Patch February 2023 - issues with 2012 R2 server patch deployment

Question

Hello guys. Newbie to these forums so forgive me if the location of the question is incorrect and feel free to move this thread to wherever is the correct location.

Patch Ferbruary 2023 has left our environment with issues on 2012 R2 server. We deploy the patches via WSUS. Unfortunately no pre-prod or test environment. During patch deployment we experience the following:
-some 2012 R2 servers enter a hung state during the installation (windows update -> install patches, before arranging the reboot)

-on other 2012 R2 servers patch KB5022899 fails to install after the reboot

The hung state occurs during the install, without even reaching the reboot part.

We assumed it was patch KB5022899 as it would fail install on some of the servers where there was no hung issue. We attempted to install only the rest of the updates without it, but still experienced a hung issue on the server being tested.

The hung state does not seem to differ whether the server is physical or a vmware virtual machine. The server just becomes unresponsive and in need of a reset, vmware/ilo console becomes black and unusable. Services cannot be reached, nor remote management tools, but a little bit of the file system can be accessed. Once the reset is done some of the patches revert. Only error Status: 0x80070643 is observed in setup log. System and Application log have a huge gap in them until the moment the server is reset. I am of the mind to raise the topic with technet forums, but I have no idea if anything would change.

What I am observing is that the servers that do end up hanging seem to be mostly file servers.

Full list of updates we are applying as part of the patching campaign:
KB5022835
KB5022733
KB5022899
KB5022894
KB5022785

Best regards:

Petar

Answer 1

Hi everyone,

MS has finally released KB5022922 which solved the issues on my 2 Server 2012 R2 E. I hope it will help others:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/topic/kb5022922-servicing-stack-update-for-windows-server-2012-r2-february-28-2023-f2765a4d-5cc0-48bd-b367-5336c22d4821

Download link: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5022922

You first install the new SSU and then the update that was failing.

Best,

Golruck

Answer 2

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query

It sounds like you're running into an issue with the KB5022899 patch, which is failing to install on some servers and causing the servers to become unresponsive on others. This could be due to a number of factors, such as a conflict with other installed software, incorrect permissions, or a bug in the patch itself.

To troubleshoot the issue, it would be helpful to look at the Windows Update logs on the affected servers to see any errors or warnings that may be present. Additionally, you can try installing the patch on a test server to see if it succeeds or fails. You can also try installing the patch without other updates to see if there are any conflicts that may be causing the issue.

It is also possible that the issue may be related to the patch itself and you may want to contact Microsoft Support for further assistance

If the reply was helpful, please don’t forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you.

Answer 3

I can confirm that we have the same issues with Windows Server 2012 R2 servers in our infrastructure.

Even if we don't have that many left, its a pity that we had to deal with this without heads up.

Good thing that i found this article and i finally stopped troubleshooting. We've requested the approval to deny Windows Server 2012 R2.

In our case the servers failed to installe the IE and .NET cumulatives

2023-02 Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8 for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64 (KB5022733)

2023-02 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 11 for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based systems (KB5022835)

What happens on our side are 2 situations

1. On some servers patches take around 3-4 hours to install and finally fail to get installed.
2. On some servers patches get installed in a fashionable amount of time (30 mins), but the servers hanging after reboot.

For 1st scenario the patches got installed after a hard reset, without issues.

For the 2nd scenario i left one server hanging and remotely watched the processes, event logs and CBS log to see when new information is written. After 3-4 hours (similar to the time it took for patches to get installed in 1st scenario) the server stopped responding and had to hard reset them.

For the same server i've performed a WU components reset, without any success.

What i've observed is that the CBS log groups rapidly from 0 to 50MB in 2 minutes after starting the updates and it stops. After 15 minutes it jumps to aprox 290MB.

Within the CBS logs the only "relevant" error is the same for the Op : 0x80070643. Digging a bit about it seems to point to a .NET Framework corruption, but it doesn't seem to make sense. I used the .NET repair tool, reinstalled .NET, nothing seems to work.

On the article mentioned in the first comment the issue is described quite similar, just that they get a different error. https://borncity.com/win/2023/02/18/windows-server-20212-r2-feb-2023-updates-drops-install-error-0x800f0922/

I will open a case to MS tomorrow to see what they say.

Answer 4

Hi everyone,

I have a similar issue with the KB5022899 update and I don't know how to patch our servers. I tried to see if the SSU was maybe not installed but it was:

I also had an issue with the January patch that I could finally install manually from Microsoft®Update Catalog:

Does anybody have an idea how to patch 2012 R2 servers while MS release a new patch? The weird thing is that I don't see official trace of this issue:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-8.1-and-windows-server-2012-r2

Thank you in advance,

Best,

Golruck