Introduction
If you are one of those ISA Server administrators that perform most of your tasks remotely, and now that ISA Server 2006 SP1 is released, you intend to install it remotely, but you are worried that few services would need to stop and you would be disconnected from the remote desktop session in the middle of the installation process and afraid of not being able to reconnect to ISA Server again. Then the good news is that with SP1 for ISA Server 2006, you can safely install it remotely through RDP session.
Before being able to connect to ISA Server remotely, you will need to edit ISA Server System Policy and enable Remote Desktop Connection to ISA Server, for a detailed step by step tutorial, read my article Administrating ISA Server 2006 Remotely Using MMC and Remote Desktop Connection
After configuring the steps discussed in the previous article, run Remote Desktop Connection to Connect to ISA Server 2006 machine.
-
Click on Start > Run > type mstsc and then click on Enter
-
Enter the name or IP address of your ISA Server, and then click on Connect
-
Type the ISA Server administrator username and password and then click on Ok to logon
-
To Download Service Pack 1 for ISA Server 2006, click here
I have downloaded it on the desktop, the file name of Service Pack 1 for ISA Server 2006 is :Â Â ISA2006-KB943462-X86-ENU.msp
-
Double click on the ISA2006-KB943462-X86-ENU.msp file
-
On the Welcome to the Update for Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Service Pack 1 page, click on Next
-
On the License Agreement page, accept the terms by selecting the radio button beside I Accept the terms in the license agreement, then click Next
-
On the Ready to Install the Program page , click Install
-
Installation will starts, and a series of operations will take place a shown in the below figures
Although the ISA Server related services will be stopped, your remote desktop session will not be disconnected, and you would not be locked out from the server. Installation will continue.
-
Once the installation of Service Pack 1 is completed, click on the Finish button
-
You will be asked to restart the ISA Server machine in order to complete the installation. Click Yes to restart the machine. Of course, the moment your server reboots, you will be disconnected from the remote desktop connection.
Give the server few minutes and then connect to it remotely again, and enjoy the new features of ISA Server 2006 SP1
To have a detailed review of the new features provided by ISA Server 2006 Service Pack 1, then check the ISA Server Team blog site and Thomas Shinder article that are available below in the Related Articles section.
Summary
If you intend to install Service Pack 1 for ISA Server 2006 remotely, then go ahead. I have tried it on a multiple of installation and I was neither disconnected from the remote desktop session nor locked out of the server when the related services for ISA Server were stopped. Once the installation is completed, you will be asked to restart the machine.
