.0.  This will break the replica and point the server to Microsoft for updates. Once this is done, configure the Group Policy to point to the new server.

3. If you want to keep the 3.0 Server that you have already built and you can not upgrade the existing 2.0 server, you can create a temporary 2.0 server and set it as a replica of the old 2.0 server. Once replication has completed, upgrade it to 3.0. Make the new server a replica of the temporary server until all the settings have replicated, then point the new server at Microsoft. Then all you need to do is configure the Group Policy to point to the new server.

Personally I think that option 2 is the best and quickest way to get up and running but depending on your overall goal each of these should work equally well in the end.

Hope this helps,

Brian Shaw | WSUS Support Engineer