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by asherkin 3589 days ago
Both require running on Windows Server, WSUS is "free", SCCM is "very expensive".
1 comments

Thanks, can Windows Server 2003 be used to run WSUS for updating Windows 7 clients?

Edit: looks like a user or device CAL (Client Access License) is needed for each Windows 7 instance that is connecting to WSUS to receive security updates.

Edit2: it may be possible to manually copy security-only update files from WSUS to unmanaged Win7 clients that have no CAL.

There was a time, at one point, when MSFT qualified that CALs were not needed for WSUS if the underlying Windows Server version did not require CALS: http://www.wsus.info/index.php?showtopic=5592

Getting definitive licensing answers out of MSFT has proven difficult for me. I've gotten varying answers from different people in the past (not necessarily about this topic). MSFT definitely keeps things vague, IMO, to keep their options open.

We did have WSUS running on our 2003 Secondary Domain Controller servicing Windows 7 and 2008 Server clients just fine. But as another poster said, 2003 is seriously EOL so the latest versions of WSUS might not work.
> can Windows Server 2003 be used

2003 reached end of life on July 14, 2015...