For System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager only:

When you install more than one software update point at a primary site, use the same WSUS database for each software update point in the same Active Directory forest. By sharing the same database you can significantly mitigate the client and network performance impact that can occur when clients switch to a new software update point. When a client switches to a new software update point that shares a database with the old software update point, a delta scan still occurs, but this scan is much smaller than it would be if the WSUS server had its own database.

For more information about software update point switching, see the Software Update Point Switching section in the Planning for Software Updates in Configuration Manager topic.

When the Configuration Manager and WSUS databases use the same SQL Server and share the same instance of SQL Server, you cannot easily determine the resource usage between the two applications. When you use a different SQL Server instance for Configuration Manager and WSUS, it is easier to troubleshoot and diagnose resource usage issues that might occur for each application.

When you install WSUS 3.0, you can specify whether to use the default Internet Information Services (IIS) website or create a new custom WSUS 3.0 website. As a best practice, select Create a Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Web site so that IIS hosts the WSUS 3.0 services in a dedicated website instead of sharing the same website with other Configuration Manager site systems or other software applications. When you use a custom website for WSUS 3.0, WSUS configures port 8530 for HTTP and port 8531 for HTTPS. You must specify these port settings when you create the software update point for the site.

When you install WSUS 3.0, select the Store updates locally setting. When this setting is selected, the license terms that are associated with software updates are downloaded during the synchronization process and stored on the local hard drive for the WSUS server. When this setting is not selected, client computers might fail to scan for software updates compliance for software updates that have license terms. When you install the software update point, WSUS Synchronization Manager verifies that this setting is enabled every 60 minutes, by default.

You must limit the number of software updates to 1000 for each software update deployment. When you create an automatic deployment rule, verify that the criteria that you specify does not result in more than 1000 software updates. When you manually deploy software updates, do not select more than 1000 updates to deploy.

There is a limit of 1000 software updates for a software update deployment. When you create an automatic deployment rule, you specify whether to use an existing update group or create a new update group each time the rule runs. When you specify criteria in an automatic deployment rule that results in multiple software updates and the rule runs on a recurring schedule, specify to create a new software update group each time the rule runs. This will prevent the deployment from surpassing the limit of 1000 software updates per deployment.

Always use an existing software update group when you use an automatic deployment rule to deploy Endpoint Protection definition updates on a frequent basis. Otherwise, potentially hundreds of software update groups will be created over time. Typically, definition update publishers will set definition updates to expire when they are superseded by four newer updates. Therefore, the software update group that is created by the automatic deployment rule will never contain more than four definition updates for the publisher: one active and three superseded.