1.2 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

administrative intent: A combination of target groups, group membership, and update approvals that defines the WSUS administrator's choices regarding which available updates should be installed on each of the managed computers.

anchor: An opaque data element generated by an update server to identify the occurrence of a software update-related event in a manner that distinguishes temporally separate occurrences of the event.

client computer: A computer that gets its updates from an update server. A client can be a desktop computer, a server, or the update server. For more information, see [MS-WUSP] and [MS-WSUSSS].

content: A package that contains all the associated files for an update that is to be installed on a client computer.

deployment: An administratively specified decision to make a specific update revision available to a specific target group.

detectoid: A logical condition that is evaluated on a client computer to detect the presence of software, drivers, or their updates. A detectoid is identified by a GUID and described by metadata. It is represented as an update with no associated content.

downstream server (DSS): An update server that synchronizes its updates from another update server.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

man in the middle (MITM): An attack that deceives a server or client into accepting an unauthorized upstream host as the actual legitimate host. Instead, the upstream host is an attacker's host that is manipulating the network so that the attacker's host appears to be the desired destination. This enables the attacker to decrypt and access all network traffic that would go to the legitimate host. The attacker is able to read, insert, and modify at-will messages between two hosts without either party knowing that the link between them is compromised.

metadata: XML-formatted data that defines the characteristics of an update, including its title, description, rules for determining whether the update is applicable to a client computer, and instructions for installing the update content.

replica DSS: A DSS that obtains both updates and update deployments from its USS.

reporting data: A description of update installation activity.

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

synchronization: The process by which a downstream server (DSS) obtains update metadata, target groups, and update deployments from an upstream server (USS) in order to reconcile its state with the USS.

target group: A named collection of client computers whose members are defined administratively.

update: The combination of metadata and associated content for a software update. An update is identified by a GUID.

update classification: A scheme to classify updates such as Critical, Security, Service Pack, and so on. An update classification is identified by a GUID and described by metadata. It can be treated as an update with no associated content.

update client: A computer that implements the Windows Server Update Services: Client-Server Protocol to get updates from an update server. The client can be a desktop computer, a server, or the update server itself.

update metadata: A combination of XML-formatted metadata and associated content that contains information about an update.

update server: A computer that implements the Windows Server Update Services: Server-Server Protocol or the Windows Server Update Services: Client-Server Protocol to provide updates to client computers and other update servers.

upstream server (USS): An update server that provides updates to other update servers.

WSUS administrator: A user who deploys the latest Microsoft product updates to computers running the Windows operating system. WSUS administrators can fully manage the distribution of updates that are released through Microsoft Update to computers on their network. They are responsible for creating target group and update deployments.