Differences Between the ClientServicing Namespace and the Administration Namespace

  • Article

 

Applies To: Windows Server Update Services

[This documentation is preliminary for WSUS 3.0 SP1 and is subject to change.]

The ClientServicing namespace is used by developers to support clients that are not running Windows server or desktop operating systems. The Administration namespace can be used by network administrators as well as developers, to automate features of the WSUS UI and also to include WSUS functionality in other products. There are some limitations on the uses of the ClientServicing namespace.

Functional differences between the ClientServicing namespace and the Administration namespace

  • Code that accesses the ClientServicing namespace typically is run as an NT service. This code must access the ClientServicing namespace as either the Network Service account or local System account. If the WSUS database is not using remote SQL your code can also access the ClientServicing namespace as a member of the System Administrators account group. On the other hand, you may access the elements of the Administration namespace as a member of the WSUS Administrators account group or (for read-only calls) the WSUS Reporters account group.

  • You may not access a remote WSUS server with the ClientServicing namespace. The WSUS server must be installed locally on the computer running the code that accesses this namespace. If you need to use only the Administration namespace, you may access the WSUS server from a remote WSUS installation.

  • CBS packages and driver packages are not included in reports that use the ClientServicing namespace. On the other hand, you may report on CBS packages and driver packages using the Administration namespace.