You will need to remove some registry entries to reset the Windows Update defaults and remove the WSUS redirect on the computer. Ideally, if you need to perform this action on many computers in a domain, group policy would be a better answer. However, if you need to change the setting for a few computers, follow the instructions below. Expand “Forest -> Domains –> Domain Name –> Group Policy Objects” Right click “Update Services Client Computer Policy”. Disable WSUS, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Windows Server Update Services, WSUS. 10 Comments Already. Hi Nikhil, Thanks for the info here have one question however. The first few steps say to stop windows update in.
I figured I would create a post on WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) and SBS (Small Business Server). More specifically I want to talk about the most common issue I see with my customers. The WSUS database grows to a very large size causing a number of symptoms. The WSUS console disconnects. The SBS console shows Update status as not available. The updates tab in the SBS console shows “An error occured while retrieving updates information” for all four update categories.
Clients are not able to connect to WSUS and/or are not updating. According to the research I have done Microsoft does not limit resources or the size of the WSUS database. However in practice I have seen that when the SUSDB exceeds 10GB issues start to crop up. I have found the easiest and fastest fix is to remove and reinstall WSUS.
Below are the steps for SBS 2011.:. Remove WSUS. Go to Control Panel then Programs and Features. Highlight Windows Server Update Service 3.0 SP2 and choose Uninstall.
Check all three boxes to remove the database, logs and downloaded updates. Complete the uninstall wizard. If the uninstall fails, see this. Reinstall WSUS. Open an administrative command prompt. Change directories to C: Program Files Windows Small Business Server Bin CMPNENTS WSUSSP2. Run the following command.: WSUS30-KB972455-x64.exe /q DEFAULTWEBSITE=0 CREATEDATABASE=1 CONTENTLOCAL=1 CONTENTDIR=C: WSUS WYUKONDATADIR=C: WSUS.
The install will take anywhere from 2-10 minutes depending on hardware. To verify the install is complete look for an event ID 1042 in the application event log. If the install crashes, just rerun the above command again. Perform the SBS customizations. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft Windows Server Update Services.
In Update Services, expand the name of the server, and then click Options. Click Products and Classifications, and then on the Products tab, verify that all check boxes are selected. In the Products and Classifications dialog box, click the Classifications tab, and then check the following boxes:. Critical Updates. Definition Updates. Security Updates.
Service Packs. Update Rollups. In Options, click Update Files and Languages, click the Update Languages tab, choose the option Download updates only in these languages, and then verify that English is selected. In Options, click Synchronization Schedule, click Synchronize automatically, and then, in First synchronization, change the time to 10:00:00 P.M. In Update Services, expand Computers, click All Computers, and then in Actions, click Add Computer Group. Add the following computer groups:. Update Service Excluded Computers.
Update Services Client Computers. Update Services Server Computers. Update WSUS so that it will work with Windows 8 and higher clients.
Download the Microsoft update. Install the update. Reboot the server.
The server must be rebooted before the first synchronization with Microsoft update servers. If it is not, then WSUS and clients may require additional steps to repair. For the SBS 2008 the steps are the same, but WSUS 3.0 SP2 will need to be downloaded from the Microsoft site. You can find it. Make sure and download the x64 version.
Now is a great time to move the WSUS database and content repository to another drive. It will be more difficult to move the WSUS DB later.
To move the location, change the C: WSUS to another drive. For example D: WSUS. Make sure and change both instances.
I have not tested this scenario personally. I have seen at least one of my customers not reboot though. The problems that I saw were limited to the client side. Basically the clients attempted to check in with with the server and failed.
Unfortunately even after a reboot the clients failed still and we were seeing errors in the Windows update client. So it is more important to do a reboot before the clients start checking in (default is 3AM) than it is with the sync itself. As for your first question, yes you can remove WSUS from SBS 2011 and be just fine. I have another article on here about disabling WSUS in SBS 2011. Just ensure you remove the GPO links, otherwise your clients will still be looking to the SBS server for updates. Thanks, Glenn, Our main hate for WSUS is its disk consumption coupled with Microsoft ignorance of their slack design issue. Therefore we need to get back those 80GB it now consumes.
Disabling WSUS won’t work (to recover disk space), so we want to UNINSTALL it. I have checked your article “DISABLING WSUS” which to my belief only partly applicable to our plan (in part of unlinking 4x GPOs).
Cross-checking other resources, I found an article which states that only a single GPO needs to be corrected (disabled): “Administrative Templates – Windows Components – Windows Updates – Specify intranet Microsoft update service location”. Do you know the reason why all 4x GPO needs to be unlinked? If we do so, clients won’t get any settings for Windows Updates, meaning we will lose control of how Win updates applied, so I wanted to check this with you. And another question: do you know how long it could take to uninstall WSUS with database=80gb? Thanks in advance/ Like.
Thank you Glenn. We tried to uninstall however it did not go successfully and didn’t provide any errors either. Tried to locate some logs however could find anything useful. In APPS logs there are 2x events:1001 “Event Name: WSUSSetup/Response: Not available”.
Now WSUS is not listed in PROGRAMS AND FEATURES however WSUS starts up ok and updates are listed OK in SBS CONSOLEUPDATES tab. Had to go through FAILED UINSTALL part of your solution, interesting to mention that key value SqlInstanceIsRemote was = 0 (zero) Anyway, changed key wYukonInstalled=0 and removed via ROLES, it went OK! During this process the free disk space lost 2gb, so we are on 15gb now and we need to kill WSUS folder to claim disk space back. Could you guide me through the process of manually removing this WSUS folder considering WSUS database at the time of removal was available and running OK, and to my understanding is connected and running now.
Here is how I would recommend cleaning up the WSUS folder: 1. Connect to SQL Management Studio Express as administrator 2. Connect to the WID (Windows Internal Database) with the following string in management studio:. Pipe MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE sql query 3. Detach the SUSDB database. (right-click the database and choose detach) 4.
Delete the WSUS folder from the hard drive. Additionally, you can now safely disable the WID service or remove the WID from Windows Features. This would be done to save server resources. Hi Glenn I have used your guide before with great success.
However, today it is not working for me. The installation fails at the configuring the database stage. The Wsussetup.log shows the following at the end. 2018-08-09 15:32:34 Error MWUSSetup InstallWsus: MWUS Installation Failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.) 2018-08-09 15:32:34 Error MWUSSetup CInstallDriver::PerformSetup: WSUS installation failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.) 2018-08-09 15:32:34 Error MWUSSetup CSetupDriver::LaunchSetup: Setup failed (Error 0x80070643: Fatal error during installation.) Any ideas as to how to reinstall WSUS? Many Thanks Rob Like. Hi Glen, I have tried a few re-installation attempts, and am getting the same as Rob above.
The entire log for each re-install attempt is: 2018-10-29 20:43:34 Success MWUSSetup Validating pre-requisites 2018-10-29 20:43:36 Error MWUSSetup Failed to determine if an higher version of WSUS is installed. Assuming it is not (Error 0x80070002: The system cannot find the file specified.) 2018-10-29 20:43:36 Error MWUSSetup WSUS is outdated. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that we have enough information in the above log. The last error is very generic.
It usually indicates some other error occurred. It appears you have successfully removed WSUS, so I don’t think that is the issue. My only guess at this point is the problem might be related to.NET.
Since WSUS 3 is EOL (End of Life) there are no more updates and no testing. It is possible there is a conflict between the very new.NET 4.7 and the older version of WSUS.
![Wsus Wsus](http://ajmckean.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SBS-WSUS-Settings2.png)
I am have not personally tested this in a lab environment, so this is just conjecture. The problem could also be related to something else entirely.
Quick note: WSUS was uninstalled for troubleshooting purposes sometime ago. After fixing whatever caused me to uninstall WSUS (don’t ask, don’t remember, just something to do with network connectivity, new server install and some other conflicting IP on network), I couldn’t reinstall WSUS.
Time passed and I noticed that the Windows Updates stopped working as well. Finally got some spare time to track this one down.
Windows update kept giving error 80072EFD – network connectivity message. Microsoft articles didn’t help. The referenced network connection, firewall, AV, host file and Internet security trusted site fixes, but none of those worked.
Quick search on Google found a site that had the exact same issue, although not quite the same failure way. Root of his cause was the same, WSUS was pointing the Windows Update back to itself thus causing the error and apparent network connection issues. (Duh – Windows Update couldn’t find Microsoft Update Servers in my systems!) So what to do. Remove the invalid entry in the registry for the mis-pointing URL reference. Navigate to HKLM Software Policies Microsoft Windows WindowsUpdate and notice the entries: “WUServer”=”& “WUStatusServer”=”These tell Windows Update where to find the latest updates. Obviously if WSUS isn’t running on your server, it’s not going to have it. Solution was to remove the entire key “WindowsUpdate” key from the registry at HKLM Software Policies Microsoft Windows.
Make sure you backup the key just in case. Once that’s done, restart the Windows Update Service within the services mmc. Now try to get the updates. If everything else is good to go, then updates will process and install. Thanks to Daniel Ihonvbere for this fix. Saved me time today. Here’s his article that I found.
I had the exact same problem. Updates on Clients didn’t work, some files were missing. Wsusutil reset ran for 3 weeks straight with 50% cpu consumption without any result Then I decided to re-install WSUS, but that wasn’t possible due to update error. Windows update returned this error, and here I am, wondering if maybe WSUS didn’t function in the first place, because the domain group policy was falsely applied to the SBS2011? Anyone knows if WSUS uses the server specified in that reg key? Or does it connect to a fixed server? Anyways, you saved my afternoon.
I have installed and manage about 40 servers for different customers. About a dozen are SBS2008 and SBS2011 servers. WSUS did not work correctly on all, and I have successfully reconfigured them and their clients to get MS updates from Microsoft, rather than WSUS.
All SBS servers and clients are getting updates from Microsoft just fine. ONE of these SBS2011 servers will not get updates. I have followed a number of steps and procedures with no success. I have plenty of experience, but need help with this one. If I thought I could call Microsoft support, speak with somebody whose English I could understand, and not get burned for a $500 single incident charge, I would have already gone that route. Anybody have any ideas?
Use Microsoft’s Windows Update Troubleshooter. So BITS and Windows Update service both are running but still the same error bugs you. This Shows that there must be issue with these services. Thankfully Microsoft has their very own Troubleshooter that may come to the rescue. Just Follow these steps: Download Windows Update Troubleshooter. Here Double Click on WindowsUpdateDiagnostic file you just downloaded.
Now Click on Next and let it do its work. After completing these steps, try to check for a Windows Update again.
In case the problem persists, proceed to this website.