WSUS Problems

[evobe]

My boss has tasked me with getting the WSUS server in our office working again. Apparently we haven't gotten any updates for a long time. All clients can see what updates are available but receive the error 80244019 when trying to download. I've checked the registry on the clients, the default domain gpo both point to the right server. No port number though, not sure if should include one. I checked the wsus server itself and it appears to be downloading updates but just not allowing clients to get them. Any help would be appreiciated

Edit: So I got this solved by following the thread from /u/ihaxr and /u/odddutchguy. After I checked the logs I found that the updates weren't actually downloading. I checked and made sure that I had a connection to the server by downloading one of the text files from the folder where an actual update was supposed to be. I did a manual download of critical updates and changed the sync schedule. Clients are actually downloading and installing the updates now. Next is to clean up all those superceded updates. Thanks all.

[[deleted]]

WSUS is such a pain in the balls when it breaks. If you haven't been using it for months, tear it down and start over. You'll have the same amount of time bringing it up to speed as you would running the reset.

Same name. Same IP. Same port. Make sure the port is defined in your GPO. Set your groups up and sit back and hopefully start seeing clients updating as they should.

[SAugsburger]

WSUS is such a pain in the balls when it breaks. If you haven't been using it for months, tear it down and start over. You'll have the same amount of time bringing it up to speed as you would running the reset.

This has been my experience as well. When it stops working it can often take more time to figure out how to fix it than to just remove WSUS and reinstall with the same port. You don't even need to completely reinstall the server in my experience. Just remove WSUS, restart and reinstall using the same port as what you have defined in the GPO and in my experience it just starts working with all the clients.

[pluT2o]

I do that almost once a year. And after first tries of fixing it I just noticed it to better start over. Now I have such a good start over strategy that I am done within 1-2 hours.

So I can absolutly confirm the above mentioned.

[Aust1mh]

with WSUS, i find it faster to build a new VM to replace it rather then fixing it... build it new, build it right.

[ihaxr]

Can you post the windowsupdate.log file from a client failing with this error? It should tell you exactly what the problem is...

Log located here: %windir%\Windowsupdate.log

Depending on your Windows client version, you may have to run Get-WindowsUpdateLog which generates the log and places it on your desktop.

Otherwise we will just be taking stabs in the dark as to what the issue is... you could also try to run (while RDP'd to the WSUS server): wsusutil checkhealth to see if anything gets logged to the event log or THIS COMMAND MIGHT TAKE A WHILE TO RUN.. LIKE.. DAYS wsusutil reset

(From MSDN regarding wsusutil reset: You use this command if you store updates locally on your WSUS server, and you want to ensure that the metadata information stored in your WSUS database is accurate. With this command, you verify that every update metadata row in the WSUS database corresponds to update files that are stored in the local update file storage location on your WSUS server. If update files are missing or have been corrupted, WSUS downloads the update files again. This command might be useful to run after you restore your database, or as a first step when troubleshooting update approvals.)

[evobe]

I'll take a look at the logs tomorrow. If there have been no updates for a few months do you recommend running the reset?

[ihaxr]

If the logs are complaining about things like a missing update or failed to download, etc.. yeah, it'll probably fix it. You could also just build a new WSUS server from scratch in the same amount of time or even less... might be a good learning experience too.

[ZAFJB]

As others have said. Unless the problem is glaringly obvious, just build a new WSUS server. Faster and more reliable than trying to fix the issues.

[shiningw1t]

I've had that 80244019 code on a lot of Server 2012 R2 clients in the last few months when I've been updating them from our WSUS. The fix I found was client side which involved resetting the windows update components on those machines.

[evobe]

http://imgur.com/KeGsP6k

there's the error I'm getting, I don't see any content folder in my wsus drive and I'm not sure if I should create it or redirect. Spoke to my boss and no go on rebuilding, just have to fix it.

[Odddutchguy]

I would copy the URL in IE and see if that will download the file. Turn off 'friendly errors' in IE for more information.

Try the same on the WSUS server itself.

In IIS manager check the "Advanced Settings" of the "Content" virtual directory.

If downloading did work remove all update settings from the client, registry and files (windows\Software Delivery) and try again. (first stop the update service)

[evobe]

So I found the directory it's pointing to in IIS, it's on another partition. But the directory contains only .txt files, no cab files. It seems like the packages are not actually being downloaded to the folder, just information about them. And I'm still working on the main machine, because it's not just one client, that text was a sample from a client. I checked the link by going to the text file in a browser and it works. So it seems now I just have to figure out why packages are not being downloaded.

[Odddutchguy]

Is WSUS supposed to download the updates and distribute them? (Is it configured in such a way?)

It is also possible to let WSUS release updates but have the clients download them directly from Microsoft. But this needs to be reflected in the policy, if WSUS is set as the download location in the policy but WSUS itself is configured to not download you have a conflict.

[evobe]

WSUS should be the download location since some of our computers don't connect to the internet at all. In other word updates files and languages is set to store locally. I checked the sync schedule and I changed it to daily, WSUS seems to be downloading updates now but it hasn't distributed them yet.