WSUS 3 Developer's Blog - API samples...

Things are starting to get a little quieter here as we finish out the final tasks for this release.  One of those tasks is to help developers build on the product, and make something even better than what we're already providing. 

To that end, several of us are starting to work on short snippets of code that demonstrate interesting uses of our API.  If you're new to PowerShell or the WSUS API (or both), you'll be able to take the samples, make a quick start, and actually accomplish some useful tasks.

Some of the samples will help you build your own solutions to some of the common feature requests we didn't get to in this release. 

Some things we're playing with:

  • Start a synchronization on the WSUS server, that you can run from the Task Scheduler.  This will let you build a set of synchronization times that are precisely what you need - rather than X times per day.
  • Gather information about only updates you've approved in your org.  Most of our UI encourages you to get everything Needed out into your organization, but we also realize that just doesn't work for everyone.  With the samples, you'll get a head start in getting just the information you want.
  • Gathering reporting data from the APIs.  Exporting the reports from the UI is useful, but you may want to regularly export the data and show trends for data that your organization cares about.  I've taken one of the samples, and built myself a larger script that checks multiple WSUS servers and shows trending for updates and computers over time.  For some reason, I see a big spike of activity the second Tuesday of every month...  and more and more computers checking in all the time.
  • Curious about another part of the API?  Comment, and let us know what's interesting or confusing!

-- matthew